LBNL Image Library -- Collection BERKELEY-LAB/PEOPLE/INDIVIDUALS

Image File: 96602763
Title: Seaborg adjusts Geiger-Muller counter during search for plutonium
Description: Glenn Seaborg adjusts a Geiger-Muller counter during search for plutonium at the Laboratory. The new element, called plutonium on McMillan's principle of nomenclature, proved elusive. In May 1941 Kennedy, Seaborg, Segre, and Wahl established the isotope's fissionibility. It appeared that in sufficient quantities plutonium-239 might sustain an explosive chain reaction. After Pearl Harbor, the OSRD authorized Lawrence to continue plutonium studies at Berkeley and Arthur Compton to supervise the work toward a controlled, self- sustaining, plutonium-producing chain reaction that had been started by Fermi at Columbia and moved to Chicago. In March 1942 Seaborg was asked to join Compton and Fermi to develop chemical processes to separate plutonium after production. On April 17 he boarded the train for Chicago with the world's supply of plutonium in his briefcase. (The preceding information was excerpted from the text of the Fall 1981 issue of LBL Newsmagazine.)
Citation Caption: LBL NEWS Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 3, Fall 1981, p. 42 | Glenn Seaborg adjusts a Geiger-Muller counter during search for plutonium at the Laboratory.
People: Glenn Seaborg
TEID Doc ID: XBD 9606-02763.TIF