Future Development of Brookhaven National Laboratory

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As you all know, our purpose i n getting together is t o consider the es sent bl problems of future development of Brookhaven National Laboratory, nice features of the Brookhaven situation i s t h a t it is the one national laboratory One of the very which has chance of doing something and growing. The* pressure of events in the other laboratories for the most p a r t has tended t o result in building either aheadn__ - % lon-k . In the Brookhaven organization w e have a r e a l l y unique and very much cherished ambition on the part of the hmmission. It is a national laboratory whose prime concern is basic research in the sciences concerned with the nature and mode of action of nuclear farces. aspect-----we wish t o sustain and with which we are a33 i n substantial. agreement. This is one So we have the very favorable circumstance that we are a t least i n general agreement and agree, on the major objectives, We may have general disagreements from time to concerned were laid down in a memorandum to Kelley,wMch I presume he has seen, The g e n e r a basis of our consideration so far as the assumptions are and cer- other considerations have been explored which bring aut some of the pros and cons of t h e various points which have been raised before. The general program, as I have said, is conceived t o be one of the long-range, continued investigation i n the basic problems in t h e physical and biological sciences, then, Brookhaven has very unique potentialities and one that tends to play a very important part in the scientific development of the area, It is wry closely aff-iated with universities of the northeastern area and presents unique facilities which no single university could afford, and consequently as a laboratory it inmksely extends the availability of the nethods for special stue, It also, in t h i s relationship, insures t o the laboratory the maintenance of the atmosphere of s essential t o Brookhaven National Laboratorg as it is

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the university, so in this interchange have a very fruitful thing in itself. of university and laboratory relationship Involved i n the consideration of the socalled master plan 55 the question of the ultimate size of t h e staff and the ultimate continuing relatiGnship t o t h e universities. In the lmg run uur national laboratory is a group of people. Without the group of scientists, all else is nil, our mechanical services, our physical planning, have no other meaning than assisting the scientific investigators to carry an their functions. So that the size of staff is one of the fundamental considerations which we must face in making our recommendations. It is very difficult to give an arbitrary figure as to the size of any staff. grows there will come a time a t which there will be Wishing returns, which the institution becomes so unwieldy from sheer siae and mass that no longer functions as an integrated coordinated organism, t o o small there will not be the colnplete representation of the skilled knowledge It seems fairly apparent that as an OrganLeation or institution It is also apparent that if the size is uhich is necessary f o r solution of-ms fL- There will not be the adequate inspiration of one section by another group of the. labor am which is SO Mtful in scientific productivity. These boundaries are that any figure chosen is the right one. thing is much too big or much too small, by observing what happens, after the It is usually possible to say when a event, in other uords. But it is not easy t o arrive at a figure which represents 8n optimal level. In regard t o the facilities which are to be planned it i s essential the long range fareseeable purposes and objectives of the laboratory be kept clearly i n mind. certainly w i l l take place but which we cannot foresee a t the present time in specif5C There must be suine provision f o r the development which almost

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w i l l be unanticipated highly significant developments concerning which at the moment we have no clear idea. W e can plan on that, i n other words, and there must be suf fic i We cannot, of course, commit the Commissiai t o an overall plan which must thereeting of such future developments. fore automatically go forward. I think the best w e can ask of the commission is t o agree i n principle toa plan toward which w e will work and in a framework which we will attempt to discuss further developments, b u t t h e specific instrumentation of parts of the plan will have t o be subject t o specific action as such matters come up in the normal course of budge- development. we are faced, as Dr. Hauorth explained, with a complex of problems a t Brookhaven. The buildings which were taken over from----- have been utilized very effectively. buildings are not suitable f o r the purposes f o r which they are being employed even though it is s t a r t l i n g at times to see how effectively they have been used. The general planning should be one of functional harmmy so that the needs o f t h e institution in its actual operation may be best m e t . very intimate knowledge of the actual working of the laboratmy. which cannot be put down on the drawing, for example, and get a very essential p a r t That is one uhich requires It is something of any master plan. The thing that is not too popular i n these days is that the appearance is good t o keep in mind that we are talking about a major investment and the investment should look like a major o as t o have a ne the tig value which is i n keeping with the scientific quality which we expect t o have. is very well to talk with simplicity but a t the same time we should bear in mind that the outward appearance of the general esthetic quality should be h2-y uith the dignity and substance w e expect the laboratory t o have. remarks bear upon our general approach of the problem and I would like to have Mr. Fry add his comments at this time.

