Program Status Report to the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, Part VI, Biology and Medicine, December 31, 1958 (Partial)

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Biology and Medicine BROOKHAVEN MEDICAL RESEARCH CENTER (UNCLASSIFIED) The Brookhaven Medical Research Center was dedicated on December 16. Dr. Shields Warren, who was the first Director of the AEC's Division of Biology and Medicine and is presently Pathologist at New England Deaconess Hospital and Professor of Pathology at Harvard University, delivered the dedicatory address. Commissioners John F. Floberg and Willard F. Libby, representing the AEC, both gave brief talks. The $6,500,000 center h a s been under construction for 2 years. Included in'the center are a tank-type reactor, which will be used for research on neutron capture therapy and other medical research, a 48-bed hospital, and laboratories for studies in biochemistry, medical physics, microbiology, pathology, and physiology. Startup of the reactor is planned for early 1959, with patient treatment to begin later in the year. MEDICAL REEXAMINATION O F THE RONGELAP PEOPLE The people of Rongelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands have received periodic medical examinations* since their accidental exposure to radioactive fallout in March 1954. The latest survey, conducted in February and March 1958, found them generally in good health. Except for resihual changes in skin from beta burns, manifested by mild atrophy, some scarring, and pigment aberrations, there has been no outward evidence of radiation effects. No symptoms or diseases have occurred which are related to radiation effects. Disease incidence among the irradiated people is about the same as in the unirradiated population used as a control. The death rate appears to be about the same for both groups. The three deaths that occurred in the irradiated group were not associated with radiation effects. Although blood studies continued to show a slight lag in the recovery of the lymphocytes to normal levels, there was no indication Of ill effects attributable to this condition. Long-term effects are being watched for carefully, but none have been seen. No malignancies, leukemias, increase in degenerative diseases, premature aging, lifeshortening, radiation-induced cataracts, or genetic effects have been noted. * Earlier examinations were made 6 months, 1year, 2 years, and 3 years after the elrposure, &d the reports have been published.

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BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE Data obtained through the use of the whole body counter transported to the Atoll indicate that body burdens of certain radioisotopes are higher than normal, but well below accepted In the followup study scheduled for February 1959, a whole body counter will be used again to determine if any additional internal contamination resulted from the HARDTACK series of RONGELAP ECOLOGICAL STUDIES Reconnaissance surveys of Rongelap, Eniwetok, and Kabelle Islands were made during September a s part of the first phase of the long-term ecological study of Rongelap Atoll described in the April-June 1958 Quarterly Progress Report. Detailed examination of soil profiles was followed by systematic collection of soil samples, together with samples of birds, rats, fish, corals, plankton, and.some invertebrates. Food s a m d e s were also collected in order to monitor radioisotopes ingested by the natives and to provide information required f o r food chain studies. TWO surveys a r e to be conducted during 1959 as part of this long-term study. AERIAL RADIATION SURVEYS During the year, U. S. Geological Survey teams made aerial surveys of several major AEC installations and a number of reactor locations to obtain information on'radiation levels. The first survey, completed in June, was of the area around the AEC's Savannah River plant a t Atken, South Carolina. Surveys were also made of the Nevada Test Site; the Brookhaven National Laboratory; the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley and Livermore, California; and the areas around Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Schenectady, New York; Groton, Connecticut; and Windsor, Connecticut. fects of radiation on the environment and be helpful in appraising changes in environmental levels of radiation resulting from atomic energy activities or radiation accidents. Plans were made and schedules set up for continuing the surveys at a number of other installations and proposed reactor sites. Data obtained from these flights should lead to better understanding of the long-term efWHOLE BODY COUNTERS Whole body counters, developed in AEC installations for experimental purposes, hold promise of becoming valuable adjuncts in dealing with people accidentally exposed to neutron irradiation, or who have inhaled or ingested dangerous radioisotopes. Most major AEC installations either have or a r e planning to have whole body counters for operational or experimental These counters primarily measure gamma-emitting radioisotopes, but will also pick up secondary X rays caused by beta emitters, I n an incident involving inhalation or ingestion of unknown amounts of dangerous radioisotopes, effective medical treatment may depend on a n accurate estimate of the amobnt of radioactivity and kind of radioisotope retained i n the lung, skeleton, or other critical organ.

