The method for transporting the Uranium 235 from Oak Ridge’s Y-12 electromagnetic separation plant to Los Alamos varied. From March 1944 to June 1945, it was by passenger train. An Army officer dressed as a salesman and carried a briefcase that contained gold-lined, coffee cup-sized containers of Uranium 235.
I have told this method many times and included it in “The Oak Ridge Story – The War Years” documentary film. Recently, I included it in a newspaper article in the Knoxville News Sentinel. A few days after that article was published, I received an email from a lady in Loudon. She said her father had been one of the couriers who took those briefcases of Uranium 235 to Chicago. Well, you know I responded to that email and asked if I could come talk to her. She said “yes” and gave me her address. She also mentioned she had a file folder of her father’s papers. Needless to say, I was excited to get to see those papers.
When I got to her house, the first thing she showed me was a copy of detailed instructions for transporting the Uranium 235. The document was marked, SECRET… I said to her, “This document must be declassified.” She agreed to allow me to bring a classification officer from Y-12 and let him take the document and get it reviewed by a person qualified to declassify such documents…