Based on the Health Physics panel of the Health Physics Exhibit at the B Reactor, Manhattan Project National Historical Park.
How are physics and health connected? Visitors are meant to be puzzled: the name "health physics" was chosen to disguise what the program did. Health physics is the science of protecting people and the environment from the harmful effects of radiation.
Herbert Parker
In 1942, Herbert Parker, a prominent medical physicist working in Seattle, went to Chicago to join the Manhattan Project at the Metallurgical Laboratory, where scientists built the world's first nuclear reactor and laid the groundwork for the plutonium production reactors at Hanford. In 1943 he was the principal organizer of the health physics program at Clinton Laboratories (now Oak Ridge), and he was one of the first three people to hold the title "health physicist." In 1944 he came to eastern Washington to build a health physics program for Hanford.
There Parker set up the Health Instruments Section and started a program of radiological monitoring and control. His aim was formal procedures and controls to protect workers, the public and the environment from excessive radiation.
Two kinds of controls
Parker introduced two kinds of protection, many of which visitors can still spot around the B Reactor:
| Engineered controls | Administrative controls |
|---|---|
| shielding | documented work procedures |
| locked access doors | clearly defined zones |
| long-handled equipment | special badges to monitor each worker's radiation exposure |
Hanford's health physicists also required every worker leaving a contaminated area to have a body scan. The exhibit shows workers checking the soles of their shoes for contamination and scanning for radiation in full protective gear, and it echoes a message of the time: radiation need not be feared, but it must command respect.
A lasting legacy
Parker's innovations improved understanding of radiation's effects on health, strengthened protections for workers, and helped create a field that went on protecting lives long after the Manhattan Project ended.
Visiting: the B Reactor can be visited in person only on guided tours.
Sources
- National Park Service, Manhattan Project National Historical Park, "B Reactor Health Physics Exhibit: Health Physics." https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/b-reactor-health-physics-exhibit-health-physics.htm
- The exhibit panel's historical images carry their own credits and are not reproduced here.
In these publicationsManhattan Project National Historical Park
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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