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For release on or after development and control of t h e Nation's nuclear energy program, owns an $8.7 billion complex of laboratories, production, manufacturing and testing facilities scattered throughout the country. Slightly more than half of t be ir overall operation is devoted t o peaceful uses of the atom. Tnis series of articles describes scine of the work done and under way at these Installations and how It relates t o individual citizens today. The Atomic Energy Comission, charged by Congress with the Upton, Long Island--Leukemia i s a disease of blood-forming organs In which abnormal numbers of white cells appear inthe blood stream. In some respects, leukemia resembles an infectious disease. I n other respects, It resembles cancer. I n any case, no cure for it has yet been found. ks sive doses of high level radiation can destroy the unwanted cells that cause this fatal disease. But such powerful treatment would destroy the patient too. What isthe way out of this dilemma? Now, after four years of experimentation with animals, a psrtial answer h a s been found a t the Brookhaven National Laboratory of the Atomic Energy Commission, located at Upton, Long Island, 70 miles from New York.
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The prxediire i s simply to irradiate a patient ' s blood outsice h i s-- body and t o return it t o him after the treatment. Or,e end of a plastic tube is surgically placed i n an artery and the other end ina vein in a patient ' s forearm. Without mechanical aid, the patient ' s heart then pumps the blood out of the artery and through the tube, most Df which i s enclosed ina gamma radiation device near his bedAs the blood flows through their radiator, the radiation-sensitive leukemia white cells are destroyed while the more resistant red cells are not affected. Tnen, still pumped by heart act im alone, the blooc? flows back intoa vein i n the patient ' s body. kre than ascme of patients, upon referral of their physician, have been selected anci admitted t o the Hospital of the Laboratory's Medical 3esearch Cecter for the treatment. Those selected are treated without Brookhaven scientists stress tn at The new procedure -- cailed ECIB for treatment for some leukemia, the cause of which is still unknown. But they have found that ECIB has significantly lengthened the lives of sme of those on whom it has been tried. "It is true that the new treat nen tis not a cure," declared Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, AEC Chairman, "but it gives us added hope t h a t i n time we may come t o control and cmquer this dread disease.
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"It also gives us added evidence that in the long run the peacef-Ll uses of the atom will outweigh i n importance t o us its employment in nat i mal The development of this technique is just a sample of some g f the work being done a t BroDkhaven, one of a d3zen major AEC installations scattered through the United States. The Brookhaven Reactors Brookhaven National Laboratory was established i n 1947 as a center for fundamental and applied research inthe nuclear sciences and related fields. I n addition t 3 i t s hospital, it has one of the most impressive collections of research hardware i n the wqrld. These facilities cover a wide range of nuclear equipment from a hot laboratory, designed f o r experimentation with highly radioactive material, to8giant particle accelerator o r "atom Operating on an annual budget of approximately $5Q million, the Laborat3ryis run under cm tract to the AEC by Associated Universities, Inc., an organization sponsxec by nine northeastern universities. Cornell, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Massachasetts Institute of Technology, Princeton, Pennsylvania, aochester, and Yale. Scientists from other colleges, universities,lab ma tories and research groups are permitted t o use Brookhaven facilities for experiments and research on an equal basis. What are some of these facilities ? There isthe Brookhaven Graphite Research Reactor, built in 1950 as the first reactor i n the world designed for peacetime research. It is still in
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Elementary particles called neatrons are emitted through holes inthe reactor shielding to s ene as t cols in many kinds of research. Sometimes the neutrons are allowed to strike other materials outside the reactor. The way i n which the nestrons are scattered, absorbed 3r otherwise seen t o interact with the materials provides data on solid state structure and its Materials exposed t o intense radiation within the reactor are used t o observe physical, chemical, and biological changes induced by radiation. Radioisotopes -- or radioactive elements -- gathered f r 3 m the reactor a r e used for studies by Brookhaven scientists or shipped elsewhere for research by others or for use i n hospitals. The Brgokhaven Graphite Research Reactor, one of the most versatile facilities at the Laboratory, has been i n almost continuous use since 1950 by Brookhaven and visiting scientists and engineers. A new react x called the High Flux Beam Research Reactor was placed i n operation i n 1965 to pr wide an even more powerful tool for experimental research. An integral part 3f the Medical Research Center, the Medical 3esearch iieactor was built to explore the use of reactors in the study of man and ation of patients for various clinical studies. The other i s used f x animal studies preliminary to studies on human patients. Two ports permit neutrons t o pass through t-le reactor shielding One room i s designed for partial o r whole body irradiThe Basic Composition of Matter The Greeks decided that all matter i s composed of non-divisible things called atoms. Scientists in the 19th century decided that the Greeks were
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rignt and that matter was ca qo sed of fewer than 130 different kinds Df atoms. Scientists know now, however, that the atom itself has parts -- a small but very dense core, or nucleus, surrounded by a s h e l l of elementary part ici es called electrons. Further, the nucleus itself has parts called neutrons and protons and, i n turn, can be divided into still smaller particles, To explore deeper into this inner space, however, requires ever greater amounts of energy since it becomes increasingly difficult to break progressively smaller pieces of matter apart. I n 1960 Brookhaven scientists designed and built a machine t o peer deeper i n t o t h e at-.mic nucleus than had ever been done before -- the $31 million Alternating Gradient Synchrotron, or AGS. half seconds, protons are accelerated t o almost the speed of light, Traveling the half-mile circumference 333,000 times, and a r e then sent crashing into target atoms of copper or some other material with an energy up t o 33 billion electronvolts. The collision shatters the nuclei of the target atoms, breaking them down intc, even smaller component parts. Every two and oneToday, more than 100 subnuclear pieces of matter have been discovered and identified as a result of such experiments on the AGS and other Brookhaven machines and on "atom smashers" elsewhere i n t h e U.S. and abroad. Scientists still aren ' t satisfied that they have learned the ultimate answer t o the question: 'What is matter?'' But they are confident they are on the right track and that someday A 200 billion electron vol tthe solution t o this problem will be known.
