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Machine-read from the scan, so expect some errors. Lines that couldn’t be read are left out.
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Research Projects Approved During July 1949 (1) University of Yiisconsin Agricultwar Experiment sk tid n -- Biological Nitrogen Fixation with Isotopic Tracers" - Estimated amount $5,600; (b) "Metabolism of Organic Acids Presbyterian Hospital of the City of Chicago - Dr. R. " Intracellular Changes i n Trauma, Depletion and Repair; Biochemical Studies inthe Human Being with the Aid of of Tyrosine and Vitamin B12" - $9,900. the Precise Lccalization of Brain Tumors" - $11,880. Research Projects Extended'Duhng JULY 1943 Labelled Acetic Acid and EU&ol iz Relation to F a t
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Los Alamos Hospital A t the instance of the Division of Biology aud Uedicine, a survey of the Los Blamos Hospital mith a view t o recommending policies a d procedures t o .improve and maintain quality of service and to reduce the net subsidy ' n m being made by the Atomic Energy Comniseion for health services at: Los Alamos. The report indicates that by reasonable control of revenue and expenses the annual operating.deficit may be reduced from $600,000 t o $285,000 without reduction inthe quantity or quality The Division of Biology and 'Nedicine as vrell as t h e Divisions of Production and Military Application a r e stud-ying the recommendations &d progress i s nom underway towards effecting them. Negotiations a r e progressing on Civil Defense P1-g. The preliminary report of the Xational Security Resources Board covering assignments within the Federal Government'for Civil. Defense Planning is being studied by the Division of BioloEly and - This report proposed that the Federal Works AgenGr will have the primary responsibility for 'the development of plans for war time civil disaster relief with the Atomic Ebergy Commission designated as one of the participating agencies to assist Federal Worh Agency inthe development of these plan:;. %e of the first and most obvious resp or is ibi ~ itie si n a planning program will be a further determination of the scope of for disaster relief against radiological warfare, together with a detailed study which i s now i n prccess o f present P3C activities bearing on cigil defense planning, will be made available t o the F W by the Director of the Di-rision o f Biology arid Nedicine. A t 'the California Institute of Technologr im-estigations have shown that anino acids are t&en u p most rapidly by bQne marrow acids w i + A different tissues u Bone marrow takes us) amino acids at the rate of about one per cent per .four hours as compared to 0.5 per cent far liver. i n embryonic and malignant tis sae tham i n normal ad:ult tissues. Apparently all tissues ca take up all labaled amino The uptake of amino acids i s much faster
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The Chief of the Biophysics Branch participated in several conferences with health physicists a t Woods Hole during July. These discussions led toa fSrmer basis for permissible radiation levels to be received under emergency conditions.and.to limited it i s believed that substantially higher emergency dosages than those previously announced may be allowed; Several conferences with representatives of Colunibia University led to a better understanding of the requirements of biophysics training at post graduate levels. Columbia University i s ITOW offering greatly -- extended training of this sort and sbould provide a very usem training ground for AEC technic@ fellowship train in gc in. ,portions of the body. IYhile final agreement has not been reached, Plans are being formulated f o r an ad hoc panel consisting of consider a research prog an on the effects of acute and chronic exposure to Sqdiation. A meeting of principal investigators to discuss their mrk on research pro j eot s 'in the fields of radiation biochemistry, particularly those phases dealing with nuclei, nuclei acids and nucleoproteins will be held at the ld3C on September 12, 1949. A conference with leaders from t h e four A.EC Regional FellowsbAp Paining Centers will be held i n Washington on September 16to discuss future training plans, curricula and related survey of the Ato-dc Bomb Casualty Commission' activities in .Nagasaki, Hiroshima and Xure. studied and he will &e a nil1 report to the Director of the Division of Biology and Medicine upon his return around.September 1C The Deputy Director of the Division i s now i n Japan m akb nga All phases of the program will be Pabst Research Laboratories, have joined the staff o f the'Division of Biology and Medicine.
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IV - Reactor Development. Argonne Xational Laboratory Reactor Projects " Xaterials Testing Beactor. Design work on the Zaterizls Testing: Reactor isI continuing under the direction .of the Steering Cod tte e. Individual engineering tests on the reactor 'compments 'are es sent idly complete. The mock-up a t the 0z.k PLdge National Lzboratory is being equi?ped with test instruments for studying velocity and pressure patterns in for anal%zing control rod poyrfomance. X t is expected thzt the testing Ni-ll be started early i n August. 1 at .Adri ab, Eichigan, i n connection with the program of the 1ASterial.s Testing iieactor. Due to internal cracks i n most of the billets and im?roper extruding practices, only tm*o-s-mnd hb* lengths of extruded metal were obtzined. It i s believed, however, that sufficient qe rien ce has' thcs far been a cqd red SO that,if sound billets are available, consistently acceptable extruded sections can be produced.
