Use of Radioactive Material at Bell Labs
- Date Range
- March 13, 1942 – March 13, 1942
- Title
- Use of Radioactive Material at Bell Labs
- What occurred
- During World War II, the Bell Labs facility in Murray Hill, NJ was utilized in research for developing barrier material for the K-25 site in Oak Ridge TN. The K-25 facility was used for developing enriched atomic material for bombs for the Manhattan Project. The Bell Labs facility, although under the oversight of the US government, housed unknown quantities of uranium, and the documentation for this research is very limited for unknown reasons. In 2011, a spokesman for the then-owners of the property, Alcatel-Lucent, stated that, "Although members of Bell Labs may have performed research and development work on behalf of the U.S. government in the 1940's that may have necessitated the use of radioactive materials at its Murray Hill campus, the files of our Radiation Safety Department do not contain records of those years." Although it has been proven that no radioactive material remains in the facility, the lack of knowledge of the research done on the property leaves uncertainty surrounding the possibility of residual radioactive contamination in the area.
- Location
- 600 Mountain Ave bldg 5, New Providence, NJ 07974
- Image Citation
- https://www.wsj.com/graphics/waste-lands/site/57-bell-telephone-laboratories/
- Student name(s)
- Josh Vaidman