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It became apparent t o those of us i n the medical center that we could not draw any plans fora new medical. center because we had not had any experience whatsoever and w e could not go on either written records or personal comments as t o the type of facility that we needed, ' Consequently, we moved aver into the present area where the medical department is now and started out in a feu bulldings, three of which have been modified a t that time t o provide a hospital area. hbsequently, the additional fFfteen buildings have been added t o the three original ones and laboratories have been provided i n these temporary buildings during which time we have been developing a program which we think is not only characteristic of Brookhaven but we hope is of interest to the AEC i n the wider implications of i n terms of aaztual work of research we have learned a great many things a b u t needs, requirements, structures about which we had no knowledge four years ago and which we are not necessaruy t o be considered i n the construction of the classicial hospital or classical laboratory or biochemical, physiologic, pathology or bacteriolDuring t h i s period of grope and development and the final beginning 50r per hour, and t h i s was put into the medical buildings after a great deal of discussion whether it was safe t o place this particular radiation source there or not and it was with some misgiving that we placed it i n the bacteriology laboratory. Our experience has shown that t h i s was totally inadequate f o r the research work which it was desired t o accomplish and t h i s Summer we placed in the adjacent room the source of cobalt which provides radiation a t the r a t e of 860,000r per hour. This type of evolution shows t h a t we mst keep our laboratories flexible and we must be very careful about building ourselves into a structure where w e will, by As an example of t h i s , l e t me cite you my experience with the use of the Early in 1949 we got a cobalt source which provided us with about

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virtue of that building, endanger our personnel. per hour and is up to 860,000. The first level was about SOr Our 5Or per hour could have been put i n t o a multiT would not want t o be either above or below OUT present unit. If sufficient structural capacity had not been allowed i n building it uould not have been possible t o shield adequately against this. So that we have much the sane problem as physicists do i n the multiplicitg of approach and the possibility of harmful radiation of personnel as a result of experimentation and it has been an unusual experience in the medical department. which we have been considering continuously i n drawing the diagrams analyzing structures ue have i n terms of what we would like to have, what w e think would be the most functional. I n consideration of our buildings It has been the unanimous opinion of the entire group that a one f l o o r structure would be highly desirable from an operatianal standpoint. We did n o t consider this from an economy of structure-this is an architect's or of Ward, the desirSbilitg. of inter-relationships between various members of the We considered it frun the availability of material, the possibility department, and we have come up with the unanimous opinion (and there a r e 10 of us who sat i n on the Division head meetings), that a one-story structure is the only type which probably would be suitable over a period of time f o r the kind of work which one might envisage being done i n the medical department. t h a t we could not use a two or three story structure, but by very virtue of the f a c t that the building was made two or three stories there would be a limitation placed upon our work which we think it wodd be undesirable t o base upon since it is supposed t o be basic research. This does not mean In part for this reason and part for the reason of transportation any multi-floor structure must have a t least two elevators, one for

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passengers, one for freight, because we are taking isotopes t o the patients--we can't always take the patients t o the isotopes. This means transport of 500 t o perhaps 1,OCO Ibs. of lead. we are giving curies. Brookhaven; we are now giving a curie of boron t o a patient a t a single dose. This means again that our radiation hazards of our personnel have become enormous and a great deal of operating and technical ingenuity have been required t o keep people who are administering these doses from becoming seriously overexposed i n these treatments and where a treatment is being given at the present time, during the months of Hay and June, about three treatments every two days, and w i t h a medical staff who have been dealing with patients i n terms of doctors--of about We are no longer transporting millicuries t o patients; We started out with microcuries in our first patient a t eight people t h i s is a very serious problem and one uhich would give us great concern i f we were limited i n any way by this particular aspect in our structure aspects in that it would provide access of service lines which could be gotten out The provision of a basement would be desirable from some general readily and there would be some degree of storage and some types of work could be done i n a basement area. I think the structures as a whole should be high enough off the ground to provide ready access to all utility lines. But the basement is, let ' s say, a bonus ina building because it i s desirable t o have access t o certain parts of the building, and there would be other uses f o r the basement as well. In the hospital area, i f we were dealing with a standard medical u n i t with treatment of patients of single disease or single type of disease in multiple unit, would be a. _ diseases--small i n number, large i n implication, varied in manifestation, varied in approach and therapy; we are dealing with multiplicity of patients with a multiplicity of So there is nothing t o be gained by putting these patients

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together in rather large aggregates because each small unit must be approached with a high degree of uniqueness, individuality, dependent on (1)h i s disease; (2) on the manifestations of the disease; (3) on the particular therapeutic or therapeutic evaluation approach which may be used for this patient. One other fact has come to light in the three years w e have been operating and that is that the nuclear reactor has, w e believe, a very real place in medical research at this moment. It has not been proved as a tool f o r either therapy or diagnosis but we have shown that technicaliy it is feasible t o place a patient i n a reactor and theoretically it is possible by this means t o induce a reaction i n a diseased part of the body which a t least potentially may be capable of preventing further destruction of that area. present site does not give us. this trip is 10 minutes. ambulance drivers are pretty well skilled on that road. This required an accessibility to a reactor which the We are two m i l e s away and the fastest we can make We do have some sec uri v barrier to go through, but our Ten minutes over that area is going a t high speed. I'm talking about ten mjnutes from the time a patient leaves t h e treatment room in the hospital until he is placed i n the reactor. operating requirements …