Purple People Eaters vs. Uranium Diversion

This is the story of dad's assignment to remove uranium from the Idaho Nuclear Engineering Laboratory.

The information here came from dad, from records obtained from the Department of Energy, and from interviews of two former employees of the plant.

The Atomic Energy Commission (now Department of Energy) was considering “loaning” uranium to other countries, including Iran (an ally back then). But the concern of the AEC was whether the material could be stolen and used for non-peaceful purposes. So an official in Washington requested a test to learn if theft was possible. The assignment was given to the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant, part of the INEL, West of Idaho Falls, Idaho. A memorandum dated in January 1958 started the process and the test began June 4, 1958. A final report dated December 31, 1958 was sent to the official who requested the test. The test was given the code name “Project Diogenes.”

Three groups were set up to run the test. First was the group assigned to steal uranium. This group would be comparable to native employees at a foreign plant. Second was the group whose purpose was to stop the theft, comparable to US employees at the foreign plant. These people were required to wear purple lab coats and could not talk to the other employees. The theory was that Americans in a foreign plant would not be able to speak the local language. Because of the lab coats, they were dubbed the “Purple People Eaters,” after a current hit song. The last group acted as umpires.

The Purple People Eaters were AEC employees from around the country, brought in to stop the thefts. The reports state that these employees thought they would have a lot of fun finding the uranium and could also spend time fishing and hunting in Idaho. As time passed, and they grew more frustrated, they began to fight among themselves and to cause various problems.

Dad, Bill Pearson, was a manager at the Chemical Processing Plant, the purpose of which was to receive spent nuclear fuel rods and to chemically extract out the remaining uranium separating it from the impurities created during fission. The uranium (now in a liquid form--uranium hexaflouride ) was piped down to the "basement" of the plant where it was put into containers and shipped to Oak Ridge, Tennessee. At Oak Ridge, the uranium was reprocessed back into metal form and installed into fuel rods.

But some of the uranium that went through the plant was already highly enriched, with a high percentage of U-235, capable of being formed into a nuclear bomb. Nuclear submarines, for example, are powered by highly enriched uranium. This uranium is the subject of Project Diogenes.

If you want to learn more about the Chem Plant and its functions, copy this link and paste it into your browser: http://www.inl.gov/technicalpublications/Documents/4460713.pdf

Dad had worked at CPP from the very beginning and was familiar with the plant and its plumbing and was trusted enough that he was given the assignment of diverting uranium.

Dad stated that he had special lunch box made. The box contained a "thermos" that was shielded with lead. He tapped into a pipe and attached a pump that came on and off with a timer. The pump filled the "thermos" and he took the uranium out of the plant. There is no information on how he was able to remove the uranium out of the plant or where he took it from there. He did say that he removed enough to make more than one bomb. The final report, that of December 31, 1958, states that 6.8 kg was removed. A critical mass is about 2 kg, so enough for 3 bombs was taken from the plant.

The test was scheduled to last from early June 1958 to the end of the year, but the 6.8 kg of uranium was removed during the early days of the test. Because of this, the test was ended on July 10, 1958. The final report noted that the removal was successful but that methods to prevent such theft had to be incorporated into the agreements with other countries to prevent such thefts there.

UPDATE:  My brother Bill called on 21 November 2013 and we discussed an Economist article about nuclear power reactors.  The article noted that todays nuclear power plants are designed such that plutonium is a byproduct.  This follows Adm. Rickover's desires for additional fissionable material.  But there are better designs, designs that are safer.

This lead Bill to talk about something he had just learned about the Chem Plant.  Not only were they purifying out the uranium from the fuel rods, but they were also obtaining large amounts of plutonium!

Dad never mentioned this nor was it apparent from any of the documents I obtained from the Department of Energy via the Freedom of Information Act.  When I said this to Bill he pointed out that the plutonium part of the equation was very secret.

Then we wondered whether it was uranium or plutonium that dad removed from the plant pursuant to the test.