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Research Projscts Approved During July 1949 . Presbyterian Hospital o f the City of Chicago - Dr. B. " Intracellular Changes i n Trauma, Depletion and Repair; Biochemical Studies'in the Runan Being w i t h the Aid of Research Projects Extended During July 1943 Labelled Acetic Acid and Ethanol' ir; Relation t o Fat ,
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Los Alaos Hospital A t the instance of t h e Division of Biology mid Xedicine, e sun ey of the Los Alamos Eospital with a view t o recornending polLcies a d procedures to.rimprove and maintain quality of service and to reduce t h e net subsidy-now being made by the Atomic Energy Cods sion for health services a t Los Alamos. The report ik di cates that by reasonable contro1,of revenue expenses t h e annual operating.deficit may be reduced from $600,000 to $285,000 without reduction inthe qcantity or quality Tho Division *of Biology and Medicine as wcll as the Divisions of Production and Military Application are studT/ing t h e recommendations &d progress. is now underwey towards effecting them. lk got i at ions are progressing on Civil Defense Planning. The preliminary report of the National Security Resources Board cover bg assignments within the Federal Government' for Civil. Defense Planning is being studied by the Division of Bio lou m4. This report proposed that the Federal Works &en67 w i l l have the primary responsibility for 'the development of plans for war the civil disaster relief with the Atomic Faergy Commission designated as one of the participating agencies t o assist Federal \';or& Agency b- t h e development of these plana. Ose of the first and most obvious responsibilities in a planning program'w3.11 be a further determination of the s cop of the planning activities. Tec!d.cal in form tion on b%ich planning . for disaster relief against radiological warfare, together with a detailed study which i s now i n precess of pre seat AXC activities betwing on civil defense planning, will be made available t o the F U by the Dir.ector of the DiPision of Biology a i d Xedicine. A t ' the California Institute of Technology investigations shown that mino acids are taken up most rapidly b,y bpne marr acids with different tiS€iUeS, at t h e rate of about one per cant per .four hours as compared t o 0.5 per cent for liver. The uptake of &no acids i s much'faster . " i n embryonic and malignant tissue than i n normal ad:ult tissues. ,' Apparently all tissues can take up all labnled amino
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The Chief of t h e Biophysics Branch participated in several conferences with health physicists a t Woods Hole durlng Jgy. These discussions led to amer basis for permissible radiation levels t o be received under emergency conditions.and.to limited portions ofthe body. While final agreemat has not been reached, it i s believed that substantially higher emergency dosages than those previously announced may be allowed; Several conferences with representatives of Columbia University led to a better &derstanding of the requirements of biophysics training a t post graduate levels, Columbia University is now offering greatly. extended training of this sort and s5ould provide a ' very use m training ground for AEC technica3, fellowship tralningc in - . L. Po bsarinelli; which .will meet the early part of Septeniber t o consider a research program on the effects of acute and chronic A meeting.of principal investigators t o discuss their mrk. on research projects in the fields of radiation biochemistry, particularly thosb phases dealing with nuclei, nuclei acids and nucleoproteins w i l l be held at the AEC on September 12, 1949. Plans a r e being formulated for an ad hoc panel consisting of A conference with leaders from the four A.EC Regional Fellmrship Training Centers will be held i n Washi,llgtori.on September 16to discuss fu ke training plans, curricula and related The Deputy Director of the Division is now i n Japan mRf;ig a ' survey of the At&&c Bomb Casualty Commission' activities 31. .Nagasaki, HLroshlma and Kure. All phases of the program will be Division of.' Biology and Medicine upon his return around'Septeniber 1t A. Hardie, of Johns Hopidns Hospital and D r . Walter B. Claus, of Pabst Research Laboratories, have joined the staff of the'Diviaion of Biology and Xedicine.
