AEC Newsfeature, Subject: Work Done and Underway at AEC Installations and How It Relates to Individual Citizens Today

Page 1

AEC NEWS FEATURE For use by newspapers on developent ard control of the Nation's nuclerr energy p r o w , own6 an $8.7 blUlon complex of hboratories, production, manufacturing and testing plants snd equipment scattered thraughout tht country. SUghtly more than half their overall operations i s devoted t o peaceful usee of the atan. This series of a rtl cls s describes same of the vork done and underway a t this inetclllatioa and how it relates t o individual citizen8 today. The Atomic Energy Canmtssion, charged by Congress with the oak Ridge, Tena. 0 - Huge coastal nuclear p e r plants producing millions of kilowatts of low-cost electricity while desalting hundreds of thousaads of gallons of fresh water a day baa the sea. . . Whole new industrial-agricultural complexes built around these p b t s t o provide a nore abudant way of life... This is the vision of men currently at vork at the Oak RlQe National frsborrtory of the Atcmic Energy Ccpmrission. If a tean! of government, university snb industry scientists nuu doing a feasibility study on the centers finds them practical, the decision will be one that acmeday could iPrprove-conditiossin many corners of the world.

Page 2

the AEC, " w ~ z l dbe pr?cJclng eLectric l ty and process heat so cheaply that they cmld be used t o separate and recycle enormcus cum ti ties Df turing plants in the same complex. "Tney could de salt seawater and recycle sewage t o give us fresh water for drinking end agriculture. the same seawater. They could supply the electricity to produce steel by hydrogen reduction, make large quantities of nitrogen and phosphate fDr fertilizer and provide the heat,electricity and radiation to pr x ess new ceramics, metals and other products." Such energy centers would supply needed power both on site and t o Through the distillation of seawater, theyinland industries as well. also could make food po duct ion possible on vast expanses of fertile, but arid,coastal Zar.Cs, tnus increasing world food s iqp lies. The centers woulC be welcome enough i n many developed countries, such as 3ur mm. But they are seen as a way out of chaas f o r many under;leveloped nat,ons where increased energy supplies and food production are vital needs. Such pioneering projects as the energy center concept, however, are old hat to Oak Xdge, location af the most diversified of all field offices of the Atomic Energy Cm n is sim. scientific and technical paths. Oak Ridge began. Oak Ridge i s used t o exploring untrod Pursuing such paths, in fact,ishm

Page 3

iihen scientists i'irst disc me red tnat usni,m atas coula ce split, :hey realized. the pr x esa would release the enormais eriergy n old ing Lhe plosive force, as ina bomb. With World War I1 under way, first development priority went tothe bomb -- particularly in view sf fear that Nazi Germany might already be working on one. SOin 1942 the nills and valleys of this section of East Tennessee were visited by representatives of the Army ' sh nhat tan Engineer District who were searching for a site for this top - secret effort. In September of that year the decision t o choose Oak Ridge was &e. Fifty - eight thousand acres were quietly bought up. Some 1,000 families abandoned their homes, churches and schools aid moved elsewhere. Ze Lim i locked gates a ~ dmiles of security fences, $ ants and new housing and facilities went up on the Gak Ridge site for 75,Xl€l workers. began, though few knew its real purpose or importance. A central technical problem was the fact that only a very scarce type of uranium, known as uranium-235, is readily fission able and thus able to produce nuclear energy. U-235 constitutes ooly atiny 0.7 of me per cent of natural uranium, most of which isa type known as ~ ani ~ m - 238. Getting U-235 aut of the bulk of non-readily fissionable u-238 was a diff i - cult task on a laboratory scale. It was a seemingly hopeless task on a

Page 4

scale r,ecessary tosbt & lnthe 1ar;e su&?tltLes re q dire c for n-;clear ieqws. iiormai chemical sepazetion neth3Cs WoLid r.ot wark, since all types, 31 in their nuclei than the uranium-2j8 atoms and thus are slightly lighter. Perhaps the two kinds could be separated according to their weight. A winning scientist of the Cn ivers it y of Califr>rnia, might do the trick. The pr x ess involved accelerating a stream of uranium particles in gaseous form an? bending the stream into semi-circular paths by means of a powerftl magretic field. Theoretically, the heavier u-238 atoms would travel in a wider arc than the lighter U-235 atoms. isotcipes could be caught in different containers atthe end of their flight Thus, t h e two uranium Construction of the plant began i n 1943 amidst unprecedented design and construct im problem. Moreover, it workez. was producing the first subst ant lai quantities of highly fission able V-235 t h e worlc! had ever seen. 3ut ir, less than a year the plant was complete?. On August 6 , 1945, the U. S. dropped its first atomic bomb of World War 11. The bomb fuel was material from Oak Ridge's Y-12 complex. Other Pioneering Steps Two other pioneering projects meanwhile had gotten under way on Oak Ridge's restricted acres. Xorking with frantic urgency, engineers and

