H-Division Progress Report January 20 - February 20, 1953 (Redacted)

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Tho period eolod by thio report, while fu from urpradmtiro, h r beon ro lat i vol ~uarp.ctaaulu with thr Division wrung mor. rmmy thn h u k.n t h r CRBO far oom coruidorable time. har mado excolont proper8 in decontamination following tho spill atP a ju i to by Group X 4 yu the purification of 9 13s. of ex trm ly pura cldplum 3ropioruto far tha noutrino program spansorod LDi virion.Three mubars of working on I groator nurrkr of im or tig rti om th n mork fore. uteriah currently under study u o : other materials such as a f s e m c and stadium added, beryllium, uranium, polomum, to lu en, morcury, oxalic acid, ammonia gas, cadmium propionate, ard 'I#T. general it dust rid hygiom survey of d l groups in ?-Division has boon str r td. lithium hydride, lithium hydride with Croup B-6 continues Its studi er of film badges, a d is also designing and building a n u drnsitomter. TumblerSrvpper, YO mu k.n bent t o tho D virion of Biology i n J~rhngngtonvhrrr thoy will bo fFlsd. 4 i

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2/13 FXGUS, Rmer H-L Group Office 1. Jim Lawrence returned from Dahlgren on February 20. Tony Gnrcia waa rent to Dagr on on Feta u u y 23. hlix Vigil spent two veaks a rsi sting H-5 on polonium urine aruqr. Henry Schlacks, AESS, v.6 indoctrinated in the pri ne ip ler of pbb - doe be try and monitoring i n preparation for a tour of duty a t Enivetok. problms 4 t Ten Site. Aeby adb har, who are trying to determine the radioactive material inthe The lcEc Waste Treatment Group is investigating waste treatment They are being aided in this work by our monitors, 5 . Health problem a t bog. vir. discussed vith the Group Leader 6. The final report on the calibration of the 100 Kv la8 Alamos Medical Centor maxinu x-ray machine was subauitted toH - l group office. 7. Health problams of W-5 group were discussed with t h e Group Leader it WRS decided t o discontinue personnel film badges a t theof that group. site. We will continue t o have planted badges inthe oren. 8. Leak tests were started on the 9L radium sources received by the Los Alamos Msdicdl Center.

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area8 Lpadiatdy dj8cont t o the tugst. In gonrdl, the neutron levels were lou vitb the exception of the 10. The contamintod portion of t h e old Mona Library building v.8 torn dovn .ad rmoved t o the cont mina td dump on February 18. building va8 roleard t o Engineering as being noneontdnmted. 11. On February 11, the re circulating blower on the cbega Water Boiler 1.901uas high and several people received over-tolerance exposures (none o f these were serious). tolarance for fission products. the reactor room, making it necessary toveu protective clothing. The reactor vas shut down ard the bhver replaced. The radiation Air samples taken during t h e operation vere below Surface contaminntion was experienced i n An alpha shoe monitor vas imtalled a t Pajarito Site. Eight new cobalt sourcea *re received from Oak Ridge. Ident if ica - tion was lacking on the capsules. engaved i n preparation for shipment t o the 3ureax o f Standards. They have been Unloaded, decontaminated and U . No contaminated accidents o r incidents were reported during the 15. Progress is being made i n the decontamination of Pa jari to Site. Two of t h e rooms vere completely refinished. monitored and decontaminated. All rooms are being thoroughly

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Number of Di6abling injuries 0 la Nl nb or of Dyr Inrt The 0 199 Srr.rity (Days Lost per 1,000 manhorns) 0 0.03 fell on t h e sidewalk near the CShop entrance to t h e main Tech Area. Tho sidewalk vas slippery due toa heavy s m during the night. A work order >&.as been issued to install ap ard rail on the valk as the grade is quite steep at one point 3 f the walk. -sustained a iac era tic n over the right epebrou 2. 1-J Technician i n Graphic Arts, fractured her left ring finger ?ebruuy 16 when her hand vas caught inthe roller on ahl til it h machine. -aa testing the moisture content of the molleton roller on a Multi li th machine by contact with her fiwers vhile the machine vas space betveen a metal rod and the matrix c gli r der of the mcahine. 9per at irq procedure isto 5t0p the machine before touching y y moring p s Apparently her finger slipped and her hand was drawn into the Last time: Pour days. /' arrl about ten gallons of water [tctal weight o f about 100 pouds)intoa big vat,the top of vhic!: i s about A i feet from the floor. Asus pn dine and pour iw device vi11 be designed and cm struct sd ?o mix the substances i n the future without ?he necesslty o f heavy lifting. -vas admitted t o t h e Los Alemos Medical Center on Feb. 18; extent of lost time has not been determined.

