MyWiki:WikiProject Military history/Assessment/Manhattan Project feed materials program
The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
« Return to A-Class review list
Instructions for nominators and reviewers
Manhattan Project feed materials program (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) {{Wikipedia:Featured article tools|1=Manhattan Project feed materials program}}
This is an article I had been thinking about since I began working on improving the Manhattan Project articles a decade ago. It fills a gap in detailing an important but often neglected aspect of the project, namely how it acquired the vital minerals, particularly uranium, to enable the creation of nuclear weapons. That story is not without drama in its own right, as it moves from Canada's Arctic region to the Congo in Africa. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 04:53, 20 June 2025 (UTC)
Support by Nick-D
[edit source]This is a really interesting topic. I'd like to offer the following comments:
- The first para of the lead should note that the ultimate use of the products was to make atomic bombs
- I suspect that the para starting with "Ores from the Belgian Congo contained the most uranium" could be omitted from the lead, as it's too detailed and the lead is already quite long
- Do we know how many Americans went to Shinkolobwe to get the mine going again? (e.g. was this a small number of advisors/project managers or a large labour force?)
- The Post-war section is a bit confusing given it says Groves wanted to re-open Shinkolobwe when the previous section states that this had been done during the war. Had the mine subsequently re-closed?
- "Howe announced in the House of Commons of Canada that Eldorado had become a crown corporation" - did he give a cover reason for this?
- The source says: "'In the interests of military secrecy,' Howe added, he hoped that there would be no embarrassing questions, and there were none."
- So I looked it up in Canada's version of Hansard:
Hon. C. D. HOWE (Minister of Munitions and Supply):
I wish to table order in council P.C. 535 of January 27, 1944, and before doing so I will make the following statement.
As a necessary means for the more effective prosecution of the war, the government of Canada has acquired all properties and assets of Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited, by expropriating all the capital shares of the company. Expropriation of the shares became effective as of three o'clock this afternoon.
Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited will in future be operated as a crown company, and will continue to carry on its present operations. The president, the directors and officers of Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited have been invited to continue to act in their present capacities, and have agreed to do so. There will be no change in existing arrangements affecting the employees of the company.
The directors of the company have agreed with the government that a fair value for the properties and assets of the company is represented by a price of $1.35 per share, and the directors and a number of other large shareholders have delivered their shares to the government at that price. The same share value is being offered to all shareholders of the company, and will be paid on delivery of the shares, properly endorsed, to the registrar and transfer agent, the Trusts and Guarantee Company Limited, Toronto,
I regret that for reasons of secrecy I am unable to give the house any further information on this subject. In the interests of military secrecy I hope that no questions about this matter will be asked until the necessity for withholding information no longer applies. I now table order in council P.C. 535 which effects the expropriation of all the capital shares of the company.
- Really interesting. If either of the Axis powers had a competent intelligence service, this disclosure would have been a significant hint that the Allies had a nuclear program. Nick-D (talk) 06:04, 16 August 2025 (UTC)
- I'd suggest noting in the first para of the 'Europe' section that the Asos Mission was operating as part of the liberation of Europe, which is why it was able to reach Belgium.
Nick-D (talk) 02:18, 16 August 2025 (UTC)
- Those changes look good, and I'm very pleased to support this nomination. Nick-D (talk) 06:04, 16 August 2025 (UTC)
Support by Dumelow
[edit source]Interesting article, I've started to look at the prose, will complete more when I can - Dumelow (talk) 06:43, 20 September 2025 (UTC)
- Background
- "Only the richest uranium-bearing ore was exported to Olen, Belgium for the production of radium metal by Biraco, a subsidiary company of Union Minière du Haut Katanga"
- I was a little confused by this sentence that talks about uranium-rich ores being used to produce radium, a different element. Presumably the ores also contained significant quantities of radium?
- "The high grade of the ore from the mine—65% or more triuranium octoxide) (U3O8), known as black oxide, when most sites considered 0.03% to be good—enabled the company to dominate the market."
- "Even the 2,000 tonnes of tailings"
- "in 1941 sold for USD$4.52 per kilogram ($2.05/lb) (equivalent to $96/kg in 2024)."
- I know it's a function of the convert template interacting with the inflation one but I don't like the double sets of brackets here and in the following sentence, is there anything that can be done?
- "Marshall had the authority of a division engineer"
- This is the only time the term is mentioned, can we clarify what it means or is there a suitable link that could do so?
