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Biology and Medicine Information continues to be accumulated on the worldwide fallout of radioactive StronUUm, its accumulation in the soil, its incorpration,into the fobd chain, and its deposition into the human body, principally in the skeleton. Representatives of the United States, United p(ingdQm, qnd Canada, meeting informally on October 18 and 19, found them-selves in substantial agreement on methods of measurement and, in those cases where observations are comparable, on As the broader outlines of the fallout problem become beker defined,’%anincreasing proportion of the total research effort is required for r+ucing @e degree of uncertaintg; W h i c h still remains in present knowledge of the distribution of fallout and the physical and chemical . behavior of strontium. Some of the uncertainties arise from physical and geographical factors . such as the vastness of the earth, the relative inaccessibility of both the stratosphere and w y - technical diMculties in obtaining and measuring samples. Other uncertainties are the result Of lack of information on many details of nature upon which the questions involved in SUNSHINE ’ serve to focus attention, perhaps for the first time. . Estimates bf the results of detonations of nuclear weapons to date, in terms.of bath the present and future distribution of strontium 90 in qature and in man, must be considered as ’ tentative and to require additional measurements. In the oplnion of Commissioner Libby and the staff, estimates made by persons actively engaged in the SUNSHINE program are believed to be In a recent address before the American Association for,the Advancement of Science, Washington, D. C., October 12, Commissioner Willard F. Libby has estimated that “a total Of western United States,” and that the concentration is about three, quarters.of this value similar latitudes in the rest of the world. “The stratospheric deposition would be expected to continue at the expected rate which at the present is about 1.2 millicuries per year, so that some 15 years from now : . .a maximum additional tdal stratospheric fallout of about 6 mil& curies per square mile will have occurred. In fhe meantime, the present 22 millicuries per square mile would have been reduced to 15 by radioactive decay, just about compensating for the stratospheric deposition.?’ From available data relating human uptake to cohtent of the SOU, he estimates that “at the moment we would expect that the .body burden for’children born now in geographical areas, and difficulties of estimating fallout into the pcean. Some depend upon the - - about 22 millicuries per square mile of strontium 90 is to be found in the soils of the mid- - . .
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BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE In an address before the Washington Academy of Sciences, Washington, D. C., November 15, Merril Eisenbud, Director of the Atomic Energy Commission Health and Safety Laboratory, New York, stated that his estimates of the deposition of Strontium 90 in Soils are in good agreement with those of Commissioner Libby. On the basis of current concentrations of strontium go in milk in the New York area, Eisenbud estimated that 8 micromicrocuries of strontium 90 per gram of calcium becomes the upper limit of the foreseeable strontium burden the skelebm of the population of that area, and that 25 micromicrocuries of strontium 90 per gram of . calcium is the highest foreseeable skeletal burden anywhere in the United States from weapdn tests already conducted. Eisenbud qualified the estimate with the statement, "This estimate is . likely to be reduced as new information about the uptake of strontium 90 eliminates some of the Radiological Marine Biology Surv-ey uncertainties which have prompted the use'of highly conservative assumptions." (End of w the restricted zone established for Operation REDWING. .. ' planldxn counts, 1,100,000 disintegrations per minute per gram (d/m/g) wet value for surface water. Water samples were collected at the surface and at deptly of 25, 50, 75, and-100 meters. The average raioactivity of water was 10,000 disintegrations per minute per liter-(d/m/l) at the surface and 3,900 d/m/l at 100 meters. A scintLllation probe was used to record continuously the radioactivity of the surface water. This method has interesting possibilities if ' 4 problems of contamination, vibration, and static electricity can be overcome. The survey. . successfully demonstrated the usefulness of the various methods in evaluating the amount Radioactive materials were found in the p ~ o hsamples from every /stat and distribution of radioactivity in the sea. , . The above values for plankton and water a r e of the same order of magnitude as similar samples.from Rongelap lagoon during Operation CASTLE. The only fish collected on this survey were three flying fish in which the radioactivity of the liver sample was about 0.1 that of* the plankton, and the muscle 0.05 that of the liver. - Kwajalein, Eniwetok, and Guam. The 4,000-mile cruise w!as expected to be completed about The second and final open survey operated'frbm on board the USS Marsh @E 699) betweep The'use of fast moying aircraft to delineate fall6ut patterns was successfully accomplished during Operation REDWING in support. of Task Force fallout studies. P-2V aircraft equipped ' with the aerial monitoring equipment'designed by the Health and Safety gboratory of.the New York Operations Office mapped tens of thousands of square miles of open ocean after each of the large detonations. Equipment employed dtking REDWING is presently being considerled by I the Federal Civil Defense Administration to meet state requests that aerial radiation detection instruments be supplied on a matching fuhd basis as eart of the national civil defense program.
