{"id":29118,"date":"2012-10-12T12:01:24","date_gmt":"2012-10-12T16:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idyllopuspress.com\/meanwhile\/?p=29118"},"modified":"2012-10-15T11:19:11","modified_gmt":"2012-10-15T15:19:11","slug":"the-little-red-plutonium-porting-wagons-of-the-hanford-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idyllopuspress.com\/meanwhile\/29118\/the-little-red-plutonium-porting-wagons-of-the-hanford-project\/","title":{"rendered":"The Little Red Plutonium-Porting Wagons of the Hanford Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Historic Photos from Hanford Declassified Documents of The Little Red Plutonium-Porting Wagons of the Hanford Project<\/h2>\n

Yesterday, I posted a March 28, 1955 article from Life<\/em> magazine, “Hot Work for Toys at Hanford”<\/a>, on the use of toy trains and wagons to carry too-hot-to-handle radioactive materials from point to point at the Hanford Project in Washington State.<\/p>\n

Curious if I could find any documents on the preparation for the article (decisions on what was safe to make public) I went to the Hanford declassified document retrieval system. I have found no such document so far, nor did I find pics of toy trains in use at Hanford, but I did find wagons. A nice crop of rather interesting pictures.<\/p>\n

First, let’s refresh our memory with the red wagon pic we saw yesterday.<\/p>\n

\"March<\/a><\/p>\n

Was this pic taken by the same photographer of the below pics? I don’t know what the story is on this, but we see an evolution in attire. The above photo shows our technician covered from head to toe in protective gear, and security is standing what we are to take as a safe distance away from that heat passing him by.<\/p>\n

The male technician in the below top two photos is neither as covered nor dapper. His face is exposed, as is much of his head, as well as his neck, and his onesie suit is buttoned low revealing some sexy chest. The toes of his shoes look a little too clever to be the protective boots I’ve seen in photos of protective gear.
\n<\/p>\n

\"N1D0036950\"<\/a>
\nEnlargement<\/a>
\nAccession Number N1D0036950
\nDocument Number 12413-1-NEG-E
\nAlternate Document Number 12413-1-NEG
\nTitle Description RED WAGON – CARRYING PLUTONIUM – 202-222-S
\nNumber of Pages 1
\nKey Word(s) 202\/222-S,HANFORD SITE,PLUTONIUM
\nAuthor(s)
\nCompany(s)
\nDocument Date 18-Nov-1954
\nPublic Availability Date 14-Feb-2002 <\/em><\/p>\n

The female technician, handing over the radioactive hot pots to the guy with the sexed up chest, has even less protective gear on. No gloves and no head scarf, yet she’s handling the pots.<\/p>\n

\"N1D0036953\"<\/a>
\nEnlargement<\/a>
\nAccession Number N1D0036953
\nDocument Number 12413-1-NEG
\nAlternate Document Number 12413-1-NEG
\nTitle Description RED WAGON – CARRYING PLUTONIUM – 202-222-S
\nNumber of Pages 1
\nKey Word(s) 202\/222-S,HANFORD SITE,PLUTONIUM
\nAuthor(s)
\nCompany(s)
\nDocument Date 18-Nov-1954
\nPublic Availability Date 14-Feb-2002 <\/em><\/p>\n

The above pics are from November 18, 1954. This next pic is undated but likely from the same time period. In it, we’ve slightly different attire, and a new technician, I believe, a man who’s a little heavier and older. He is wearing protective booties over his foot gear, the top of his head is covered more securely, he is buttoned up tight and perhaps his gloves are heavier duty.<\/p>\n

Enlargement<\/a>
\n\"N1D0037355\"<\/a>
\nAccession Number N1D0037355
\nDocument Number 12535-NEG-C
\nAlternate Document Number 12535-NEG
\nTitle Description LITTLE RED WAGON TRANSPORTING PLUTONIUM SAMPLES AT 202-S
\nNumber of Pages 1
\nKey Word(s) 202-S,HANFORD SITE,PLUTONIUM SAMPLES TRANSPORTING
\nAuthor(s)
\nCompany(s)
\nDocument Date 04-Dec-2001
\nPublic Availability Date 14-Feb-2002 <\/em><\/p>\n

We advance a month to December 17, 1954 and our photographer decides to get a little artsy, and takes pains to show the Radio Flyer logo this time, focusing on the wagon and its contents rather than the technician.<\/p>\n

\"N1D0037488\"<\/a>
\nEnlargement<\/a>
\nAccession Number N1D0037488
\nDocument Number 12575-NEG-A
\nAlternate Document Number 12575-NEG
\nTitle Description LITTLE RED WAGON – 202-S AT 200 WEST AREA
\nNumber of Pages 1
\nKey Word(s) 200 WEST AREA,202-S,HANFORD SITE,LITTLE RED WAGON
\nAuthor(s)
\nCompany(s)
\nDocument Date 17-Dec-1954
\nPublic Availability Date 14-Feb-2002 <\/em><\/p>\n

And another artsy no-face shot, focusing on the Radio Flyer wagon and its pots of heat.<\/p>\n

\"N1D0037503\"<\/a>
\nEnlargement<\/a>
\nAccession Number N1D0037503
\nDocument Number 12575-NEG-D
\nAlternate Document Number 12575-NEG
\nTitle Description LITTLE RED WAGON – 202-S AT 200 WEST AREA
\nNumber of Pages 1
\nKey Word(s) 200 WEST AREA,202-S,HANFORD SITE,LITTLE RED WAGON
\nAuthor(s)
\nCompany(s)
\nDocument Date 17-Dec-1954
\nPublic Availability Date 14-Feb-2002 <\/em><\/p>\n

So, were our initial models too carelessly casual? What’s the evolution of this story, I wonder. Who came up with the idea of “Life” running the article on the toys? <\/p>\n

Read the introduction to the Remixing the Hanford Declassified Project series of posts and digital paintings<\/strong><\/a>. View all digital paintings here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Historic Photos from Hanford Declassified Documents of The Little Red Plutonium-Porting Wagons of the Hanford Project Yesterday, I posted a March 28, 1955 article from Life magazine, “Hot Work for Toys at Hanford”, on the use of toy trains and wagons to carry too-hot-to-handle radioactive materials from point to point at the Hanford Project in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-29118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-remixing-the-hanford-declassifed-project","tag-hanford-and-richland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllopuspress.com\/meanwhile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllopuspress.com\/meanwhile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllopuspress.com\/meanwhile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllopuspress.com\/meanwhile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllopuspress.com\/meanwhile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/idyllopuspress.com\/meanwhile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllopuspress.com\/meanwhile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllopuspress.com\/meanwhile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllopuspress.com\/meanwhile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllopuspress.com\/meanwhile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}