The Cutie Pie: Radiation Detectors at Hanford's B Reactor

At the B Reactor at Hanford, Washington — part of Manhattan Project National Historical Park — an exhibit on health physics explores the science of protecting people and the environment from radiation. The Manhattan Project created a new kind of workplace, and with it a new job: keeping its workers safe from something they could not see. One panel in the exhibit asks, "Where's my Cutie Pie?"

The "Where's My Cutie Pie?" panel. NPS; the photographs on it carry their own credits.

Why "Cutie Pie"

Secrecy ran through every part of the project, down to the instruments. Radiation detectors and survey meters were given code names — "Cutie Pie," "Poppy" — to hide what they were for. Several stories explain the Cutie Pie's name; in one, an employee took a look at the small device and said, "Well, isn't that a cutie pie?"

Detectors that were not good enough

Weight was a problem too: some detectors of the period weighed as much as 20 pounds, which is part of why smaller, lighter instruments followed in the years after the war.

The rules on the floor

Workers had to scan themselves for contamination after every job, and protective gear was mandatory in any radiologically contaminated area. The panel's photographs show exactly that: workers in full protective suits taking readings, and one holding a clunky rectangular metal instrument.

Seeing it

The B Reactor can be visited only on guided tours run by the Department of Energy.

Sources

Written from "B Reactor Health Physics Exhibit: Where's My Cutie Pie?," Manhattan Project National Historical Park, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.