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!"restinghouse Electric Corporation. Bids on t h e construction of t h e new Administration and Laboratory Euilding at the BetS i t e have been received from eleven general'contractors and of the Atomic lhergy Commission on July 22nd, was awd ed to ilagnar Benson, Inc. she31 of the building w i l l be completed before winter and ,that the entire structure will be finished by June 1, 1950. It i s expected that .the roof and outside , Pending completion of the new building, the Atomic Pmer Ijivision is in pq ti cula r pursuing vigorously assignments made by t h e Argonne !Jational Laboratory' on metallurgiczl studies and the construction of a mercury control rod mock-up. c;n the construction of water and gas pumps continues i n - the Research Laborztory in East Pittsburgh and at the Bettis Site. Lnolls Atomic Power Laboratory Reactor fi oj ect s fission, at the center of the pre lin in z ry pile assembly SAPL. V *yield a value between 0.15 and 0.25 f o r U-23s and between 0.25 . . The Dlutonium yield in the outer portions of the breeding . 4 blanket of SAF'L V has been increased by a factor of seven merely by surrounding the uranium with an outer layer of beryllium. This may be quite an in port at effect ir, maintainin3 a reasonable plutonium yield thrcughout the entire blanket of a power-breeder. It noK appears that with z proper blanket desizn a breeding r a t i o as high as 1.6 may be obtained with a fast blutonium Internediate Reactor. The determination of a maximum fuel rod length of 70" has n m made it possible to limit the mahum outline dimensions for associated equipment. gether with current design studies of heat exchanger and steam generator equi.pmeqt that nave narrowed down t o two types,-will make possible a determination of major space requirements inthe reactor buildinz and t h e storage tunnel. Layouts of equipment i n the heat exchaqger pitar d stem generatoy cell are being made A sub-committee t o the kid Hoc Committee for Aircraft l!uclear Propulsion met a t Cak Itidye rrGm July 18th tothe 22nd t o prepare recommendattons f o r the air-frame and power-plant Fhases of the
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with representatives of the1Jd York aeration s Office, %he C& Ridge Operations Office, the Y-12 laboratory, and the Vashingtoa A.32, metin New York on July 28th. cf the meeting wasto discuss ways and means of curtailing Cos3S ir? t h e zirconium program by concentration of ez'ort on the mos5 out the next few months on she acconpXshment of this objective. Zirconibm. The Zircon&n Advisory Committee, together The main objective Studies on t h e separation of hafnium zirconiiun by ir- Oak Ridge show hizh promise. These stcdies will continue on a laboratory scale for the next few months before a decision i s rendered as to production on a large scale. . Operations Cffice on July l9th, invcilvirg representatives of - that oii'fice and t h e Viashington Divisions of iiezctor Development, boduction, and Research, t o discuss the k d get.for and the procrrement of reactor materials. Xaterials Procurement. A nieeting YiaS held in t h e X;ew York Shielding. A n informal neeting was held at the Brookhaven %a:ional Laboratory on July 293k 50 discuss the future Eirookhaven Laboratory, the Cjak Ridge Asxionc LaSoratory, the Knolls Atonic Fewer Laboratory, the 12assachuse;;s In st it ix e of Technology, %he Xashington Reactor Development Did sl on,ad NGPA were present t c assist Brookhaven i n the &oice"f the large scale testing facility to be operated there. YLSwas zgreed thata Itlid" type of facility, such as that recently put into opera tim at.the Oak %d ged a don al Laboratory and as different ic ted from a ltplugl7 type, should be csed at Brookhaven. Detailed design work on this general of facility v rill be pursued. Eembers of the Summer Shielciifiz IVork Group of the Oak Ridge K&ional Laboratory visited the Chalk -Ziver Laboratory on July 13th a?d.l4th t o obtain data on shielding experiments made at that kco, Idaho t o the A3C
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'property will be effecked shortly after .the passage of the 1950 -Preliminary surveys of the site by the Corps of Eh&eers, It i s exyected that actual transfer of.the Conservation Corps, Keather Nreau, and Geological Survey have begun i n order t o ' facilitate overall site planning and'the choiae t h e CP-4 has been core drilled. A proposed location for During the month contract negotiations were begun' between the Idaho Gperations Office and Blaw-box for the design of the WR. Atthe end of the month the personnel strength a t Idaho,was 36. Organization of the office is proceeding satisfactorily. - Liquid Waste Processing Iianford. The design, fakrication, and installation of a waste evaporator for