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Thanks for the interesting article - he had amazing access to the Manhattan Project. All this must have been written well in advance because 70 years ago Laurence was on Tinian preparing to go watch the Nagasaki bomb.

I'm not surprised some leftie reporter tried to get his Pulitzer revoked years later.

Apparently, he published an article denying that the black rain carried radiation, reasoning the radioactive cloud had drifted well away. He was wrong, but scientists knew next to nothing about radiation or radiation sickness at the time. I remember in something I've read in the last couple of months some in the military thought that if the strategic atomic bombing did not produce a surrender, future bombs should be used as tactical nukes on Kyushu, dropping 2 or 3 days before our troops would hit the beaches in Operation Olympic. That is how ignorant we were before the issue was studied in depth after the end of the war. Shoot, in 1953 my father in law was one of the soldiers shipped to Nevada to observe the firing of the Atomic Cannon with no protection. In later years he was sure he was exposed to more radiation than he should have, but fortunately he didn't develop sickness or ever have cancer.

scientists knew next to nothing about radiation or radiation sickness at the time

That scientists actually knew so little says nothing about these questions that I've long wondered over:
Could radiation sickness have been anticipated?
Should radiation sickness have been anticipated?

he was sure he was exposed to more radiation than he should have, but fortunately he didn't develop sickness or ever have cancer

I recall reading that John Wayne was filming a movie near a Nevada underground test and got terminal cancer as a direct result. Don't know if that's true.

future bombs should be used as tactical nukes on Kyushu, dropping 2 or 3 days before our troops would hit the beaches in Operation Olympic.

Remember that we had two bombs in November of 1945 when the army asked for 200, so that would probably have been their use...............

Finally an answer on how many bombs and when available? The 3rd core would have been available Aug 16, but still in Los Alamos.

http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/tag/plutonium/

Truman actually put a “stop” on all further atomic bombings on August 10 — when the effect (if any) of the bombs on Japan’s high command was yet unknown. (He did not, it is worth noting, put a stop on firebombing: huge B-29 raids continued up until the surrender announcement.)

The core was cast sometime around August 13th, but still likely needed to be pressed and coated, ergo the need to take until August 16th to finalize. By August 15th, it became clear that it wasn’t going to be needed in the war. So it was kept at Los Alamos.

The third core, by now nicknamed the “demon core” for having taken two lives, would not go out with a whimper. By some accounts, it found its final disposition in the first postwar nuclear test, shot “Able” of Operation Crossroads, on July 1, 1946,