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ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION . c f o r Research and Development REPORT ON MEETING WITH THE PANEL ON B I O IC& AND MEDICAL SCIENCE, PRESIDENT'S SCIENCE ADVISORY COMMITTEE, JANUARY 10, 1970, ROOM 208, EXECUTIVE OFFICE BUILDING Dr.Goldstein and 1 were scheduled t o meet with the Panel from 10:30 t o 11:30, butDr. Orr Reynolds of NASA ran overtime. discussion ran from 10:50 t o 12:10, being broken up finally by Dr. Laster's secretary reminding Dr. Pake of his plane reservation. The entire meeting was most cordial and relaxed except in the matter of thermal pollution as noted below. On Dr. Laster's advice (see his letter of December 23, enclosed) we had provided beforehand the enclosed Synopsis and our Research Program booklet and apparently they felt that they did not need to dig for information. The total membership of the Committee i s enclosed. however, only nine members were present : Drs. Bennett, Adey, Bing, MacLeod , Pake, Pritchard, Smith, Thomas, Wood , and Laster. For our session, AtDr.Bennett ' s invitation : Did w e have anything to add tothe Synopsis? Iread from the enclosed explanatory introduction adding atthe end that perhaps our most immediate concerns centered around items 4b and 4c of the Synopsis. Evidently each man was involved i n one or another aspect of improving the quality of our environment as we never really got too far from this subject for the rest of the I presented Mr. Giambusso's graphs and data projecting electrical power requirements per person to the year 2000 and the fact thar these could be met only by nuclear-powered generators ; that our standard of living,productivity, and position as a world power are proportional to our annual electrical power generation. They appeared t o approve of the idea that the Division was focussing its efforts on ecological problems. We found no disagreement with the thesis that disturbances in the environment sooner or later created
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Thermal pollution seemed uppermost in their minds, for the first question was about the heating of the Columbia River by the reactors a t Hanford, I was able to respond that the temperature of the cooling water at the in takes was regulated by mixing top and bottom water from the dam above Hanford and that at reasonable points away from the effluent canal the temperature rises in the river were 2OC down t o 0,3' t o O,Oo asthe plume mixes fully. study ? W e mentioned the White Oak Lake and Clinch River system, the Savannah River complex, the Columbia River analyses on down tothe Pacific together with the off - shore settling - out studies,the dispersion of mineral debris by the two Puerto Rican rivers into the Windward Passage, the Turkey Point and Biscayne Bay coal - fired versus reactor comparison studies, as well as the several terrestrial ecological networks that have been set up. I believe it was Dr. Smith who asked how long these had been going on; they had not been aware that the o n - site areas had been under study from the beginning and that DBM had in fact anticipated many of the questions being raised at present. Were other areas under Dr.Goldstein, working from his notes in response to a direct question, described in detail how the AEC in collaboration with other agencies had been able to assure that the licensed reactors were not creating significant environmental pollution and that it was only in connection with reactors that the question of thermal pollution had been raised. Whose responsibility was it to take care of thermal pollution ? responded: Chiefly Interior and toa less degree HEW.* This did.not said,that AEC with its reputation forgetting the job done should simply do what was necessary to learn one way or the other how the addition of this waste heat affected the ecology of a stream or the countryside. Dr.Bennett had added the alternative use of dry and wet cooling towers to the discussion. Another line of discussion dealt with our coordination of research programs with other branches o f government. Dr.Goldstein quo tin2 from his notes noted the intra governmental committees, panels and study sections that wes it on and viceversa, and the numbers of joint research projects that DBM has developed with other agencies and they with DBM. Copies of the latter two lists without budget numbers were sent to Dr.Last er on January 14 in response to his specific request. This was coordinated with the Comptroller through Mr. Whitnah. * I had heard that Mr. Nixon would assign pollution of the hydrosphere to Interior,but did not repeat this rumor, Dr. Bennett had also heard this. It seems likely that
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The subject of basic versus developmental work vis - a - vis our support of the National Laboratories and Universities was touched on. Were the current budgetary restrictions adversely affecting our contracts with the Universities ? We were able to show that while the percentage total budget seemed t o have been decreasing,the actual amount had been holding fairly constant, pointed out that more than 10% of our university contracts terminate each year,there by providing new funds for fresh ideas, new programs, and young investigators. funds for university - based research ? I had tosay : Regretfully no, that we already made just about every possible economy and adjustment, and since we were committed to support of a number of long-term chronic experiments as well as enlarging our efforts in the ecological areas one could not do much more than try to be even more selective as t o what projects or programs would b e funded. I assured them, It rust, that we were thoroughly aware o f how the present slow down o f new ideas and basic research in radiation biology would adversely affect practical applications in nuclear medicine five toten years hence. They seemed gratified when Dr.Goldstein Did we foresee being able to enlarge our Dr.Bennett then cited Jim Neel's research on the Amazonian Indians and asked how this basic research--assuming itwas basic--might have a samples from these rather isolated groups and storing the sera for the purpose of genetic identification of blood factors that possibly might give some clue to the factors which resulted in rejection of tissue transplants.This was important in that our one effective treafment for radiation sickness was marrow transplants not to mention the importance of tolerance to the field of organ transplant in general. (I was halfway home before I remembered the tribal consanguinity marriages characteristic of these tribes.) I noted that Dr. Nee1 was collecting blood The Panel seemed to be fully acquainted with the ABCC and supported cost increment with its resulting problem. with him during his tour as Deputy Director of PSAC had left him witha good appreciation of our problem there. Apparently our discussions Division of Biology and Medicine Introduction by Bruner List of Members of Panel