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The necessity for a ccarpete research labmatory such are halt with o y/ry I.kWth Physics t o execute, nor and in the future, such operations as are deemed necessary to the health and safety of the population cd? the labaratory and that of the laber@t;ions require such routine services as ; 1, IrrPolveEi the use of fountain pen sise or smaller condensor type ion chanibers and self-reading eledxoscopes t o integrate whole body ar local daily exposure t o x and gamma radiation, 2. Film badges incorpwating special dental sipie or smaller film sensitive t o beta, gamma and neutron radiation, mounted with special filters f o r energy independence,/ito integrate whole exposure. Full t h e personneJ,5 technichns, Constant smeillance of radiation intensity and degree of contmiaation for alpha, bets, gamma and neutron emitters is maintained through the use of many kinds of portable and fixed instruments follared by the posting of 'daily anaps. Certain fixed installations af bet&-g.slme. sensitive and alpha sensitive hanu and f o o t counters and probes for nose, clatbing, equipent etc, are a l s o used in large the Bio-&say Group (4 personnel) under the Bfiedical Division. Routine check assays of human excreta are carried out by
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For obvious legal and econanic reasons the natural radioactive background of a given si,te must be known with a certain ddgree of pecision. h y changes due t , o laboratmy operations, accidents, or waste disposal procedures must be carefully fol lm d and its consequences evalnated. This type of effort places very stringent demands on instrunentation and chemical procedures. The ascessary procedurd are at hand or der development and an adequate job will be done. Staff requlrerpent, 4to6 peO@& It m y be of interest t o point out here that no area af the earth is really ~~mcontaginated@.Far instance, a square m i l e of earth, i n the vicinity of Chicago, to a depth of one foot contaim approxbately 1 gram of elemental radium, an amount sufficient t o cause the eventual. death cif the majority of 100,OOO people if && of it were absorbed and stored in their bones. T P point is made i n crder t o demonstrate that it is possible t o live safely with saw degree of ccntambation. D, Eeteorological and Cl hat dog ical Measurements The control and measurenent of stack effluents and waste disposal procedures require a knowledge of the lacalmeteorology and microsuppmt forth & k instrunentation peculiar t o local problans, part of which we expect fran the large scale efforts a t Brookhaven and Hanford The metemalogist and assistant require some specialieed and through the use of consultants. A constant dated routine of calibration is maW5ned on pcrrtable and 00 i J ftred monitoring instruments using carefully standardized alpha, beta RID&, and neutron sources and x-ray machines, portable an6 otherwise.
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%pair and main'knance needs at present are rot inconsiderable due t o the saueiwhat unsatisfactory status of this type of instrumentation, Efforts are i n evidence as will be poiated out later to correct such defects. fkprience dictates that it is cheaper t o spend $1o,OOO far &mianent instrmnentsif they avoid the necesskby for hiring 0118 additional man. Present routine staff, 4 technicians. Special Problems and Training (sub-acedemh) The design and procurement of special masks, clathing and other material or devices dthh the scope of the activities of this diviaion as well as special surveys or unwnal problems arising fran routine survey reqSIes the services of two staff members. routine ftmctionrs is also their partial responsibility, Catastrophe and Bnergency These activities are supported through the use of the prop&sed Background lonitar5ng truck using equipnent assembled and ready for use by selected personnel fran the whole division, The possibility of a fire, an unustrs3 accident or a spilled shipnent en route requires such facilities be i n standby, Training of' technicians for some of the quite praniaent as w e l l as t o keep abreast ~ x rahead of future developnents i n the laboratmy's rightful fields of endeavor, It is axioseatic that L r 6-.Fs;i' can neither function efficiently nor very intelligently without the
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With the aid of the) I mtr ment Reaearch and Developeht Division of the Laboratory uch ro14 is underky and considerable has been achieved in developing a d jp.daciing satiafactary impropenenta and new instktents. Some of the detrelopnents, acccanplisbnents and needs necessary for the radiation control program are lk ted in the followingt types, which can be charged while hermetically sealed and &seasing aatisfactary resistance t o shock and electrical stab ili w have been wave length de filters u i l l be developed for incorporation of the two into a more ory film, suitable satisfactory film badge. 3. Fast and slow neutron monitoring methods of practical imp0rtaae a r e still t o be devised; likewise,-, measurementbxposue +O & hands of laboratory personnel remains t o be achieved in a realistic and scientific manner. Much of our attention is focussed on design and development of equipment satisfactory for this type of work, Thus% Beta-pama sensitive devices need redesign developent. Fast neutron sensitive counters capable of s a w energy discrkinetiors should be developed as portable davices.
