Alex Wellerstein's blog on the history of Cold War nuclear science

Rendering of the Clinch River Breeder Reactor site by the author, done in pencil and Copic markers and based on an origincal architectural sketch for the project.

Alex Wellerstein, a historian at the American Institute of Physics, has a really awesome blog on the history of Cold War-era nuclear science, engineering, and our weapons programs. Given that Dr. Wellerstein has a PhD in the history of science from Harvard and works for one of the most-respected organizations in the hard sciences, he seems like just the man to write and maintain such a blog and he's done an impressive job with it, certainly. Indeed, some of the historical topics I'd considered writing about in the future at my own blog here he's already covered, such as the K-25 plant at Oak Ridge (http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2013/05/24/inside-k-25/) or the history of the Atomic Energy Commission logo's design (http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2012/04/13/friday-image-the-atomic-energy-commission-seal-1949/). There's still plenty for me to write about myself though, fear not, because Dr. Wellerstein seems more interested in the sociopolitical and cultural history of America's Cold War nuclear programs over the technological advances made (though he gets into some of these, too). Overall, his blog is just beyond awesome: aside from being a very well-educated professional historian, he's got a great, engaging, funny writing style and has sourced some rare historical images of places like K-25 so you even get a good idea of what it was like to work in these sites in their heyday.

I'm always very pleased and excited to see academic historians working on technological topics like this, because for a long time many technological fields had the benefit of only amateur (but sometimes very good) historians: aviation is especially prone to this trend, where much of the technical history has been written by guys who were there and took up an interest in history when they retired, which is great in the sense that you get a first-hand view of matters, but not-so-great in that the aspects of historiography that an academic historian understands may be missing. I feel there is certainly room for both the amateur and professional historians and when you have someone who was, say, a Delta Airlines captain for twenty years or worked under Admiral Rickover or who was a colonel in the USAF involved in SAC operations, you cannot ask for someone better insofar as a person with a front seat to history. Yet to be comprehensive, you need people who know the academic background, how to compile comprehensive bibliographies and evaulate contrasting sources. I'm not a historian myself, but I've studied architectural history in depth and given conference presentations and published articles on a variety of historical topics from raising beef calves in West Virginia in the early twentieth century to Iron Age architecture in the Orkney Isles. The greatest thing I learned about history, as a discipline, is that it's far deeper and more nuanced than I'd ever imagined.

So very much has happened in nuclear sciences over the past century and so many changes came about rather quickly—the short-lived Energy Research and Development Administration that grew out of the AEC and in a few short years became the Department of Energy, in example—that there are a real wealth of topics for the historian interested in our nuclear legacy. Moreover, nuclear-related and aerospace-related technologies changed the landscape of American research and development in a very literal manner. The American West—southern California, New Mexico, and Nevada mainly—became the primary sites for development and testing of aerospace systems whereas the work done in Washington state, Idaho, New Mexico and Nevada on nuclear technology for both weapons and other purposes brought jobs and industry to places that once were only sparse grazing land, if even that. Another great historian on topics related to American Cold War/military/intelligence issues is Trevor Paglen, who was trained at the University of California, Berkeley (PhD in geography) and works on mainly concepts of geographical installations, material culture and secret defense-oriented programs. Some of Dr. Paglen's work to me seems a bit slanted in terms of a political agenda (i.e., too many secrets, too much money spent on "black programs") however, his work also provides a fascinating look into a world hardly even talked about otherwise. It's my impression from speaking with friends who are in the military and other "spooky" places that most of these folks are actually huge fans of Paglen no matter his politics, because he's ensured that some of their rather cloistered history will make it into tomorrow's history books. Speaking of which, he put out a superb book entitled I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed By Me: Emblems from the Pentagon's Black World which is a collection of patches from top-secret programs (such as those of "black" aircraft programs and NRO launches) where the patches are actually about the only non-secret material traces of such programs even allowed to see the light of day. It's a book I think any military history buff or anyone aviation geek would love.