the 241-T tank farm has been initiated. The evapo-- rat or is intended for processing first-cycle supernatant solution; a - tentative flow-sheet has been prepared and then ece ssw equipment is being assembled. has been s'hipped. t o Oak Hidge for ewerimentation in the pilot Fifty gallons of Hanford first-cycle supernatant C a k Ridge. The fuii-scale evaporator continues $0 operate satisfactorily to substantial y reduce stored wastes. run was made with the one-slug fluorination unit which is built to isolate uranium, plutonium, and fission products for waste disof radioactive wastes on a laboratory scale. K-25 is continuing its work on electrolytic precipitation The uranium 235 pilot plant is being prepared (it has been used for Redox) t o develop the fuel recovery procedure for the Katerials Testing Reactor. and having an activity from 45 curies/slug t o 525 curies slug, investigation should be finished late 'in 1949. The pilot plant using solvent extractions f o r uranium 233 recovery i s now being Enriched slugs, irradiated at Hanford will pennit a garrum decontamination of 3 x l& to3x 10$. This Argonne. A choice of pilot plant evaporation equipment has been made,vr it h he selection of the Struthers-\Veils' proposal costing t o provide experimental investigation on all tspes of radioactive It will have a capacity of 50-75 gals/hr, i s designed - New York. Preliminary negotiations a r e under way with the Power leld 'YrocessCompany for development of a procedure for coating surfaces w i t h an impermeable material. This coating should be useful &-
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studied by Mound has been determined to contain 84% ruthenium and 14%-cesium. C.ar rie r precipitation techniques sfo r fission with ruthenium co-precipitation have been encouraging. exchange experiments t o immobilize cesium have not been fruibf&. W L .- The building for processing wastes from the laboratory should 4e completed by the end of September with possible operation in about three months. 9000 gallons daily.of industrial radioactive waste from SPRU, Idaho S i t e Development. The study of chemical processing This 3lant i s designed t o handle operztions required at the site is continuing. of these developments at Oak Ridge, Argonne, and Knolls is under avir onmen tal Sanitation O a k Ridqe; Follarrsing a conference at Uak didge 75th represent at ives of ORIJL, the Austin Co., and tile Gak Edge Gperations, a review was made and transmitted t o Oak ,%dge of the proposed water entering the sanitary sewer system. One ofthe important Brookhaven. B meeting was held with repre'sentatives of t h e cal research program w@ch it i s proposed to carry out at Brookhaven. In this program the geologic resesrch related to problems of disposal of wastes tothe ground which the Geological Survey has been working on at various AEC areas would be centered a t ENL. system of ground water wells and Nork done f o r BNL would be atili zed in this research. Geological Survey and ENL t o discuss a cooperative geologikinutes o f - the meeting heid on June 30 with rGresentatives of the Navy, Corps of Eno e ers, Chemical Corps; Armed Forces Special . Yeapons Project, CXqL, and Civision of Biology P: Kedicine have been prepared. A draft of a paper entitled IlA program for Rfsearch i n Deca: tamination of Rsdioactive ?fatar Su7plie s for Civilian and Lilitarg Uses" has been p-epared and circulated t o t h e zbove agencies adthe Divisions of AEC for comment and cipprotral. . . National Research-€ouncil* As a result of conferences with representatives of the Sanitzry Engineering Committee of thelk + cal Division of the National Resea-ch Council ad the adm iq strat ive IL 1 DOE ARCHIWES
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staff of NRC, the basis was established fora proposed contract with NRC t o obtzin assistance and advice on the disposal of wastes and the organization of S a it aq f 3ngineerirrg and%n+ronmental Sanitation inthe atomic energy industry. . A. D. Little, Inc. A test chamber has been built for use with the cascade impactor t o measure particle penetration through various filter media. . An unsuccessful machine run was made i n & attempt t o coat filter paper with cellulose acetate. improves t h e strength and resistance-to-scuff characteristics out d fec ting performance. Another run will be made. Discussions were held with reyresentatives of Schenectady Operations and A. D. Little, Inc. relative to the extension of the tat or for - gas decontamination inthe chemical ?rocessins i n the X-10 area. R Viestern Precipitation unit was Durchased. . Discussions ' Piere held on this suSject with representatives of the Koppers Co. Through t h e Division ol Fifiance requirements the present fiscal year have been ascertatned. Secause of increased filter life, …