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Governor Millard Ca;ldwell, Administrator of Federal C i y i l Defense ' Administration, and several members of his staff met with the Committee t o discuss civil defense problems. The problems emanating from the work of the A t o m i c BOT& Casudty continued appraisal of the situation" mdb"in l i g h t of the willingness of the national Academy of Sciences and the expressed interest and cooperation of the Department of State, voted t o continue operation of the AI3cC work i n Japan, and recommends t o the Commission that the contract with the Academy be renewed and t h a t the general scope of the workj-tso far as conditions permitrbe continued as currently defined, namely: general medical survey, leukemia survey, cataract studies, genetic studies. These may be modified from time t o time by joint consultation by representatives of the AM: and IUS. that the work must be carried out to its logical conclusion and mu8.i; necessarily be pursued over a cons€derable period of time. nized that short-time operation would be wasteful sci entf fic dll y and financially and that the study must be continued fora period OF years. In formulating this the Committee believes . Representatives of the Division are aiding D r . Graves and his # staff with the biomedical test program. Genetic Considerations in Building Design ' Recent studies i n the genetic effects of radiation have indicated the need for extreme caution i n considering anything less than full protection against radioactive hazards i n designing future plants and laborat o r i e s . While the results of genetic studies with mice cannot be extrapo-' lated t o man with absolute assurance at this time, nevertheless, reasonable correlation is possible. Laboratory would suggest that the sounder policy is t o plan for full - Recent data coming from Oak Ridge National Chalk River Explosion Four general lessons can be learned from the Chalk'River explosion on December 13, 1950, which may have application t o our civil hefense and disaster planning: whefi a hospital i s admitting contaminated patients i n order t o avoid (1) A l l entrances but one should be sealed off
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in not . t o further cant can detect the presence and portions of t h e hospit wounds; and (4) a loud-speaker system from a central coritrol point is needed i n urder to ,cambat hysteria and expedite rescue o$erations. i ii Over 30 physicians applied' f o r ,the Industrfal Medicine Fellowships being offered by'the AEC f o r the, school year 1951-52. will be awarded during April, 1950The fellowship training program at Reed College, Portland, Oregon, wlill be reactivated this fall. Representatives of the Division attended the Fellowship Panels of the NRC when selection of candidates, f o r predoctoral and postdoctoral AM: fellowships were being considered. A meeting was held on March 2 at the O a k Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies t o select 40 fellows from approximately 180 applicants f o r the program of Fellowships inRadiological Physics. The administration of thfs program was undertaken by ORINS a year ago. lows go t o Rochester University and 20 go t o Vanderbilt University for three semesters of academic training, which i s then supplemented with three months of field practice a t the Brookhavenand Oak Ridge National Laboratories. The first group of trainees will finish their training shortly. It appears that jobs ' i n health physic6 will be readily available for all pf them, but some of each group w i l l ' be given a short extension of their fellowships t o enable them t o complete.work for the Under the plan, 20 felEvaluation of industrial products f o r health physics use. .Con- . sideration i s being given t o the possibility of setting up within the Oak Ridge Natibnal Laboratory a small group of health physicists with facilities for evaluating the large number and variety of industrial . products which are constantly being brought .to the attention of the Biophysics Branch. Items of t h i s nature are various fabrics and materials fQr protective clothing, soaps and detergents, decontaminating equipet,radiation shielding substances, aid wall and floor materials, many &which may have real value i n AEC operations or Civil Defense plans. k$ the present time, no satisfactory method of evaluation i s available. LJ Second symposium on radiation effects.In June, 1950, the National Ewe z r ch Council Committee on Nuclear Science, through it5 Subcommittee 011 Rpdiobiology, and with the financial assistance of AM: and ONR, sponsorcd a very successful "Symposium on the Basic Aspects of Radiation