Page 5

sci ent is z s were bu i laing the fLrs: fdi - scale nbclear react cr azc 3 chemicai grocessing ;;;sfit as a gii ot I ' a cl ll ty t~ prove ttir t the pa - element, CoLici be scccxqliskiec. The ciak Ridge graphite reactor was the forerunner for the huge plutonium production reactors being built at AEC's Hanford 'Aorks inthe state of Washington. Hanford-produced plutonium fueled the second, and last, Meantime, though the success of Y-12 was assured, it was obvious that it could do better in producing f is sima bie uranium i f it coda be fed urarium already more heavily concentrated i n U-235 atoms to start with. So another pioneering Oik Ridge project became the construction of the Nation's first gaseous diffusion plant. ii gh ter U-235 atoms could get through mme readily than the heavier u-238 ones, tnus se-+rating t h e two tms. The ghnt was tiesigned t o pun? The proposea fac il icy 'das so encrmous ana s o com2iicatea tnat many thought it coullin't be buiit. Cthers said that i f it was built, it Plunging ahead, Chk Ridge put the diffusion plant together and nad it It not only produced "feed material" f o r t h eoperating by February, 1945. electromagnetic process a t Y-12, but proved so much more efficient ana less costly in separating the two uranium isotopes tha; by the end of tile war it had supplanted Y-12 altogether in furnishing U-235 for the Nation's military

Page 6

eq-ually important part is tne 3id tic n ' s civilian nuclejr ?over program. As scientists nad ccped, the fisz:Gn:zg of U-235 stom ccluid be ccntroiled. be used t o generiite steam t o make electricity. The idea has proved sc success fd that more and more reactors are now going up across the country t o generate this power. rare U-235 needed for their %ei cores comes from the oak Ridge plant -- or from two others subsequently built by the AEC a t Paducah, Kentucky, Every ounce of the and Eortsmoutn, Ohio, and operated under Oak Ridae direction. c;ak Xdge residents speak familiarly of megawaits when they think of some of the newer and larger power reactors being glanced t o produce millions of watts of electricity for civ iii an use. Actually, "megazice" i s sornetbing of a misncmer. Tbere aren ' tre a ii ya million mice scazqering co unC tt is atoaic energy It just seems iike it. The mice real iy nudoer about 300,000. But that ' s still enough t o &e thes the Largest mouse colony anywhere inthe world! The megamice are residents of the Biology Division of the Cwk Ridge National Laboratory which isan outgrowth of the war-time Oak Ridge project.

Page 7

the megamoase c3lcr.y are cseC cz de terri ne what effec:s ra a is t ix may gd celine s for man inhis c)m w rk w ; t h radiatior,. Fram a basic point of view, such experiments are ma&ing a variety of contributions to radi at ix ger,etics. I n most recent experiments when female mice are exposed toa low radi a tim dose, it has been discovered that genetic changes (gene mutations) x cur significantly less often than had originally been expected. In addition,mut at lms appear ata low frequency in the first two litters 3f a ff spring pro dx ed by these females. Ba, t o ?ate, no mut at ims have been detected in succeeciing litters produced by the same mothers. Both of these results suggest that a natural repair mechanism may be present i n the gem cells of the irradiated female prent. Another major stuw has recently been imdertaken by t ne AEC in cx per a - tion with the Xational In sti tates of Xeaitn. Some 6,00 ~ Oak wage nice are being used there t3sc icy the cx bl ned effects af cnemicais, radiatlor., air ORNL scientists,in aio in t lys pons x ed research effort between A E and hTH, have de vel qed a way of is3lating various kinds of respiratory viruses i n