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Testing. Reactor i s .co&inuing under the direction ,of the. Steering'Comnittee. In divi dud engineering tests on the., the O& Pidge Hational Laboratory i s being equi?ped kith test instruments for studying velocity and Tressure patterns in for anal j zing conirol rod perfomailce. - It i s expected thzt the testing will be stafted early MA up st....e. . 8" diameter beryllium billets were ed rude d into large squares. that, if sound billets are available, .consistently acceptable 12iterials Testing Reactor. Due to internal cracks i n most 'of LC*' le&t.hs of extruded metal were'obtzined. It i s believed, extruded sections .can be produced. Gark I :\iae Rezctor. ,i'he. . first phase of the progrm of the Keetings have been held between representatives of the
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lYestinShouse Electric Corporation. Eids on t h e construction of t h e new kdrni?istrs.tion and Laboratory Euilding at the Bet,* S i t e have been received fram -eleven generzl'contractors and a selection has been nade.,.The contract, with t h e approval of the Atomic Znergy Commission on July 22nd, was aw&ded t o 2agnar Benson, Inc. It is expected that.the roof and outside shell of the building will be completed before winter and,that the entire structure will be finished by June 1, 1950. Pending completion of t h e new building, the Atonic Pmer Ijivision is in particular pursuing vigorously assignments made by the Argonne lJational Laboratory on metallurgiczl studies and the construction of a mercury control rod mock-up. York cn the construction of wzter and gas pumps continues i n - the Resea-ch Laboratory i n East Pittsburgh and at the Bettis Site. Knolls r,tomic Power .Laboratory Reactor fi oj ect s I rel imh ary Pile 'hssenbly. The most recent measurements of . . blanket of SAX, V has bee9 .increased by a factor of seven merely . by surrounditiz the uranium urith. an outer layer of beryllium. This may be quite an inpbrtant effect ic maintaining a reasonable plutonium .yield thrcuehout the entire blanket of a power-breeuer . It no" appears that with 2 proper blanket des ipa breeding. ratio as high as 1.6 may be obtained with afast piutonium Internediate Reactor. The determination of amdum fuel rod length of 70" has now made it possible t o limit the mvd mum outline dinensions f o r associated equipment .. These studies, t? gether with current design studies of heat exchanger arid steam generator equipment that nave narrowed dawn t o two types,-will make possible a determination of major space requirements inthe reactor buildhne and t h e storage tunnel. .Layouts of equipment i n the heat exchaqger pitar d stem generatoy cell are being made A sub-comrpittee t o the Ad Hoc Committee for Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion met a t Cak ltidqe k c ; m July 18th tothe 22nd t o prepare. * recommendattons for the air-.frame and povier-plant phases of the
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!Yestinghouse Electric Corporation. Eids on the construction of t h e new Administration and Laboratory Euilding a t the Bet& S i t e have been received from eleven general'contractors and a selection has been made., The contract, with t h e approval of the Atomic & erg Commission on July 22nd, was awarded t o Ragnar Benson, Inc. s h e l l of. the building will be completed before winter and ,that the entire structure will be finished by June 1, 1950. It is expected that.the roof agd outside . Pending completion of the new building, the Atonic Pmer Ijivision is in pq ti cula r pursuinl; vigorously assignments made by t h e Argonne National Laboratory on metallurgiczl studies and the construction of a mercury control rod mock-up. cn the construction of wzter and gas pumps continues i n - the Research Laboratoryin Zast Pittsburgh and a t the Bettis Site. rinolls rxtomic Power Laboratory Reactor Projects h.elini3ary -Pile Assembly. The most recent measurements of alpha, the ratio of the ? rob abilities 'of neutron' capture to. fission, atthe center of the preliminwy Tile assembly SAPL V' yield a value between 0.15 and 0.25 f o r U-235 and between 0.25 and 0.35 for. plutonium. The Dlutonium yield in the outer portions of the bree aR ' . t blanket of SA?L V has been-increased by a factor of seven merely by surrounding the cranium with an outer layer of beryllium. This may be quite an important effect ir. maintaining a reasonable plutonium ,yield thrcughout the entire blanket of a power-breeder. It now a?pears that with2 proper blanket design a breeding ratio as high as 1.6 may be obtained witha fast $lutonium Internediate Reactor. The determination of a m&um fuel ,' rod length of 70" has n m made it possible to limit the maximum outline dimensions for associated equipment. gether with current design studies of heat exchanger and steam generator equipment that have narrowed down totwo types,-wiU. make possible a determination of major space requirements inthe reactor building and t h e storage tunnel. Layouts of equipment inthe heat exchanger pitmd stem generato? cell are being made A sub-coryittee t o the Ad Hoc Committee for Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion met at Cak llidze i'rcm July 1 8 t h t o the 22nd t o prepare '
