Minutes Meeting of Advisory Committee for Biology and Medicine, Idaho Falls Operations Office, March 9-10, 1956

Page 1

Advisory Committee for Biology and Hedicine Idaho Falls Operations Office Idaho Falls, Idaho

Page 2

?he fifty - fifth meeting of the Advisory Carunittee for Biology and Medicine was held a t the Atomic Energy coIllmission,-HeHdquarters Building, Idaho Falls Xdaho, on Friday and Saturday, March 9 and 10, 1956, with the following for Resear@ & Industrial Development Mr. William Berman, OGC Miss Margaret Berlin

Page 3

A planned tour, arranged by Mr. A l l a n Co Johnson, Manager of the Idaho Operations Office, was conducted for the committee and the staff of the Division of Biology and Medicine t o inspect the facilities of the National Reactor Testing Site uhich included the Health and Safety Division. Ihe Chairman convened the meeting. MI?. Y. C. Funk, Deputy Manager, 100, then welcomed the group and offered any *sistance that he and his- staff could lend t o the Committee t o make their.visit both profitable and pleasant, of the Division of The Chairman asked Rr, Dunham t o proceed by discussing the current activities of the Division. Dr. Amham stated that the medical report on the study of fallout on the Rongelap people has'been turned over t o the Goverrnnent Printing Office and it should be available i n si? o r eight weeks. Dro Dunham made reference t o the las hbo meetings of the committee wherein Rr, Claus and Mr. Eisenbud briefed them on plans f o r monitoring the waters of the Pacific during and immediately a f t e r Operation REDING. The Mavy has made a ship available f o r this purposeactivities ,the Japanese have a five-vessel-..expedtion which will move down t o the equator west of the test site about miQay through the test schedule, A n exchange of samples is planned between a group under the direction of lk0 Roger belle, Director, Scripps Oceanographic Institute, LaJolla, California, and the Japanese oceanography group. &.Dunham reported OFFICLAL USE ONLY

Page 4

OFFICIAL USE ONLY . that the project had the Cmnaission*s concurrence. Ilr, Dunham then reported on the meeting of the Program Directors a t Hanford. He mentioned that the programs under the direction of I&. Parker and Dr. Kornberg are going well and that the group uas particularly impressed with Dr. Uager's observations of carcinoma of Dr. Amham spoke af a letter that he had received Weaver of the Rockefeller Foundation requesting-tserta$n the Genetics Panel of the National Academy af Sciences. the lung produced He stated that this Panel is tentatively considering certain qeccmm~tionsconccerning limits of radiation uhich ought to be set up for total population exposure and for occupational exposure, Rr. Ueaver requested $his information frm Dr. Arnham told the Canmittee thatuhile contacts w i t h on-site contractors ure appropriate, he vas reluctant to,seek.the information from non-AEC contractors and that he f e l t that it vquld bedmore appropriate that the questions in these instances be submitted directly from the National Acadeqy of Sciences. Ad Hoc Research Advisorv Group. Dr. Rraham anr)guncedI -.that an ad hoc Austin Brues and Orr Reynolds had been appointed-byDr.Shilling f o r the purpose of assisting the Division of Biology'andHedicine in reviewing the research program of the Division of Biology armd Medicine and t o L/ A copy of Dr, Ueaver's letter and Dunhamts reply previously uas supplied the members.of the Canmittee.

Page 5

identify those research areas which should be emphasized, curtailed or eliminated i n its opinion. JCAE Heatinas on Peaceful Uses before the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy on the peaceful uses of Dr, I3unham spoke of the 202 Hearings the AEcls responsibilities in health and safety -- as they relate to State The JCAE evidenced considerable interestuith respect to and local governments, XI34 Appointment Dr. Dunham announced that, subject to security clearance, the recommendation for Dr, Fred's appointment as a member of the Advisory Committee had been approved by the General Manager, Remarks by Hr. Ibm aro future of that Laboratory. Laboratory uill remain in the field of atomic ueagons;research and development for m w years to come, Dr. Bradbury believes that in order to retain top quality scientists, the Laboratory should have a definite role in the development of peacetime uses. He said that while rthegrimazy mission of the concern about Los Alamos pointed up the broader problem of defining the missions of all the Pational Laboratories. of laboratory missions and the integration of laboratory into a smoothly meshed over all research program was an important problem to which his He p ported that the definition office uould give top priority in the coming months. Atomic Bomb Casualty &.Warren and Ik. Bugher rqorted on their visit t o the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission i n Japan. P. Warren 2J V i s i t to ABCC by Drs. Cannon, Burnett, Hastings, Francis and others