- Added: "The United States Army Corps of Engineers is divided into divisions and the divisions into districts." The link provided details. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 22:41, 20 September 2025 (UTC)
- This is the only time the term is mentioned, can we clarify what it means or is there a suitable link that could do so?
- Organisation
- "Captain John R. Ruhoff, a chemical engineer who, as St Louis Area engineer, had worked on uranium metal production.[17][18] When Ruhoff, a chemical engineer who worked for Mallinckrodt, was inducted into the Army, Nichols had him assigned to the Manhattan District."
- Do we need to mention that he is a chemical engineer twice in successive sentences? "St Louis Area" is capitalised, this seems to be an army term for a sub-division of an engineer district but I was confused by this until I read the next paragraphs (I didn't know if the St Louis Area was part of Manhattan District or something separate or even if it was an army thing at all). Is there any assistance we can provide the reader here, or does it even need to be mentioned?
- check Re-worded to: "Ruhoff was a chemical engineer who worked for Mallinckrodt. When he was inducted into the Army, Nichols had him assigned to the Manhattan District. As the district's St Louis Area engineer, he had worked on uranium metal production." The district was divided into areas.
- Do we need to mention that he is a chemical engineer twice in successive sentences? "St Louis Area" is capitalised, this seems to be an army term for a sub-division of an engineer district but I was confused by this until I read the next paragraphs (I didn't know if the St Louis Area was part of Manhattan District or something separate or even if it was an army thing at all). Is there any assistance we can provide the reader here, or does it even need to be mentioned?
- Uranium procurement (checked down to "Canada")
- We say that there was 180 tonnes of uranium ore in Belgium in 1939 but that 3,200 tonnes of uranium-containing compounds were lost when the Germans invaded the next year. Are these referring to different materials, or was it that the British were only interested in 180 tonnes out of the whole stockpile?
- "shipped to the United States though Union Minière's subsidiary African Metals Corporation"
- " the first, of 470 tonnes (460 long tons) departed Lobito in September and arrived in New York in November; the second, of 669 tonnes (658 long tons)"
- "The ore was stored in 2,006 steel drums 860 millimeters (34 in) high and 610 millimeters (24 in) in diameter,[30] labelled "uranium ore" and "product of Belgian Congo", in a warehouse at 2351 Richmond Terrace, Port Richmond, Staten Island, belonging to the Archer-Daniels-Midland Company.[29][31]"
- Feels like a bit of a long sentence, but appreciate that opinions on this vary
- "At its 9 July meeting, S-1 Executive Committee of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), which was..."
- "The army also secured the remaining ore in Shinkolobwe, which was shipped to the United States: 950 tons of approximately 70% ore and 160 tons of 20% ore"
- "In November 1943, the Middlesex Sampling Plant, a in Middlesex, New Jersey, was leased for storage, sampling and assaying. The ore was received in bags and sent for refining as required"
- "Groves was appointed its chairman, with Sir Charles Hambro, the head of the British Raw Materials Mission in Washington, Frank Lee from the Treasury delegation as the British trustees, and George Bateman, a deputy minister and a member of the Combined Production and Resources Board, representing Canada"
- "Negotiations took much longer than anticipated, but Sir John Anderson and Ambassador John Winant hammered out a deal..."
- I immediately though "ambassador from where to where", might be worth stating "US ambassador". Also not sure it needs the capitalisation?
- check Added that he was the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 22:41, 20 September 2025 (UTC)
- I immediately though "ambassador from where to where", might be worth stating "US ambassador". Also not sure it needs the capitalisation?
- "the contract was signed until 25 September 1944.[54] The agreement between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Belgium lasted ten years and financed the development of nuclear energy in Belgium."
- "Between VJ-Day and 31 March 1946, ore containing 770 tonnes (850 short tons) of oxide at a cost of USD$2,582,260 (equivalent to $41,637,841 in 2024)."
- "approximately 3,501 tonnes (3,859 short tons), of black oxide had been extracted from about 26,974 tonnes (29,734 short tons) of African ore, for which the government paid $9,113,800 (equivalent to $128,340,233 in 2024). Another 2,852 tonnes (3,144 short tons) had been purchased for $9,113,800 (equivalent to $128,340,233 in 2024)"
- "not far south of the Arctic Circle"
- You've said previously "mined and shipped from the Arctic", but might be just outside of it?
