"We didn't know what we were going to do, but they were telling us about this specific process that we were going to be involved in. Now I've got to be careful here because during the entire war, I never heard the word “uranium” a single time, either in the plant or anyplace. Nobody referred to uranium. If you wanted to refer to uranium-235, this was called “R.”
If you wanted to refer to [uranium] 238, this was called “Q.” Everything associated with this process had a code name to it, ... a code letter to it, not necessarily a name, but a letter to it. When you think about it now, years later, the conversations were a little on the ridiculous side as you kept spilling in these Js, and the Qs, and the Rs, and the Ds, and the Es and so forth. Maybe later on I'll identify which was which, so that you can get a better feel for what this process was."
- Donald Ross's Interview, Voices of the Manhattan Project.
Comentarios