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Publication of "Medical Effects of the Atomic Bomb in Japan" "Medical Effects of the Atomic Bomb in Japan," edited by Dr. Ashley W. Oughterson and Dr. Shields Warren, has been published in the National Nuclear Energy Series, Manhattan Project Technical Section, Division WI, Volume 8. This publication, based on the inveGigations. of the Joint Committee for the Investigation of the Effects of the Atomic Bomb in Japan, which was sent to Japan in 1945 iminediately following the Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombings, is the authoritative treatise on the subject. About 90 scientists from approximately 50 educational institutions worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory this summer under the Commission's program for participation by Untversity faculty members k research programs at national laboratories. Foirteen scientists came from other countries. About 20 graduate students were brought to the Laboratory by these visiting scientists to work as their research assistants. The experience provided as-, sists faculty members in their presentation of scientiftc cokses, and in addition m a y lead to . initiation of university research projects directly or indirectly related to atomic energy. There have been about 45 foreign scientists from 20 nation worldng at.B r ~ k h a V e nfor * continuous periods of two months to more than a year. ' I , Summer courses for both graduate and undergraduate students were also provided at, Brookhaven. The 90 students participating were chosen from 400 applicants, of whom i 0 5 were Radiobiology Training for High School Science Teachers Summer courses in general radiobiology, emphasizing the utilization of radioisotopes, were initiated for high school teachers. The plans for this training were deve1oped.h cooperation with the National Science Foundation, which reimbursed certain expenses of, the participants. The courses were given at the University of New Mexico, Duke University, and Harvard University, and were received enthusiastically by the teachers who-participated. It is planned next year to include three additional universities, the Ukversity of California at 40s Angeles, the University of Pennsylvania, and possibly the University of Tennessee. If the success of the plan continues, courses might be offered in the following year at as many as 20 additional Participants who completed the course this summer were presented with demonstration . kits, which will be supplemented by other materials and teaching aids to be used in conjunction with their high school science courses. The universities which gave the courses will under- s.. take during the coming year to determine how effective the training has been in stimulating . , the incorporation of atomic energy subject matter in high school science courses. ' Cesium Radiation Source Michigan for use in medical therapy. It will be used by the university under a contract executed three years ago coverhg a comparative evaluation of X-ray, cobalt 60, and cesium 137 A cesium 137 radiation source of 2,045 curies was delivered recently to the University of This source is only the second cesium 137 source ever produced for medical therapy. The first is a source of about 1,500 curies in use at the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies.
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BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE At the present cost of $14 per curie for cesium 137, the newly i n s t a h 3 unit has a total cost Cesium 137 is one of the most important of the relative1yJong-lived gammakemitting ' radioisotopes,, with a half-life of approximately 35 years. In addition to its medical value, : this isotope ha&'manyapplications in industry. The demand is expec of curies, as the techniques for extracting cesium 137 from reactor wastes are improv reduced in cost. two pellets and placed in a stainless steel'container, double sealed t capsule. The source measures 3.2 centimeters in diameter and 3.56 c and its spec tivity is 24 curies per gram of cesium 137. X ray and with a 1,903-curie cobalt source, the largest highthis country.' Acquisition of the cesium source completes the ces fo? use in radiation therapy at this p The Michigan w&ce consists of powder pres&& at 20, year tie ~ i c & group has been treating