- "They were alleged to have misappropriated and significant funds from Eldorado through a network of secretly controlled companies"
- "This decision was reportedly driven by the Canadian government's desire to avoid public disclosure of potentially sensitive wartime transactions. Terms of any settlement reached with Eldorado remained confidential"
- "Related scrutiny also brought to light reports that Pregel, operating with U.S. government authorization"
- " In order to thaw out the rock, electric heaters were brought in and ventilation was reduced, but this exposed the miner workers to a build up of radon gas."
- "LaBine asked the Americans to expedite the delivery of two new Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar aircraft to Canadian Pacific.[81] United States and Canadian military aircraft were used to move ore from Port Radium to Waterways. In 1943, 270 tonnes (300 short tons) of ore was moved by air.[41] He was also able to get some personnel released from the Canadian armed forces."
- "In the United States, carnotite ores were mined on the Colorado plateau for their vanadium content. The ores contained roughly 1.75% vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) and 0.25% uranium dioxide (UO2). Vanadium was important to the war effort as a hardening agent in steel alloys, and the Metals Reserve Company offered loans and subsidies to increase production. The carnotite sands tailings from this mining activity over the years contained low concentrations that were economically recoverable but uneconomical to ship"
- "The total cost of procurement from American sources approximately USD$2,072,330 (equivalent to $29,182,483 in 2024)"
- "In September 1944, after the liberation Antwerp,"
- "The remaining 44 tonnes (49 short tons) were never found."
- Uranium refining and processing
- DuPont is listed as a black oxide producer in the table but not mentioned as such in the text
- "The production process involved adding black oxide to 3,800-litre (1,000 US gal) stainless steel tanks of hot concentrated nitric acid to produce a solution of uranyl nitrate. This was filtered through a stainless steel filter press and then concentrated in 1,100-litre (300 US gal) pots heated by steam coils to 120 °C (248 °F), the boiling point of uranyl nitrate. The molten uranyl nitrate was cooled to 80 °C (176 °F) and then pumped into ether that had been chilled to 0 °C (32 °F) in an ice water heat exchanger."
- If the uranyl nitrate was heated to boiling point wouldn't it be a vapour rather than "molten"? Maybe it was just below boiling point, or perhaps under pressure or was there a condensation step?
- The source says:
Hawkeye7 (discuss) 11:37, 21 September 2025 (UTC)The crude black oxide was added to hot concentrated nitric acid in large stainless-steel tanks to produce a crude uranyl nitrate solution, The uranyl nitrate solution was then filtered through a stainless steel filter press and subsequently concentrated in tanks heated by steam coils to the boiling point (248°F) of pure uranyl nitrate hexahydrate. After the molten crude uranyl nitrate was cooled to 176°F, it was pumped directly into cold ethero The water layer and ether layer separated, and the ether layer was washed with small amounts of distilled water, Then the purified material was re-extracted from the ether with relatively large quantities of distilled water. The solution of pure uranyl nitrate, which contained some ether, was heated to the boiling point to drive off the ether.
- The source says:
- If the uranyl nitrate was heated to boiling point wouldn't it be a vapour rather than "molten"? Maybe it was just below boiling point, or perhaps under pressure or was there a condensation step?
- "In May 1945, Mallinckrodt decided to build a new brown oxide plant."
- The table lists Mallinckrodt as producing 4,697 tons of UO2, but the text notes that this was "brown and orange oxide" so also includes UO3.
- "Mallinckrodt was already producing 100 tonnes (110 short tons) of brown oxide per month or the Manhattan Project's requirement for 150 tonnes (160 short tons) and Union Carbide wanted to use the facilities for nickel compounds production for the K-25 project"
- "OSRD had made arrangements with DuPont and Harshaw for the development of new processes to produce green salt and for the production of small quantities."
- Harshaw is mentioned for the first time here, I felt I could do with a little introduction of who they were, or a link to a relevant article
- "Here, the process used graphite boxes within steel retorts."
- We've previously said the DuPont/Harshaw "process was adopted by all plants, the only difference being the shelves used to hold the brown oxide", is this a different process or were the boxes/retorts the "shelves"?
- check Same process. Elaborated on this. " the only difference being that Mallinckrodt used graphite boxes and shelves to hold the brown oxide while it was fluoridated in steel retorts at high temperatures, while Harshaw used magnesium and later nickel trays inside steel tubes lined with magnesium." Hawkeye7 (discuss) 11:37, 21 September 2025 (UTC)
- We've previously said the DuPont/Harshaw "process was adopted by all plants, the only difference being the shelves used to hold the brown oxide", is this a different process or were the boxes/retorts the "shelves"?