Anyways, check out Wellerstein's awesome blog. It's located here and one of those sites you can really get lost in for a whole evening if you're not careful:

http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com


And on the type of topics Trevor Paglen enjoys, while not nuclear per-se, some interesting and recent stuff just published regarding the development of the U-2 aircraft and Area-51:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/08/government-now-admits-theres-area-51/68389/

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous

    It would be interesting to glean specific technical details concerning the daily maintenance of weapon systems of the early years.

    A means would be to seek retired technical personnel. Has this already been done? The daily grind of putting together thermonuclear warheads and arming them etc. Would be fascinating to read about.

  • I know that the sociologist Hugh Gusterson has done some work on the work environment and institutional philosophy of early weapons workers and moreover, of weapons designers. I agree what you suggest though would be fascinating, especially if based on oral histories before these older people with that knowledge are lost to time. I don't think that has been done, but  Hugh Gusterson's work would be where to start probably on that trajectory in the academic literature.

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous

    Thank you Mike for your information regarding Hugh Gudterson's research.

    Bob Kruize

  • No problem, Bob. I will see what else I can turn up on this topic for you—give me a couple days, please, but I will. I expect a number—at least a handful—of historians and other social sciences people have had interests at least somewhat germane to this topic. I am myself embarking on a lot of research on America's efforts to design a nuclear-powered bomber aircraft, so that research will probably intersect also with some of these same topics that interest you, though I'm not a historian or social scientist but a software engineer and approaching the topic from that vantage point.

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous

    I am very much looking forward to your research as i'am a bit of a plane nut.

    What stumps me, is the massive " clean up " of site pertaining to the subjects of interest! Erstwhile i could rove around to various sites, but since mid 2013, sites have vanished. Did you encounter this too?

    Much obliged Mike!

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous

    Gusterson was a hit!

  • I'm not sure what sites you mean—websites? Of which type? After 9/11, some power company sites and others expectedly reconsider information security, but I've never had trouble finding valid, unclassified, information, either. If you're doing actual research, you may try going to the NRC or DOE, if either are appropriate, and asking their libraries or PR people directly for the information you seek, especially if historical. The DOD in general is also very forthcoming in my experience, though you need to be very specific with your requests. Also, if you request stuff and an agency doesn't seem to locate it, don't think you're being stonewalled: they've probably actually not found documents and sometimes are bashful at admitting that, though it's little surprise when a paper trail from the 1950s is not readily findable today.

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous

    Your quite right Mike, I should have had more patience and be very specific. I found a way to access the sites, but had to do it in a more subtle manner ie through research papers and then hone in on a particular site. But it's not the free for all it used to be.

    As always, thanks Mike.

    Bob Kruize

  • What exactly is the focus of your research, if I may ask? I know you asked about the lives of early nuclear weapons workers before—is that it? And is it site-specific? I ask because there are some very good historical studies of specific geographic facilities from the Cold War era out there. There is a great one, in example, for Hanford and it contains a lot of oral history interviews with workers who were there in the early years.

    Locating such information will, alas, take you down a different literature search than that used for DOE and NRC documents. This is because most historical studies are either academic works—often someone's PhD dissertation—or otherwise the efforts of historians who had grants to do work under the auspices of the site itself. So sometimes whole, very useful, and very long book-length studies are absent from the catalogs of DOE.

  • Here's the Hanford publication I mentioned:

    "Hanford Site historic district : history of the plutonium production facilities, 1943-1990"

    Hanford Cultural and Historic Resources Program, U.S. Department of Energy.

    Published: Columbus : Battelle Press, c2003.

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous

    I am interested in a wide range of technologies pertaining to materials of high specific energy/power density and material physics in general. But got fascinated by the culture that evolves out of peole who are often in a closed community, working on cutting edge technologies in a restricted setting. I am not a historian, but a private citizen with a physics back ground and have been involved with research at Du Pont Netherlands.

    I realise I lack a well defined strategy when aproaching  my subject matter.

    Again you have provided me with good sources, and I should better my homework.

    Mike, my thanks!