How bout the crazy things they were doing at Oak Ridge?
trying to find suitable shielding for nuclear Planes.
Look up Tower Shielding Facility.
These people lifted the reactor out of the ground using four tall towers, while the reactor was suspended in air they turned the thing on. and placed numerous configurations of various metals and substances for shielding.
Fun stuff those whacky guys in the early days.
Sounds like they needed 10CFR26 back then.