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ci' the meeting was t o discuss wsys and nsans of curtailing cos%S Lri the zirconium program by concentration of exTort on t h e mos% cut t h e next few morkhs on zhe accon$ishment of this. objective. a ., Studies on the separation of h afn iw - a d zirconiirm by . diethyl ether ammonium th ioc pr late extraction atthe Y-12 Laboratory ir. Cak Ridge show hieh promise. These stlldies will continue on 2labor a to q ' scale for the next few months before a decision is . . office and the Viashington Div k ions Qf Iiezctor Eevelopment, Pro- &Kction, and Research, t o discuss the 5Ldget.for and the proci-renent of reactor materials. Shielding. An informal neeting was held atthe Brookhaven "3a;ional Laboratory on July 29& 50 discuss the future Erookhaven chle1di.n-g' program. Representatives dthe Brookhaven National t4'ashingLon Reactor Development DivLslon, x d NEPA were present te assist Srookhaven i n the &hoice:,Df %he large scale testing facility to be operated there. 3swas zgreed thata lllid" typ.e of facility, such as that recentay put into operaticn at..the Oak :idee dad on al Laboratory and as differ m tia ted from a ttplugt2type, s!.ould be csed a t Brookhaven. De tdl d design work on this genera + of facility vu ill be purscred. Lembers of the Summer Shielciinz York Group of the Oak Ridge 3-215 14th t o obtain data on shielding experiments made at that
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property will be effec-l;ed shortly after the passage of the 1950 It i s ex?ected that z c tu al transfer of.the Preliminary surveys of the site by the Corps of agin e era, Conservation Corps, Tieather Weau, and Geological Sumey have begun i n order t o ' facilitate overall site planning and'the choiae of locations for the ETR and the CP-4. A proposed location forI the CP-4 has been core drilled. , During t h e month contract negotiations were begun' between the Idaho Gperations Office and Blaw-Knox for the design of the NTR. Atthe end of the month the personnel strength at Idaho was 36. Organization of the office is proceeding satisfactorily. - Hanford. The design, fabrication, 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; has been shipped t o Oak Hidge for werimentation in the pilot.. The fuii-scale evaporator continues $0 operate satisfactorily to substantially reduce stored wastes. run was made with the one-slug fluorination unit which i s built to isolate uranium, plutonium, and fission pro duds for waste disposal. K-25 i s continuing its-work on electrolytic precipitation , of radioactive wastes on a laboratory scale. The uranium 235 pilot plant i s being prepared (it has been used for Redox) t o develop the fuel recovery procedure for the Katerials Testing Reactor. Enriched slugs, irradiated at Hanford . and having an activity from 4s curies/slug $0 525 curies p, will permit agama decontamination of 3 x l& to3x 10 .investigation should be finished late 'in 19L9. .The pilot plant using solvent extractions f o r uranium 233 recovery is now being Argonne. A choice of pilot plant evaporation equipment has been made, ' mhe selection of the Struthers4Yells 1 proposal cost hg t o provide experimental investigation on all tyFes of radioactive It will have a capacity of 50-75; gds/hr, is de$-@& - New .York. Preliminary negotiations are under way with the P her Yeld -Company for development of a procedure for coating surfaces with an impermeable material. T h i s coating should be useful . , @-
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i n prever-ting permanent contamination of. porous surf aces. studied by Mound has been determined t o contain 84$-ruthenium esch age experiments t o immobilize cesium have not been. fruit&l. KAPL.- The, buiiaing .for processing wastes from t h e laboratory should be comple*ed by the end of September with possible. oper9000 gallons daily of industrial radioactive waste' from. . SPRU, Idaho S i t e Development. The study of chemical processing operztisns .required at the site 2s continuing. of these developments at Oak Ridge, Argonne, and Knolls i s under . . the laundry, and laboratory. ' . t Oak Ridqe; Following a conference at Uak iiidge iyith represent at ives of OEUJL, the Austin Co., and tile Oak Kidge Gperations, a review was made and transmitted t o Oak Sdge of the proposed sewage treatment plant for - the X-10 area. points noted was t_bexcess of infiltration,ad clear process water en twins the sanitary sewer system. Cbe ofthe important Brookhaven. A meeting was held with repre'sentatives of t h e c a l r'eSearch program which it is'proposed t o carry out at Brookhaven. In this program the geologic resea-ch related t o problems o f - dis - posal 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 work done f o r BNL would be atilized in this research. Geological Survey and EHL t o discuss a cooperative geologi- '. Cooperative Water Sunply Gecontamination iiesearch Progrun. 4 I'Znutes of .the meeting held on June 30 Piith.representatives of t h e Navy, Corps of Engineers, Chezical Corpsj Armed Forces Special . . ','.'eapor.s Project, WiL, and Civision of Biolozy i n Deccxtamination …
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