- "Linde built and operated a green salt plant under a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. Production began in October 1943 and continued until 1 July 1946, by which time 2,926 short tons (2,654 t) had been produced"
- For Harshaw: "By 1 January 1947, it had produced 2,926 short tons (2,654 t) of green salt."
- "The S-50 and K-25 plants used this as feed"
- "The cost of production was $2.98 per kilogram ($1.35/lb) from brown salt and $2.09 per kilogram ($0.95/lb) from green salt."
- "Meal Hydrides managed to produce"
- "While most of the neighboring elements on the periodic table can be reduced to form pure metal and slag, uranium did not behave this way.[167] (At the time it was mistakenly believed that uranium belonged under chromium, molybdenum and tungsten in the periodic table.[168]) "
- "The pilot plant at Ames produced 1,395 metric tons (1,538 short tons) of metal "
- Westinghouse is listed in the table as a producer of Uranium metal but not mentioned in the text
- "A "bomb" (pressure vessel) containing uranium halide and sacrificial metal, probably magnesium, being lowered into a furnace"
- Other minerals
- "Once the research into isotope separation had progressed sufficiently, the contract for the isotope separation was awarded to the Standard Oil Company of Indiana, since fractionation was a common practice in the oil industry."
- The Boron section left me confused as to who was doing what. You mention there were two projects, one of reducing boron and one of fractionation. Harshaw are mentioned as producing a significant quantity but it is not said by what method. Standard Oil are mentioned as carrying out the fractionation, which I assumed was separating the boron trifluoride and dimethyl ether but then American Cyanamid are said to be processing the mixture.
- Do we have any data of quantities of graphite produced?
- "Polonium occurs naturally in various ores, and the lead dioxide residues from the refinery in Port Hope, left over after the removal of uranium and radium, were estimated to contain 0.2 to 0.3 milligrams (0.0031 to 0.0046 gr) of polonium per metric ton.[196][197] (A curie of polonium weighs about 0.2 milligrams (0.0031 gr).[198])"
- Again, a bit unusual to have a sentence entirely within brackets
- "shipped to the Madison Square area"
- "This was another possible route to an atomic bomb, especially if it turned out that uranium-233 could be more easily separated from thorium than plutonium from uranium."
- "Nonetheless, the Combined Development Trust set out to secure a large portion of it."
- "Some 45 reports were written on the Colorado Plateau region alone."
- "Over the course of 1943-1947, Murray Hill Area staff would conduct literature and field surveys of dozens of countries to assess their uranium and thorium resources."
- Lead
- I couldn't immediately see where the following were supported by the article:
- " In 1944, the Combined Development Trust purchased 3,440,000 pounds (1,560,000 kg) of uranium oxide ore from the Belgian Congo."
- "The highly enriched uranium product of the enrichment plants and the plutonium from the reactors was used to make atomic bombs."
That's everything I picked up on the prose. Excellent article with lots of interesting information and a pleasure to read - Dumelow (talk) 07:16, 21 September 2025 (UTC)
- Thanks for your replies, it's a support from me on the prose. If you take this to FAC feel free to give me a nudge, it's be a pleasure to review it again - Dumelow (talk) 05:00, 23 September 2025 (UTC)
HF
[edit source]I hope to be able to get to this over the weekend. Hog Farm Talk 02:24, 9 October 2025 (UTC)
- "As the district's St Louis Area engineer," - did the wartime district name omit the period in St. Louis? The city name is properly shown with the period
- Is including the exact address where the Belgian ore was stored an appropriate level of detail? My instinct is that this is probably excessive.
- "The shipments were managed by the American West African Line, known as the Barber Line, " - why are there two links that redirect to the same place in such close succession when the prose makes it clear that these names are for the same thing?
- " About 180 metric tons (200 short tons) was lost." - if this is referring to the sinkings, wouldn't it make sense to note this directly after the reference to the sinkings, instead of placing after the holding in Seneca - the current placement could almost imply to the reader that the ordnance depot lost some of it
- Is "shareholdeers" a spelling error or a legitimate variant in non-American English?
- "buying up stock in El Dorado Gold Mines" - is the two version a legitimate variant of Eldorado here?
- Link University of Chicago in the Canadian production section?
Ready for the United States section; stopping for the evening. Hog Farm Talk 01:49, 12 October 2025 (UTC)
- Link heavy water at the first mention insead of the second?
- "Manhattan District (1947a). Feed Materials and Special Procurement (PDF). Manhattan District History, Book VII: Feed Materials, Special Procurement, and Geographical Exploration [uranium]. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C.: Manhattan District. Retrieved 16 February 2025." - link appears to no longer work. Is this content only available in certain geograhpic areas?
