Alvin C. Graves

Alvin C. Graves
Born	1909 Washington, D.C.
Died	July 29, 1965(1965-07-29)
Occupation	Physicist

Alvin C. Graves (1909–1965^[1]) was an atomic physicist and director of U.S. nuclear weapons 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.^[2]

In 1942 Graves was an assistant professor of physics at the University of Texas when he was invited to the University of Chicago to help build the first nuclear reactor there. He moved to Site Y in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in 1943, the year it opened and two years later headed the Test Division at Los Alamos.^[3] 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.^[3][4]

Graves later served as test director for most of the Nevada Test Site shots during the 1950s.^[3] 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 tests that irradiated many Marshallese. He appeared in Operation Cue, a U.S. Civil Defense Administration movie about the effects of nuclear blasts.^[5]

He died of a heart attack in 1965. A follow-up study in 1978 suggested that his death was caused by complications resulting from his radiation exposure.^[6]

See also

• Fallout: An American Nuclear Tragedy
• Chuck Hansen

References

1. ^ The Chicago Pile 1 Pioneers
2. ^ Becker, Bill, The Man Who Sets Off Atomic Bombs, The Saturday Evening Post, April 19, 1952, page 186
3. ^ ^{a b c} Philip L. Fradkin (2004, second edition). Fallout: An American Nuclear Tragedy pp. 89-90.
4. ^ Becker, Bill, The Man Who Sets Off Atomic Bombs, The Saturday Evening Post, April 19, 1952, page 188
5. ^ http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-atomic-fear5.html
6. ^ Clifford T. Honicker (1989-11-19). "America's Radiation Victims: The Hidden Files". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/19/magazine/america-s-radiation-victims-the-hidden-files.html?scp=1&sq=America%27s+Radiation+Victims%3A+The+Hidden+Files&st=cse&pagewanted=print.