Project SUNSHINE (1953-1969) was an Atomic Energy Commission program that secretly collected over 6,000 human remains - predominantly babies and children - from 26 collection sites worldwide to measure Strontium-90 from nuclear fallout. The AEC hired 'an expensive law firm to look up the law of body snatching' and took body parts without parental consent. A 1995 advisory committee confirmed researchers 'employed deception in the solicitation of bones of deceased babies.'
“If anybody knows how to do a good job of body snatching, they will really be serving their country.”
From “crazy” to confirmed
The Claim Is Made
This is the moment they called it crazy.
When the Atomic Energy Commission launched Project SUNSHINE in 1953, it operated with a clarity of purpose that would have shocked the American public had they known about it. The program's objective was straightforward: collect human remains, primarily from infants and children, to measure how much Strontium-90 from nuclear fallout had accumulated in their bodies. Over sixteen years, researchers would gather more than 6,000 skeletal samples from twenty-six collection sites across the globe—all without parental knowledge or consent.
For decades, this program existed in institutional silence. The AEC never announced it. Universities and hospitals that participated rarely disclosed their involvement. When questions were eventually raised, officials dismissed concerns as misunderstandings of routine scientific practice. They characterized the collection as standard autopsy procedures, nothing more sinister than the normal course of medical research. The implication was clear: there was nothing to see here.
But there was. In 1995, a Department of Energy advisory committee investigating historical radiation exposure programs found something remarkable in the archives. The AEC had, at one point, hired an expensive law firm specifically to research "the law of body snatching." This wasn't theoretical curiosity. The legal inquiry revealed that the agency understood it was operating in legally questionable territory and wanted to understand the boundaries of what they could get away with.
The evidence became undeniable when researchers examined how the program actually functioned. Collection sites included pediatric hospitals, crematoriums, and pathology laboratories. In many cases, parents were never informed that samples were being taken from their deceased children. When solicitation did occur, the committee found that researchers "employed deception" in how they obtained consent. Some parents believed they were authorizing routine autopsies; they weren't told their children's remains would be incorporated into a national database for radiation measurement studies.
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Confirmed: They Were Right
The truth comes out. Officially documented.
Confirmed: They Were Right
The truth comes out. Officially documented.
The scientific rationale was legitimate enough. Understanding Strontium-90 levels in developing bodies had genuine public health value during an era of atmospheric nuclear testing. But legitimate science and ethical practice aren't synonymous. The AEC could have been transparent. They could have sought informed consent. They could have published their methodology and findings openly. Instead, they operated in secrecy, hired lawyers to anticipate legal exposure, and took what they needed without asking.
This matters because it reveals something fundamental about institutional power and public trust. Project SUNSHINE wasn't a rogue operation; it represented mainstream Cold War science. Universities participated. Hospitals cooperated. Researchers published findings based on the data. The entire apparatus of American scientific authority functioned smoothly around a program built on deception and the exploitation of grieving families.
The families never knew. The public never knew. Only when declassified documents surfaced decades later did the full scope become apparent. By then, the researchers involved were often deceased, the parents were older, and institutional accountability had become largely symbolic.
Project SUNSHINE stands as a historical marker of what happens when scientific institutions prioritize their objectives over human dignity, and when government agencies treat secrecy as more important than transparency. It reminds us why public oversight, informed consent, and institutional accountability matter—not as abstract principles, but as protections against the quiet abuses that occur when no one is watching.
Unlikely leak
Only 8.2% chance this would come out. It did.
Conspirators
~500Large op
Secret kept
42.8 years
Time to 95% exposure
500+ years