- check Just the Internet Archive being unreliable. Replaced archive.org link with
- "While not as nasty as uranium hexafluoride, uranium tetrachloride is hygroscopic," - the article has not mentioend uranium hexaflouride as problematic to handle, instead saying that about uranium oxyflouride
- From the S-50 (Manhattan Project) article:
Hawkeye7 (discuss) 02:59, 13 October 2025 (UTC)On 2 September 1944, SED Private Arnold Kramish, and two civilians, Peter N. Bragg, Jr., an NRL chemical engineer, and Douglas P. Meigs, a Fercleve employee, were working in a transfer room when a 600-pound (270 kg) cylinder of uranium hexafluoride exploded, rupturing nearby steam pipes. The steam reacted with the uranium hexafluoride to create hydrofluoric acid, and the three men were badly burned. Private John D. Hoffman ran through the toxic cloud to rescue them, but Bragg and Meigs died from their injuries. Another eleven men, including Kramish and four other soldiers, were injured but recovered. Hoffman, who suffered burns, was awarded the Soldier's Medal, the United States Army's highest award for an act of valor in a non-combat situation, and the only one awarded to a member of the Manhattan District. Bragg was posthumously awarded the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award on 21 June 1993.
- From the S-50 (Manhattan Project) article:
More to follow. Hog Farm Talk 23:07, 12 October 2025 (UTC)
- " this could be managed because the carbide formed only where the two touched" - I think what the carbide was needs to be lightly glossed; the only other mentions of carbide in the article are in the name Union Carbide
- Table of Refined uranium compound production to 1 January 1947 (short tons) - shouldn't the UO3 link go to Uranium trioxide, not Uranium dioxide?
I think that's it for the first pass. Hog Farm Talk 01:43, 13 October 2025 (UTC)
Comments on sourcing
[edit source]Got a request on my talk page, which I am hereby answering. What makes https://waterfrontalliance.org/2020/06/11/from-rumor-to-reality-staten-islands-radioactive-history/, The Walrus and https://republicofmining.com/2016/09/14/port-radiums-eldorado-the-mine-that-shook-the-world-by-ronald-a-keith-macleans-magazine-november-15-1945/ a reliable source? Do you have the review of "Pan Am at War: How the Airline Secretly Helped America Fight World War II" - the publisher raises some questions. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 12:15, 21 November 2025 (UTC)
- Waterfront Alliance is a nonprofit organization that works to influence the development and use of the waterfront, shoreline, and connected upland areas of the Port of New York and New Jersey and the New York–New Jersey Harbor Estuary.
- The Walrus is an independent, nonprofit Canadian media organization that produces an eight-issue-per-year magazine and online editorial content that includes current affairs.
- Maclean's is a Canadian magazine which reports on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, trends and current events. A search of the RSN archives shows that it is considered reliable.
- I am not sure which review of of Pan Am at War: How the Airline Secretly Helped America Fight World War II we are talking about. I have Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)., an academic review in a well-known journal. The discussion of Skyhorse Publishing at Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard/Archive 489#Skyhorse Publishing did not rule the publisher unreliable.
Hawkeye7 (discuss) 19:11, 21 November 2025 (UTC)
- For some reason, for me the link to the review was going to a completely different topic. Viz Waterfront Alliance, I don't think that alone makes it a reliable source - are they commonly cited by other parties? Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 08:22, 23 November 2025 (UTC)
- The doi works for me. It should take you to here. Google gives me a lot of hits on Waterfront Alliance. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 10:53, 23 November 2025 (UTC)
- Google Books includes a lot of non-reliable sources, so that alone wouldn't prove much. That doi works correctly for me, true. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 13:01, 26 November 2025 (UTC)
- @Jo-Jo Eumerus: The Waterfront Alliance source is only used in footnote 35. It was there to provide the street address of the warehouse, but this was removed in response to a suggestion by Hog Farm (see above). So the text is now entirely supported by footnote 33, and footnote 35 could be removed if you think that is warranted. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 18:57, 26 November 2025 (UTC)
- Google Books includes a lot of non-reliable sources, so that alone wouldn't prove much. That doi works correctly for me, true. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 13:01, 26 November 2025 (UTC)
- The doi works for me. It should take you to here. Google gives me a lot of hits on Waterfront Alliance. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 10:53, 23 November 2025 (UTC)
Image review
[edit source]- File:Edgar Sengier receiving the Medal of Merit.jpg - does this have a source online anywhere? How do we know this was the work of a US government employee?
