NMHS News:
The Los Alamos Historical Society is pleased to announce an upcoming free special lecture, “Captain Jane and the Case of the Missing Plutonium,” from 7-9 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025, in the Pajarito Room of historic Fuller Lodge. The evening will feature award-winning teacher and researcher Dr. Georg Steinhauser, who will share his investigation and conclusions about a recently discovered Manhattan Project artifact.
Newly Discovered Manhattan Project Artifacts Reveal Plutonium from 1944
One of history’s greatest scientific efforts—the Manhattan Project—achieved in just 27 months what had never been done before: the creation of two working types of nuclear weapons. Central to this work was groundbreaking research on plutonium, carried out at Los Alamos beginning in the spring of 1944. Scientists were working with only gram-sized amounts of the world’s first reactor-produced plutonium, shipped from the X-10 Graphite Reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
In September 2021, a surprising discovery shed new light on this pivotal moment in history. While excavating a former waste disposal pit at the old Technical Area 21 in Los Alamos, workers uncovered a stack of stamp-sized newsprint snippets and a piece of filter paper—both contaminated with plutonium. Scientific testing revealed that the plutonium matched the unique isotopic “signature” of the very first material produced at the X-10 reactor.
Using nuclear forensics, and traditional forensics, we will present the full story for Captain Jane and the Missing Plutonium.
About the Speaker
Dr. Georg Steinhauser is a Professor of Applied Radiochemistry at TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology) in Austria, where he also serves as Delegate for International Affairs in the Faculty of Technical Chemistry. He earned his PhD in Radiochemistry at TU Wien and has held research and teaching positions around the world, including Colorado State University, Leibniz University Hannover, and visiting appointments at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Fukushima University, and LMU Munich. An award-winning teacher and researcher, Dr. Steinhauser’s honors include the 2024 Best Teacher Award at TU Wien, the Kardinal Innitzer Award, and the Bader Award for the History of Science.
The Los Alamos Historical Society thanks the Los Alamos National Laboratory for its collaboration on this special lecture.
We appreciate the community’s continued support and look forward to seeing you at this special lecture, Wednesday, Sept. 17!
To view lectures online, visit the Los Alamos Historical Society YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@LosAlamosHistoricalSociety