Page 8

e zachine called a zor.al li cui d centrif*i;pe and se par atl x the differer.: types a: vi rJ ses according to their weights. These isoiated. v i r u materials are now being used t o develop vacclnes wnlch may be & leto c mtr ol s3me of :he a i bents com m to -E. Cceiqor',ani recent development was the production of a highly purified. influenza vaccine -- using liquid centrifuge systems developed a t Oak Ridge National Isboratory and. the Oak mdge Gaseous Xff'usion Plant -- for limited Cs tri but ion to the public. I n other studies, attempts are being made to separate virus particles from the blood of patients with leukemia and other cancers toai6in research on these Oak Xd ge Nacional Laboratory continues t o be a center for nuclear reactor research and d.evelopment, of couse. But Instead of one reactor with which t o work -- the old graphite reactor which was retired in 1%3 and made a Registered National Historic Landnark i n 1966 -- it now has el gt t reactors an tine site. f nch de clevelopnent and. eval1Aation of var lois reactor cesigris; studies gf reactor physics; investigation of reactor shielding ; and st a dies of reactor Oak Ridge react x prDJects Another pioneering effort at Oak Ridge i s work which energy is developed i n the sun. "he process the nuclei of light atoms t o obtain energy instead of splitting the nuclei of heavy atoms, as is the case with today's fission power reactors. fusion can be achieved here on earth, the fuel for fusion reactors will be atoms of a form of hydrogen called deuterium.

Page 9

Radioisotopes are radioactive forms of various elemer,is such as iodine, cobalt,cesiu,iron, or gold. They can be InJecterl into :be hiuraa bociy in ham less quantities ana uedto give radiation " pictures " of the outline of ailing t ny roid s,livers, kidneys o r other organs. radiation therapy for a number of diseases, including cancer. nel per s in diagnosing and treating hunan a i he nts. Or,they can be used i n GRNL, a principal center for research in radio iso top ? s , is the i arge st installation of its kind inthe world for producing and distributing these Altnough tne xaher of individual radicisotope shipments shrinks each year as in dx s try tees wer in the roie 2: ret a ii er,the amount cf radi stic n shipments involving near iy 2,400,000 curies of ra cio activity ccmparea t c 2,500,000 curies for all of 1366 -- a record year. For the first six months of 1967, 0.NL made about 2,290 The Medical 3i vision of Oak aidge Associated Universities, or CiUU, has pioneered in the develop ent of certain diagnostic and therapeutic isotopes.

Page 10

conduct reseL-c;, ei uc a tic n alu.d trairiir.6 act ir it les in atomic ecers Recentiy C.3? nas dcne picrieer work i n tne study of ick-Levsl t c t L body exposure tora a i a tic n. room i n whicn & pti ent my ii ve continuously for perio6s of up totko weeks while receivicg rac i ation treat nen t from sources csntained within the roan The association nas devoted a unique radiation The sources are so controlled that the patient will receive a constant amount of radiation n~ matter how near t o or far from them he may wancer while take3 automatically and read out on a computer. The p tien tLs observed constantly by television and G;iAU sci citi at s hope t ne treat a ent will be bene fic iai in certain t nes Gze cccpr5:lve Cr3AU program provides university faculty members the chance t c Qo advanced nuciear research anc penaits graduate stuCents t o work toward ns ster ' s and doctor ' s aegrees. Clther prcgrms provide fellowships for gra6uste students i n nuclear science and etgineering, health pnysics and. advancea health pnysics aiiou - ing coliege science students to carry out laboratory research assignments Radiobiological research associated with agriculture is carried out at the Agricuit*wai Research I ab oratory, operated by the University of

Page 11

Tennessee uncer contract to the AEC. The ASL hasa research laboratory es pci ali y suited to Large animal and for work i3 piant genezica ana plant breeding. New approaches t o gr0wir.g lean meat on cattle and to selecting calves for increased milk production are among recent accom2lishments i n work with Last fall marked the 25th anniversary of the founding of Gak Ridge in September, 1942, as the site for the Nation ' s war-time atomic energy effort. T&y t h e population of Chk Ridge, now a self-governing community, has shrunk from its war - Lime population. people with more than 14,OOO employed in AEC facilities valued a t more than But it is still a city of 30,000 A s it did 25 years ago, cair iiidge still bas its eyes on the future. And if the experience of the past is any criterion, tociay's pioneering dsvelopments a t Gak Zidge will be tomorrow's routine technology inthe use of nuclear energy. (Editor ' s Note: Next article in this series, Brookhaver. National Iaboratory.)--

Page 13

A scientist in the Molecular Anatomy Program (MAN) at Oak Ridge makes adjustments on a high speed liquid zonal centrifuge which …