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accelerator to be built for the AEC near Chicago, Illinois, by the mid1970's, i s expected t o help answer this question. Located near the Brookhaven reactors is the Hot Laboratory, designed for the handling and processing of highly radioactive materials. for example, was developed the method for preparing radioactive technetium-99 now used as a kidney scanner. active technetium, concentrated in a patient ' s kidney after intravenous injection,are detected by a scintillation scanner that is moved back and forth over the patient ' s body in a precise pattern. Low-energy gamma rays emitted fran the radioA moving stylus that is activated by pulses from the detector draws a "picture" of the organ that can be of innnense value toa phyeician treating a person for kidney trouble. While medical scanning with other radioisotopes has been i n lise for a number of years, the development of technetium-% for the purpose marks a significant advance inthe art. The gamma rays of this radioisotope are easily detectable outside the body. Moreover, principally because the isotope is short-lived, a comparat iv ely high dosage of this isotope can be administered, sharpening up the Technetium-99 has proved ideal for spleen and liver scanning as well as for kidneys. promise in helping to locate brain tumors. It has also been applied i n thyroid studies and gives
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Located in still another area, is Brookhaven National i a borat cry ' s High Intensity a adi ation Development laboratory, designed t o deVelGp engineering data on extremely high levels of radiation and t o devise more efficient techniques for handling hrge - scale radiation sources. Last year, the high intensity laboratory was used to sterilize 15 tons of bacon that was lowered into one of ;ts bot cells for controlled exposure t o 850,000 curies of cobalt-60 radiation -- an amount equal to that from 1870 pounds of radium. Sterilization of the bacon vas the first large-scale test of gamma - radiation for the preservation of perishable foods fc r the U. S. Army. Packed i n one-pound tins,the bacon i s expected t o last for an extended period of time without refrigeration because the high-level radiation killed the microorganisms that ordinarily cause food spoilage. A wide program for the sterilization and pasteurization of foods by radiation is now under development i n the U. S. I n Tne Radiation Forest A strange world exists on a 50-acre wocded tract in the northeast corner of t h e Brookhaven site. radiation source that sends out its rays over the expanse of natural forest. Signs of deterioration gradually Near t h e center, only In the center of the tract is a cesium-137 gama Trees close tothe source have died. disappear as the distance from the source increases. primitive lichens grow unaffected by the rays and only behind the protective trunks of t h e dead and dying trees does grass grow and survive.
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The experiment, begun inl. ? ol, - i s part of a Brookhaven biological research program designed t o study the long-term effects of radiation damage in a forest community. On another, 10-acre site,isthe Gamma Garden. Plants are arranged here in a circular pattern around a cobalt-60 gamma radiation source that operates 20 hours a day. Brookhaven scientists study changes occurring i n the plants and the factors affecting their sensitivity to radiation. Such changes are being watched a t Brookhaven on both the whole plant and whole animal level and -- increasingly -- at the cellular and molecular One interesting fact know for years is that the decreased life expectsncy caused by radiation i n animals closely resembles an accelerated natural aging process. Experiments with mice at Brookhaven have shown a close relationship between natural aging and cell changes that can be induced by radiation. Scientists belleve that this is further evidence that cell changes play an important, though not exclusive, role in aging. Will such studies some day lead toa lengthened life span for man? Scientists at Brookhaven and elsewhere who are working on the problem of aging cannot yet be sure. I n any case, however, the work i s typical of a broad effort at Brookhaven t o understand better the biological processes i n man -- a program that extends to studies to define more clearly the character of diseases which affect the human body.
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The Brookhaven Staff Some 3450 people, nearly 800 of whom are scientists and engineers, comprise the permanent staff of Brookhaven National Laboratory. It isa dedicated staff whose individual members work i n many areas of the life and physical sciences. as new discoveries are made inthe rapidly developing field of nuclear sciecce and technology. Lines of approach may shift rapidly Brookhaven i s united with the AEC's other laboratories in a common goal -- that results achieved there shall be used principally for the benefit It isa goal that is the chief objective of more than half the (Editor's Note: Next article in this series, The AEC's National Reactor Testing Station, Idaho. )
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A technician in a protective plastic suit with an external air supply (note hoses at lower right) prepares a container of radioisotopes for shipment. Radioisotopes produced in the Brookhaven Graphite Research Reactor and processed at the Brookhaven Hot Laboratory are shipped to laboratories and hospitals throughout the world.