- File:Gilbert Labine examining uranium ore at the Eldorado Mine located at Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories.jpg - who is Wilfred Leigh Brintnell? And when was it originally published?
- Wilfred Leigh Brintnell (1895–1971) was a pioneering Canadian aviator. His images were later donated to the Provincial Archives of Alberta. Since they are not crown copyright but created prior to 1949, they are PD. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 08:07, 23 November 2025 (UTC)
- File:Port Radium uranian mine entrance in 1947.png - when was this first published? It also needs a US copyright tag, but I'm not sure this is actually free in the US
- File:Port Radium in 1936.jpg - link is dead, and same issues as the above image (needs US tag, and when was it actually published?)
- File:Radium Queen at the Fort Fitzgerald docks, July 1, 1937.jpg - same as above
- Internet archive does not deal with non-US images, but added an alternative site Hawkeye7 (discuss) 08:07, 23 November 2025 (UTC)
- File:Alsos mealtime.jpg - dead link, copyright tag is highly suspect
Everything else looks to be in good order. Parsecboy (talk) 01:08, 23 November 2025 (UTC)
Image review by Adam Cuerden
[edit source]Right. The images fall into a few categories:
- US Federal Government images
- These are clearly fine to use. Many are scanned from a book, but I think we can presume Hawkeye took precautions there. This includes Department of Energy, documentary photos from the HAER project, etc. The Ames National Lab images, e.g. File:Ames Process pressure vessel lower.jpg, are only worth pointing out because they additionally have OTRS documentation (this is a good thing).
- iRocks.com content
- We have a OTRS for this. Fine.
- Normal Wikimedian created things
- E.g. File:Bowling_Green_NYC_Feb_2020_07.jpg. No issues.
- Canadian works early enough to be clearly out of copyright.
- Notes
- File:Blenda_smolista2.jpg lacks a date, which seems to have more to do with being from the early days of Wikipedia than anything problematic.
- File:Port_Radium_in_1936.jpg and File:Radium Queen at the Fort Fitzgerald docks, July 1, 1937.jpg have a deadlink for the source. This is, sadly, pretty normal, and there's no reason to doubt their province, date, or copyright status.
- User:Chemolunatic did a lot of the pictures of chemicals in the article. He doesn't seem to have done much on Wikipedia other than this, which is a little worrying. Has a couple dozen edits to German Wikipedia. Wouldn't imagine the number of people who can just... photograph uranium-contaning chemicals is high, but I think challenging these would be rather paranoid.
- Problems
- File:Edgar Sengier receiving the Medal of Merit.jpg was not created by the Atomic Heritage Foundation. They were founded in 2002. Documentation on this one needs improved.
- Groves wrote:
It was a distinct pleasure for me after the war to recommend the award of the Medal of Merit, the highest civilian award made by our government, to Edgar Sengier for his great services to the United States, to Belgium and the free world in making available to us adequate supplies of Belgian Congo uranium. It was also my pleasure to present this award at a ceremony in my office in Washington. Security restrictions had not yet been lifted on this phase of the MED operations and the ceremony was private and unpublicized.
— Groves, L. (1962). Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project, p. 178
- Groves wrote:
- I am aware there is a learning curve to using any new archive. I cannot follow the chain of documentation from [3] to the licensing at File:Alsos_mealtime.jpg. But this is probably unfamiliarity with the subject more than anything else.
- Okay, with this fix I think both are resolved, and I'd pass this. Adam Cuerden (talk)Has about 8.8% of all FPs. 08:31, 25 November 2025 (UTC)
I'm afraid I'm getting married soon so can't promise how much I can update this, so feel free to presume that I would have assented were I active if the discussion reaches that point. Adam Cuerden (talk)Has about 8.8% of all FPs. 14:30, 23 November 2025 (UTC)
- Congratulations! Hawkeye7 (discuss) 19:08, 23 November 2025 (UTC)
- Seconded. File:Face-smile.svg I will assume "afraid" was a typo. Gog the Mild (talk) 19:36, 26 November 2025 (UTC)
- @Gog the Mild: Well, afraid that will mean I will be less help here. Not afraid of the marriage. Adam Cuerden (talk)Has about 8.8% of all FPs. 09:45, 30 November 2025 (UTC)
- Seconded. File:Face-smile.svg I will assume "afraid" was a typo. Gog the Mild (talk) 19:36, 26 November 2025 (UTC)