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BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE Excretion tests currently in use a r e not very precise and to be useful must be carried out repeatedly; in some instances the time required to perform the tests may exceed the period during which decontamination procedures should be undertaken. received by the men involved in the criticality incident in the Y-12plant at Oak Ridge.* Results obtained suggest that the whole body counter under certain conditions may well prove useful in estimating dosage. Where there is contamination of body surfaces, however, the counters will give high readings and the true dosage cannot be obtained until sometime later when the body surfaces have been thoroughly decontaminated. A whole body counter was recently used in an attempt to estimate dosage of radiation A broad program in basic and applied genetics continues to be a major segment of the AEC’s research activity in the life sciences. The mutation-inducing property of ionizing radiation makes genetics a requisite a r e a for intense study; the ultimate hope is the critical assessment of the long-term hazards of nuclear radiation t o man’s genetic potential. were made during the year in studies involving the survey of the offspring of marriages between related individuals (first cousins) and the calculation of the normal load of detrimental genes in man. Study of a group of such marriages in the Chicago area indicates that about four detrimental genes a r e carried on the average. A preliminary report on cousin marriages Fn Japan also indicates that an increased probability of early death coincides with this mild form of inbreeding. More detailed investigations of the Japanese are to be continued jointly with the Japanese under the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, and a new contract was signed for a study by a genetics group at the University of Pavia in Italy of the effects of consanguinity in that country. The latter study will also include a direct attempt to measure the mutation rate of several common blood antigen genes. Efforts to study radiation-induced genetic damage in man must take advantage of any available opportunities. Alteration of the sex ratio (ratio of the numbers of males and females bob) is one accessible measure. An analysis of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki data indicates a real possibility that detectable sex-linked lethals were induced and that the rate of mutation per roentgen in man is probably similar to the mutation rate found in experimental determinations i n mice. Study of a small group of offspring of American women receiving ovarian radiation exposure for therapeutic purposes also suggests that sex-linked lethal gene mutation is a significant hazard in man. Direct studies of human populations a r e always difficult, but several noteworthy advances The most significant recent finding in the field of experimental genetics is an optimistic one. Data on mice strongly suggest that, per roentgen absorbed, protracted o r low intensity exposure is only one-third to one-fourth as effective in inducing mutation as acute or bursttype exposure. This is contradictory to dl past experience, which was based almost entirely *“Accidental Radiation Excursion at Y-12 Plant, June 16, 1958iYyY-1234. Copies have been furnished to the Joint Committee.

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BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE on nonmammalian organisms. Present interpretation is that the protracted exposure does not cause serious damage to the normal metabolic activities of the germinal tissue and that consequently some forms of mutational damage are repaired, or washed out. This assumes, of course, that the mutational event is not an immediate all-or-none affair but can involve a series of changes. . Evidence of a time delay in the formation of a mutation has been found within the past year in basic genetic studies on micro-organisms and plants. Some repair can occur in the presence of active protein metabolism. This information may support the findings in mice, noted above. Although it is still too early to make refined judgments, it now seems credible to assume that the mutational process may not be the absolute and inalterable event previously considered. However, there is no evidence, direct or inferred, that complete recovery can occur; the new evidence suggests only that the probability of damage is not uniform under all conditions of In an effort to extend knowledge of mammalian genetics, a long-term study on swine has been instituted i t Iowa State College. Swine are well-known with regard to such quantitative traits a s growth, early viability, and productivity, and this background of knowledge is to be applied to the problem of radiation-induced genetic variability.! The progeny of irradiated boars a r e to be studied through the greater part of their lifetimes in order t o evaluate the effect of genetic damage that can alter the more subtle traits of a population. It will be several years before preliminary data can be analyzed. Beneficial Uses of Radiation in Genetics goal here is to select from the radiation-induced genetic changes those variants that have potential agronomic value because of increased yield, modified maturation time, or altered disease resistance. Studies undertaken 10 years ago culminated recently in the release by the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station of a strain of peanuts resistant to disease and possessing other characteristics which make them superior to other commercial strains. This new variety, the f i r s t of its kind to be released in the United States, resulted from subjecting peanuts to a radiation dose of 18,500 roentgens, studying the resultant 11,000 mutations over a 10-year period, and selecting from among these the superior mutant. A small program of crop improvement by radiation has been active for some years. The Evidence is beginning to accumulate that fast neutrons a r e significantly more hazardous when the exposure is a t a lower rate protracted over the lifetime than when the same total exposure is at a higher rate of short duration early in life. In other words, the relative biological effectiveness (RBE)of neutrons to X and gamma rays tends to increase as the duration of exposure increases and the rate of exposure decreases. This observed change in RBE has broad implications in the appraisal of reactor hazards. It has also been tentatively concluded that recovery from neutron irradiation seems less dependent upon dose rate than recovery from X and gamma irradfation, This problem as well as others in the field of neutron toxicity will be subject to more detailed investigation in the near future at Argonne National Laboratory. A small research reactor is being built for the Biology Division at Argonne. This reactor will have two primary

