Alvin C. Graves
Alvin C. Graves, atomic physicist and director of U.S. nuclear testing for many years. Graves was born in 1909 in Washington DC, the youngest of six children. He graduated at the top of his class from the University of Virginia in 1931 with a bachelors degree in electrical engineering and later earned his Ph.D at the University of Chicago. [1]
Work on the Manhattan Project
Graves helped in the construction of the first nuclear reactor at the University of Chicago and then worked on the Manhattan project in Los Alamos.
Graves was badly injured in a 1946 laboratory radiation accident in Los Alamos that killed Dr. Louis Slotin. The accident left him temporarily sterile and caused permanent loss to his vision. [2]
Postwar Nuclear Testing
Graves received a great deal of later criticism for his handling of the nuclear tests which exposed many people to radiation. These included the infamous tests in which U.S. troops were close to the blast site, and the Marshall Islands test that irradiated many Marshallese. One online reviewer who goes by the name of Paghat the Ratgirl called Graves "a kind of Dr. Josef Mengele Lite".[3]
Movies
Dr. Graves appeared in Operation Cue, a U.S. Civil Defense Administration movie about the effects of nuclear blasts.[4]
- ^ Becker, Bill, The Man Who Sets Off Atomic Bombs, The Saturday Evening Post, April 19, 1952, page 186
- ^ Becker, Bill, The Man Who Sets Off Atomic Bombs, The Saturday Evening Post, April 19, 1952, page 188
- ^ http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-atomic-fear11.html
- ^ http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-atomic-fear5.html