Book Review: Half-Life of a Secret: Reckoning with a Hidden History by Emily Strasser (2023)

Half-Life of a Secret: Reckoning with a Hidden History by Emily Strasser (Copyright 2023)

Reviewed by Sharon and Ace Hoffman

Half-Life of a Secret is both a history of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and a Strasser family memoir.

In late 1943, George Strasser (the author’s grandfather) was recruited to ORNL as a “Jr. Chemist #2” working on uranium enrichment for Little Boy (the bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945).

When Emily Strasser learned the history of atomic weapons in high school and college, she became curious about her personal connection to that history. She visited Hiroshima and talked with survivors of the atomic bombing. She also studied people outside ORNL who made the Hiroshima bombing possible. For example, she learned that most of the uranium for Little Boy was mined in The Congo under brutal conditions. She learned that non-white Manhattan Project scientists were not allowed to transfer to ORNL.

Congolese miners were given no protection from the radioactive dust and may have received “ … a year of radiation exposure in … just two weeks … ” (page 69). (The radiation exposure limits are not specified, but Strasser cites “Being Nuclear: Africans and the Global Uranium Trade (copyright 2012 by Gabrielle Hecht) as the source.)

Strasser recognizes that her family was privileged -- both because of their race (white) and because of her grandfather’s position. Access to jobs at ORNL during WWII was segregated, as were housing and community services -- despite a directive from President Roosevelt that: “ … there would be no discrimination in the defense industries” (page 55).

Beginning in 1952, Strasser’s grandfather supervised isolation of Lithium-6 for Hydrogen bombs at Y-12 using the column-exchange (Colex) process, which requires large amounts of mercury. The scientists at ORNL understood the dangers of working with mercury, but “… hydrogen bombs need lithium, and lithium required mercury” (page 193).

Because mercury is a dense, liquid metal, it: “ … strained pumps and valves, burst through pipes … collected in storm sewers and drain lines” (page 194). Strasser learned from a doctor she interviewed that her grandfather felt guilty about the mercury leaks that occurred under his supervision.

Throughout its operations, ORNL contaminated the surrounding area with toxic chemicals and radioactive materials. Strasser remembers seeing deer near her grandmother’s lake house as a child, and later learned that deer killed there were routinely tested for radiation. She met with activists working to protect people and the environment, and to get compensation for people who have suffered health consequences as a result of working at, or living near, ORNL.

Looking at her grandfather’s health records, Strasser wonders if his immune system might have been affected by his exposure to radiation and toxic chemicals at ORNL. She also considers whether her grandfather’s extended treatment for colds and flu might have been used to disguise his mental health issues. George Strasser retired from ORNL in 1974 with total, permanent disability, and his family assumes that his colleagues covered for him until his pension was assured.

Strasser’s mother is a founding member of Women’s Action for Nuclear Disarmament, and her mother met her grandfather just once, in 1983. When her fellow activists pressed him about the morality of nuclear bombs, George Strasser told them that “… no country should possess nuclear weapons …” (page 264) and that the U.S. should disarm – unilaterally, if necessary.

Half-Life of a Secret isn’t a traditional book about nuclear weapons or nuclear pollution. It explores the individual histories that are intertwined with the history of atomic weapons. It can be a tough read, but provides a personal perspective that is hard to find in the secretive world of nuclear weapons production.

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Ace Hoffman, Carlsbad, California USA

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Ace Hoffman
Carlsbad, California USA
Author, The Code Killers:
An Expose of the Nuclear Industry
Free download: acehoffman.org
Blog: acehoffman.blogspot.com
YouTube: youtube.com/user/AceHoffman
Email: ace [at] acehoffman.org
Founder & Owner, The Animated Software Company

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