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BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE .Ii thermal columns, one f o r high dose rates and one for low dose rates. The attached exposure rooms will permit large-scale studies of neutron toxicity to be carried out in conjunction with . the existing studies on gamma-ray toxicity. for reactor hazards evaluation. This extension entails a large-scale program on the toxicity of mixed fission products in dogs, in which attention will be paid to mixtures that a r e typical of the effluent frpm accidental reactor excursions. An additional extension of the toxicity studies at Argonne also has practical importance WORLDWIDE FALLOUT STUDIES During the year substantial progress was made in the studies of worldwide radioactive fallout from weapons tests. United States scientists attended information meetings on special topics such as techniques of atmospheric sampling, intensified sampling and analysis associated with Operation HARDTACK, and periodic reviews of worldwide atmospheric transport and deposition data and theories. Joint meetings were also held with the British at FIarwell and with the Canadians at Ottawa. Responsibility for both administrative and technical supervision of all AEC contracts for radiochemical analysis of environmental samples was assigned to the Health and Safety Laboratory of the New York Operations Office. Exchange of samples for comparison of analytical results among AEC contractors, M C laboratories, and cooperating Federal agencies was October, * a number of research papers on worldwide fallout by AEC and contractor scientists appeared in scientific journals. The U. S. Weather Bureau expanded its activities relating to correlation and evaluation of worldwide fallout data and advised the AEC on sampling requirements. (End of UNCLASIn addition to the comprehensive tabulation of existing data on fallout that was issued in HARDTACK Tracer Program k) Air Weather Service, Armed Forces Special Weapons Project, and Naval Research Laboratory have been organized into a screen extending from the equator to polar latitudes of both hemispheres and from ground level to as high as 90,000 feet at several latitudes. During and immediately following the HARDTACK test series, samples were analyzed not only for fission products, but also for tungsten 185, which is present in debris from this test series in quantities sufficient for use a s a worldwide tracer. Studies using this isotope are expected to provide new information on the movement and deposition of debris from equatorial tests. They already have shown that there was a rapid spread of material across the equator to the Southern Hemisphere under the particular meteorological conditions existing during this which was released a s a tracer in one of the rocket shots over Johnston Island. It is a quesAtmospheric sampling capabilities of the AEC, Air Force Cambridge Research Center, Selected samples were also being analyzed for rhodium 102, a nonfission-product isotope, tions Office. Copies have been furnished to the Joint Committee.

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BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE tion of great interest whether, and how rapidly, the finely divided debris from such a high altitude burst returns to the lower atmosphere. samples of rain and fallout, was expanded from 25 to 29 stations during the year. Replacement of the pots by a new collector employing a funnel and ion exchange column was under way at the end of the year. a r e sampled after each significant rain, was expanded from one station at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to five stations i n the United States (Pittsburgh; Westwood, New Jersey; Richmond, California; Houston, Texas; and buisville, Kentucky), and arrangements were made with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Zealand, to operate a similar sampling station at Gracefield, New Zealand. At these stations, shorter lived isotopes are measured a s well as strontium 90 in order to learn more about the origin of the fallout. The worldwide network of high-walled steel pots, which are used for collecting monthly The “washtub” program, in which larger collectors (approximately 5 square feet in area) …