Edward Bernard Grothus (June 28, 1923 – February 12, 2009) was an American

machinist A machinist is a tradesperson or trained professional who operates machine tools, and has the ability to set up tools such as milling machines, grinders, lathes, and drilling machines. A competent machinist will generally have a strong mechan ...

and technician at the

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development Laboratory, laboratories of the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, United States Department of Energy ...

during the 1950s and 1960s. In later life he became the owner of a surplus store which he used as a base for peace and

anti-nuclear The Anti-nuclear war movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, n ...

activism.Fear and Fallout in Los Alamos
Mother Jones website.

Weapons specialist

Originally, Grothus built rifles and machine guns at the

Rock Island Arsenal The Rock Island Arsenal comprises 946 acres (383 ha) and is located on Arsenal Island, originally known as Rock Island, on the Mississippi River between the cities of Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island, Illinois. It is home to the United Stat ...

in Illinois. He arrived in Los Alamos on March 23, 1949.Anti-nuke activist works for new legacy for birthplace of A-bomb
:

Kyodo News is a nonprofit cooperative news agency based in Minato, Tokyo. It was established in November 1945 and it distributes news to almost all newspapers, and radio and television networks in Japan. The newspapers using its news have about 50 million ...

website. Initially, Grothus worked for 2 years as a machinist and then 18 years as a technician in the R-Site weapons development group. This involved working with

depleted uranium Depleted uranium (DU), also referred to in the past as Q-metal, depletalloy, or D-38, is uranium with a lower content of the fissile isotope Uranium-235, 235U than natural uranium. The less radioactive and non-fissile Uranium-238, 238U is the m ...

and taking measurements for studies on the hydrodynamics of test implosions. He said his work contributed to the creation of bombs 30 times smaller and 30 times more powerful than those used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki—an increase from 15

kiloton TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. A ton of TNT equivalent is a unit of energy defined by convention to be (). It is the approximate energy released in the det ...

s to 475 kilotons in a nuclear package the size of a bowling ball. On December 1, 1969, Grothus quit the lab to pursue his business and activism interests full-time.

Shopkeeper and peace activist

In 1951, while still working at the lab, Grothus founded the ''Los Alamos Sales Company'', known to all as "The Black Hole" (because "everything goes in and nothing comes out"). It is a "thrift shop" of old scientific equipment that he has collected from the National Laboratory over the past decades. Ed could be seen often shopping at another Los Alamos thrift shop,

Casa Mesita Casa Mesita refers to two separate non-profit organizations in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Casa Mesita Thrift Shop and Casa Mesita Group Home are two of many social enterprise organizations in Los Alamos County, one of the highest-income counties in ...

. Originally, the business had no permanent home as Grothus sold unwanted lab items purchased at auction to universities and researchers. In 1976 the store found its present home in a converted

Piggly Wiggly Piggly Wiggly is an American supermarket chain operating in the American Southern and Midwestern regions run by Piggly Wiggly, LLC, an affiliate of C&S Wholesale Grocers. Its first outlet opened in 1916 in Memphis, Tennessee, and is notable ...

grocery store Grothus and his wife Margaret purchased. His objective for the Black Hole was to recycle scientific equipment for use in peaceful endeavors and to serve as a base to campaign for

nuclear disarmament Nuclear disarmament is the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons. Its end state can also be a nuclear-weapons-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated. The term ''denuclearization'' is also used to describe the pro ...

. Grothus predicted that there would be a

nuclear holocaust A nuclear holocaust, also known as a nuclear apocalypse, nuclear annihilation, nuclear armageddon, or atomic holocaust, is a Futures studies, theoretical scenario where the mass detonation of nuclear weapons causes widespread destruction and radi ...

in 2013.Gusterson, Hugh
"The legacy of Ed Grothus and the Black Hole"

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
', 2008-12-18. Retrieved on 2009-02-13. For a while Grothus sold cans of supposed "organic

plutonium Plutonium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is a silvery-gray actinide metal that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four ...

", affixing

mushroom cloud A mushroom cloud is a distinctive mushroom-shaped flammagenitus cloud of debris, smoke, and usually condensed water vapour resulting from a large explosion. The effect is most commonly associated with a nuclear explosion, but any sufficiently e ...

wrappers to cans of soup. He mailed a free sample to the White House, earning him a visit from the Secret Service. When walking into the gymnasium sized warehouse filled with piles of old computers, function generators, lock in amplifiers, microscopes and piles of wires and cables, a sign on the door reads:

Documentary films

Grothus is the subject of three documentaries. The first, ''

Atomic Ed and the Black Hole ''Atomic Ed and the Black Hole'' is a documentary released in 2001 by filmmaker, Ellen Spiro. The documentary was made for HBO's Cinemax Reel Life Series. Sheila Nevins served as Executive Producer and Lisa Heller served as Supervising Producer ...

'' was produced in 2002 and broadcast in the United States on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

. The second, focusing on Los Alamos as a whole, was a German production called ''Los Alamos und die Erben Der Bombe''. The third, ''Laboratory Conditions'', is a short film available for free on the internet. Visitors to The Black Hole have captured video content and added it to places like YouTube. Ed also has two large granite obelisks to document the development of atomic bombs.

Publications

In 2019 ''Atomic Ed'' was published by documentary photographer Janire Nájera. The book includes archival documents, past and recent photographs and a selection of letters from over 50 years of correspondence between Ed Grothus and politicians, scientists, the media and his family. Barcelona: RM Editorial, 2019. . With a foreword by Celia Jackson.

Awards

Grothus has received a number of awards and other recognition including: ''2006 Nuclear Free Future Lifetime Achievement'' for his ongoing activism speaking out against nuclear weapons and nuclear power - where the risks and decommissioning costs are significant. ''2006 Indigenous World Uranium Summit, Lifetime Achievement'' for promoting a nuclear-free future through his work. ''2007 Allan Hauser Memorial Award''. for his demonstrated artistic success and community involvement. ''Mike Daisey - If You See Something Say Something''. where Mike Daisey talks about his visits to Trinity Site, The Bradbury Science Museum and his "Welcome to the Black Hole". ''

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

(NPR) feature'' titled "At 85, 'Atomic Ed' Is Still Ticking Off Los Alamos" which described Ed's ongoing buying, selling and saving of "nuclear waste" and his desire to find a location for his twin 40 ton granite monuments - the Rosetta Stones for the Nuclear Age.

Death

Grothus died on February 12, 2009, from

colon cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel ...

. In an email correspondence prior to his death, Ed wrote, "My body is wracked with cancer tumors. My mind is wracked with the horrible visions of a very possible nuclear holocaust."

References

External links

A memorial site for Ed Grothus
Includes photos {{DEFAULTSORT:Grothus, Ed 1923 births 2009 deaths American anti–nuclear weapons activists Los Alamos National Laboratory personnel People from Los Alamos, New Mexico Machinists Deaths from cancer in New Mexico Deaths from colorectal cancer in the United States