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and others in c0armerc:lal manutacttare is quite nneratiafactory and needs further production engineering. It is expected that t h i s deficiency vill be iesolved by the effmts of t h e newly establhhed a r e not, ready for adaption of Zeuto for fast neutrons is on order for field trial, o d d be in the hands of every surpeyor as a secondary standard is almost non-existent, The recent instrument developnents in tbe quarte-b~nvtype almost sufficient for its use as a direct reading rate meter, Static chargers for these devices need attention, in arder to The present equipnent for alpha hand counters, air counting and parteible alpha detectors is 3 constant maintenance problem, d new developent in multiple wire probes Irithptegral cathode f ollm er shm3 great promise of solving these difficulties. Sewage,‘-lab.3wastes, and stacks, require recording ion chambers and perbaps certain types of counters. The present,sol tion fr these appears to be the new vibrating diaphragmideveloped bp the Instrument Research and &velopment Division, attached t o
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cammercially available recorders. Though these are believed t o be stable and reliable, they are nevertheless complicated electronic devhes reqtllring skilled service. our quartz-bar eleetrcmeters may be adapted to this h ck and their It is hoped tbat inberent simplicity strongly commends attempts to convert or incorparate them into recording apparatlirs. The Ry ers on + ~ ~ mtype used as a projection instrwaent in a Tomsend balance circuit has proved a+ee previ cw l y mentioned pocket meter reader and when used with condensor type ion chambers, solve many of the air monitaring and aaeay (background a d bio-sasay) problems, C. Backeound Measurement and Chemical Assays Instrumentation for t h i s work is typical of much of the previously mentioned devices except far vibration proof equipuent f o r us i n the mobile field stationl truck. Our reaearch staff is meager, being limited to o d y 2 persons. Bot much can be done t o extend it due t o ck of laboratory 8p8ce. ~ - 7 -ontmuous air monitoring for part icd a teal pk emitters. This is one of the most pressing and diffoult problems faced.).--, ~ f‘db. Fundamental Radiation Dosimetry i n radiobiology,, In the past, the needs of radiation theralrg prmpted the
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development of a rational system of dosimetry of radiation from x-ray and x-ray aource8. MU of these were external t o the body except fcr interstitial sources of radim or radon. While this sybtem for several years bas proved of bigh practical value i n the comdination of radiotherapeutic exper1ence)it has failed as sucha'h the f i e l d of radiobiolegy whenever other types of radiation have been wed. hveto yield t o quantitative description of ionisation and excitation energy as m m e than an average of number of ergs per gram of tissue, It has beccane evident that, in a broad senset doslaletry Q pk$siCal description thus based, was adequate with photons where ion * poductios is a consequence of electrons arising f r c a n Cmpton scatterfng and photoelectric absorption and where, with the except ib of superficial therapg, the average energy absorption per unit mass does vary greatly within linear dimensions of the order of one centimeter. hawaver, the location of sources is expected t o vary in meny instances within the dbensions of cellular structtxre and the specific ionizetion resrilting frcun their disintegra'tion will range frcm a factor 3.45 (ions/p tissue) i n the case of K-capture decay t o about 8 in the case of K4* beta-decay, Likewise, neutrons rill present dosimetric problems peculiar t o their interaction with living matter#& an illustration the RU (n,p)& reaction will require close attention because of the short p o t o n range (w),the high specific ionization (appraa. In the case of radioisotopes, It is obvicius, therefare, that the understanding of the biologicd- effects of radiation will profit greatly frcm a detailed study of the mhrascopic distribution of ionization. promising appeal* to bet Of the methods mailable for approach, the most
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The photographic method a t high magnifications (AOOO) The simulation of biological microstructure in gases coupled with adequate ioniastion measurements (this would require an essentially o-ionimtion ds and solids, Today, we can a t best or also toe though matter d. stoa great extent on measurements of this type, Sane steps r y nature (mostly theoretical) are i n investigate of detect ig and measure/ the transient presence of ions produced by radiation in solids and liquids by induction af polarization methods and by molecular luminescence. ment of radioisotopes i n terms of the curb. It would be profitable t o conduct this phase i n conjunction with the Physics Division but the unhappy geographical location of the different units of t h e Laboratory will undoubtedly hinder this step inthe immediate future. Viewed i n this way, dosimetry may be regarded as part of a broad study on t h e degradation of the 'kinetic energy of atonic or nuclear cmponents in matter and i n many respects stands aquarely on the borderline of physics and chemistrye
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The Mechanism of Prorwllation of Airborne Radioactive Contaminants It seems w e l l agreed tbat the inhalation a? radioactive materials presents a hazard most diff icd lt to control. Pennissible levels are lopd and no satisfactory methods of decontamination o?? wide application are available i n m a g in stan cd Qua lit at : Lv ely this problem parallels that on ,js"bch it presents many aspects of a chemical nature, yet a I/ literature on the behavior natural radioactivity of the atmosphere suggssb t h a t much remains t o be learned frora the standpoint of surface adsarption. * saue data of immediate concern in conjunction with the meteorological program , must be devised t o i.mestigate dSntion of stack effluents at the earliest possible mment and t o study its dependence upon meteorological conditions. To this ptrrpose e freon leak detector has been pmchased and it bas been found sufficiently sensitive but unstable; correction of the l a t t e r defect is under way,, It 3s obvious that practical yet moderately accurate methods In the event that this method prmes impractical, NaCl aerosols dispersion and photoelectric detection of the D lines of Ha is contemplated, instance, for plutonium i n a i r , the alphas from the radon daughters yield up to the count due t o the permissible level for Pu, By utilizing the ratio of beta t o gamma for the daughtm:a of radon in %he multiple wire probe hooked t o a differential f counting scheme, it is hoped t o produce at l e a s t an adequate warning device, if not a qualitative mersurement, when the permissible level is exceeded.