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the excellent coopiration of 01~r1inCollege l a ~ tsummer. been appointed t o the post of E e d t h Physicist on the AEX staff of the chemistry at -due University in 1941, and has since been teaching at the University of U t a h . He is presently undergoing Intensive trrs.lning i n health physics i n several AMI laboratories, anh wLll soon undertake the duties of-coordinating health protect ian measures among the various Idaho s i t e contractors, as well as furnishing apurnber of central serv- . Protection of federa3. buildings 'and personnel. Members of the Biophysics Branch represented AB2 on a Subcamnittee of the Interdepartmenta.lCamittee on Internal Security, wbich was charged with the preparation of recommendations for the protection of federal buildings asd biological and radiological agents), The studies of this Sub cdt tee have resulted i n the presentation during March of its ?iecommendations" t o the parent Interdepartmental Committee. (End of DmCLASSIFIED section. Health hazards i n submarine reactors. ' Menhers of the Biophy'sics Branch participated i n conferences with the Reactor Development Division and its contractors relative to health hazards, shielding, and imtru- . mentation problems i n the construction of submarine reactorsd&--wm-tn. 1 .Future weapon tests. Cooperative studies were undertaken with AFSWP concerning the feasibility of' underground tests which have been proposed for the continental United States. with considerable attention also t o the Civil Defense training aspects These studies are contiming, Lozn of radiation instruments and radioisotopes. During the month, loans for citril defense training purposes under the joint AM:-FCDA program were nade as follows:
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staff member t o work closely with FCDA i n the discharge O f muIxmJ. statut o r y responszbilities under the Civil Defense Act of 1950, Chairman Dean on March 30 designated D r . Shields Warren, Director, Division of Biology and Medicine, to fulfill this function. Civil Defense Liaison Branch, was named as alternate. Briefing of Budget Bureau representatives. On March 21, a meeting w a s held with the AM: and FCDA budget examiners t o acquaint them with the activities of the Commission i n the field of civil defense and t o discuss interageocy relationships under the Civil Defense Act. Review of FCDA publications. A manual on decontamination was r e - viewed at the request of FCDA in the Branch and by other ' interested -- offices for technical accuracy pi or to publication. Technical- information t o FCDA. The interim report, ."A Methk and Apparatus for Reducing Radioactivity i n Contaminated Liquids," describing the prpcess recently developed by two ORNL employees w a s furnished FCDA on March 2. Copies were also provided t o the J o i n t Committee on Atomic Energy and, upon request,. t o the Canadian Joint Staff and a number of private industrial firms . Shelter program. Designs for both underground and above-ground personnel shel-ters f o r AM: institutions are being developed by du Pont and the Banford Operations Off ice. Instrument appraisal program. Asa service t o AEC installations, the Radiation Instruments Branch maintains liaison with industry for the purpose, among others, of spotting promising new developments having possible use i n the AEX program. Last month U.0 radiation detection irc tr-unents, valued a t $12,970, were received. i n stock, and 144 instruments, valued a t $12,089, were shipped t o AM: areas for inspection-and pag i ed to each Operations Office t o determine possible interest in an alp& survey meter, a neut.ron dosage rate meter, and a gamma scintilla - tion survey meter. Response to the sc inti zl ation counter survey has been f;ic.arzble and response i o the other letters is expected intwo or three
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Testing and evaluation program. A proposal t o the National Bureau of Standards t o undertake a comprehensive testing and evaluation program was :submitted t o the Division of! Research f o r review and approval prior to initiating formal negotiations with the Bureau. ments have been3nade at the request of the Chief of the Biophysics Branch. t o have calibration tests run on lithium fluoride crystdlq; With the cooperation of the NBS, the Branch has investigated the feasibility of a new type of ionization chamber in the use of. which employees contact only the potenti ds on the acclerating elec!brWes. .Results t o date indicate that these chambers offer no advantage over the conventional air ionization chamber and f o r most applications would ac tudlly .be inferior. A t the request of the Branch, the NB5 has tested'and su%mitted a repart on the Survey Meter which bas been developed by the Kelley-Koett Company and is being marketed for civil defense monitoring. The instruments tested did not have the 30 percent accuracy required by the FCDA'S Research Projects Approved During March 1951 (See page 50 for the listing of research projects approved during