Page 6

believes that Dr. Holmes, the present director, had done an outstanding job i n establishing contacts with the various Japanese agencies and in maintenance of these contacts. Dr. Bugher commented on the genetics program. He said it should be carefully reviewed with respect t o future developments. full-time geneticist be added t o the staff of the ABCC. Dr. Bugher mentioned that the Japanese Advisory Council are considering the change of name for the AEC. ( A change af name for the project had been recommended previously by the ACBM) . a name uhich uould be symbolic of the change t c ~peacetime uses of atomic lhq are hmping t o come up with that there is bitter resentment i n Japan of the placement of the "Atomic Energy for Asia" program i n Manila. On the otlwr~hand, the action of the Cammission i n increasing the amount of fissionable material uhich could be made available to the Japanese has been of tremendous value. I t u a s Dre Warrents belief that "the more we can do t o help t.he Japanese in developing this program the better w i l l be our-foothold i n Asia; and our hope t o meet the challenge of the Communist way of life against our own way of life can be presented t o the people of Asia." lk. Glass stated that he thought Dr. Bugherts re krk s on the genetics program uere very encouraging and he agreed completcG with the need f o r a very careful review. Dr. Bugher continued a t this point by saying *I stmul3333Xe t o pass on t o you a clear idea that I received of the essential desire of the OFFICIAL USE ONLY

Page 7

Japanese t o maintain their independence with respect to aid. They have great pride, ?hey want t o take encouragement from the United States and look f o r OtiT technical training and guidance, but they want t o do the work the fact there will be a great amomt of additional data on world-wide It was the sense of the Committee that invim of fallout available from the New York Operations .Office H e a l t h and safety Laboratory i n the near future that they would prefer t o have this material in hand before making an over a l l statemat on Project Sunshine. The neu data w i l l be considered a t the next meeting of the Camittee and the results of this discussion will be forwarded towe Commission. Department discussions on possible aid t o an Btamic energy program among Italy and Lux&ourg, Ihe program is knoun as "EuratQrn." Acti v iti es ?9r. Butenhoff reported on& upmation known as A further report on this prbject is t o be made ata subsequent attention t o several problems which concern the Health a d Safety Division. He said that at the present time 35 off-site wells are

Page 8

being sampled for radioactivity; that if t h e State of Idaho adopts legislation requiring one-tenth drinking water tolerance a t t h e point of intake, this could, if strictly interpreted, require weekly sampling of some 1500 dlls in the area of the State of Idaho. Dr. Beard said he did not think it was too much of a health problem as t h e n has been no radioactivity found i n any samples t o date. .-. Mr.Eisenbud commented at this point to say, that'he thought that "if we were getting a good screwing sample of 15 walb..with no radioactivity in them, this should be a good example of what : to.mtct.n The second question raised by Dr. Beard conacrned the concentz%tion of radioactivity which should be permitted in $he -abos@kere of cammwities near the AW site. It uas h i s estimate that exposare to the lungs from rJrborne activity muld be about 100 t h e s greater than axttrnal whole-body exposures. Should the permissible dose be as low as 1.56 rem per year t o the lungs, as presumably vould be required by qv recommendations, o r should the permissible dose be more coqardblc t o that used in the Nevada Test S i t e area - that is, based on external eq~osure?: Impact of the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, a l s o known as the McKinney Panel Report, He said t h a t the HcKismey Panel had attached great importk. Pearson referred t o the report of the Pant1 on the ance t o the peaceful use of atomic energy in biology, medicine, and and Mediciqe and the Division of International Affairs to implement the A program has been developed between the 'Division of Biology

Page 9

OFFICIAL USE ONLY The program consists of three steps : 1, The first phase of the program is to send small missions of scientists to foreign countries to study the potential uses of atomic energy in those countries in the fields of biology and and by t h e International Cooperation Administration). (This part has been approved by the.State Department 2, m e second phase involves bringing scientists, particularly younger scientisu, to this country for training in the techniques 9nd in the use of atomic energy in biology and3. The third phase of this program is to make available atomic energy tools and isotope laboratorg or perhaps a gamma field so that when a scientist returns to his native country he may utilize his newly acquired knouledge. _._ Dre Pearson mentioned that sane definite action has been taken in respect to sending out missions to foreign countries. @lans-ktbeing formulated to send a group to South America, which will include a.qobert J. Hasterlik, AIL, Bo Fkul Aebersold, O m , Dr. Karl Uilbar, of Iwre of Biology and Medicine, and nou stationed in Peru, has been asked to Join the sfoup on its planned tour, r - ; Minutes of Meetinq held at The minutes of the meeting held at the Atomic Energy Caumission.in Uashington, OFFICIAL USE ONLY

Page 10

approved tmanimousl3' upon a motion made by Dr. Warz'CZl and seconded by for,their next meeting, 'uhich will be held at the & i n Uashington, D. C. Executive Session Further consideration was givm to the problems of the BC Cui th special reference t o the reports made.by Jk. Warren and I)r. aigher upon their return from visiting the-project i n Japan. that the following resolution should be fonnrdicd.by the Chaim of thc The Committee selected the dat$ 26 and 27, 1956, Upon the conclaion of the discussion ,iLwas _ voted unanimousv t o the Chairman of the Atomic Energy CamisPion: %cognizing the very tmsatisfacto ioptratrm of the pBcc from the inception of the contract uith;Rs, realizing thL trrgmcy of the present situation, and nindful of the importrrnce of the knowledge t o be gained i n Japan to the United States and t o the steps necessaz'JT t o intprovt radically and immediately the operatian of the ABCC. I n the unanimous and consid d opinion of the ACEe4, this requires transfer of the operating contract fram the NAS to another organization, such as a Univcrsity,or pot~pof tmi v mi - The meeting adjourned a t 5:30 P A