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1. On Janunry 27, a f i r e ocmvred in Room 2l, Building 21, TA-9 md wa8 probably caured by ignition of leaking flammable solvents by sparking of the trp.rature control m och nia. The fira -8 ina sall desk-hright electric refrigerator bat of the refrigerators had been altered t o m8ke them safe for Houever, the damaged refrigerator vas one ofstorage of Clamable solvents. two that had been pur chad lately ami had not yet been corrected. The fire uaa extinguished v i t h C02 extin&shcrs, a local standpipe hose and the two sprinkler heads that3sed. fr iger at or control mechanism, door Insulation, and contents of the box (der The one accident reported involved an mplcyee hacking out. o f a eroydd,, through 13) on a preliminary safety s way in conr;e'ction with the fbGthcoming 2. An untoward incident occurred a t TA-Ll (Group U-1) i n which no one vas injured, but vhicn incident wae potentially quite serious. A pressure vessel, designed for 3000 poumds, vas beiw tested with inert gas pressure ap :D 300 pounds vhen the vessel failed at a fitted joint. the vessel ported vith considerable violence, but fortunately struck no one of The two naives o f

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imcidant. Ircorrary corrective mo~saueshave been taken to pr ment a reap lopes in the room. A special report UiLl kw it tan on this 3. The Croup Loader uas reappointed t o the Lo8 A l m a Cowrty Traffic Board for the you 1953. The manuscripts on the " Critical Sedimentation and Viscosity Revealed by Sedimentation ard Viscosity" have been revised and returned t o 11. Effects of X r a y s on Thymus Sodium Dswxyribonuclsate as The effects of radiation on dry fibrinogen inthe prerence of gases 8.m still king studied. The preparation of as iz rab lc quantity o f desoxyribonucleate from pne ~ coccu stype IIX is still in progress. The solubility studies on irradiated fibrinogen- are still in ' for future radiation studies comparative studiea can be made. The month has been devoted chiefly to training Mrs. iielen M. mer i n the special techniques used i n this work. A paper entitled 'IA Continuous Titration Method for Cholinesterasen has been completed adis ready----A

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The surch for ach m thor q muti c agent i n polonium toxicity was extewiod t o iaelude two sulfur-contriniag corpoundr, eodiu8 thiomulfata .ad bther rat van given 400 .e/kg cyst eine on-half hour before intravenous injection of Poao, ud LOO mg/kg three tines d a i l y theruRftor. The portinjection th wap y of both compoudde was imt it utd om-half hour after the Om rat was given 1920 .g/kg sodium thi or d fate om-half hour before A control rat given only ~ o21 Ouas dso run. ~o differences &om the mrmd were fourxi either in the rate 3r inthe amount of polonium excreted inthe urine or feces of the treated rats. A study of the metabolism a d metabolic products of C' labeled crffeim will be started soon. properties of caffi ene is now being perused. Literature on the ph.I..acological urd ch gic d ' N o dogs have been fed tritiun labeled cholesterol i n such a manner as t o keep a constant specific activity in blood cholesterol for 2 weeks t o -.'Fatermine vhat fraction of tia sue choleaterol is derived from blood. They Results available to date shov that dl visceral =gam attain , equal S.A. vith blood, but skin, skeletal muscle, ad aorta only reached Lir%O-75% of the blood value i n this th. These results contrast sharply with 5; ,' ? I ,those previously obtained on rata, emphasizing the importance of human studies, . , -. 1particularly vith reference t o the cholesterol i n athermatous lesions t o I I 'determine whether this cholesterol i s metabolically active a& the development ;5 1 % --a vail able in large quantity for there studies.

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It h r been shown that both tritium and cU my counted i n the 88ae -10 in the ou e solution, using the P-1 scintillation counter merely by proper adjust amt of the laver gate on single chuuwl or, batter, of both lower and uppar gate. on coincidence counting. Preparations for the intravenous study of the astaboliar of Ca EIfiA i n humans are i n progrera. procedure for the de tem.hati on of C’ mA ard to the a ccd ation of equipment end ch dcd s for the experiment. Attention w88 devoted t o “ironing out bugsR i n the Comidrrable the was spent this mnth i n writing procadurea; nuely, preparation of the An ma8l Report, revision of paper on metabolism of Ca EDTA in uri nile,correction of gamy proofs for tu0 papers, a d design of ox per bent to study effect of Ca EDT A in acute plutonium exposure. Work on the neutrino program is con timing in preparation for the move to Hanford tho latter part of February. prated doses o f X rays or neutrons. .-. Attempts are being made tk r a t s using techniques similar to thoer reported for producing isoantibodies against normal tissues. Studies on the sul fy hd ril content of irradiated rat lenses ere

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Uork is contimrriag on the experiment designsd to det nm in the relative affrctiremss of radium ard plutonium i n producing bone marrow d-e. Th. et,* of the acute tuxicology o f lithium corpounds is c wp let8. Data are bing dy zd prior to a urite-up of the project. The study of t h e effect of prophylactic agents’on survival of nice exposed toX rays a& thermal mu tron s is complete. I t appears that the agents pro kc t agrinrt the irduced gmna activity only uul do not alter the effectivene68 of tbe protoar ud alp& r4v. The a x plum tion kiag conridard i 8 thrt protons ard alpha rays produce their e f f e c t idependsatly of mol.cular oxyen exert their protective effect by combining with or preventing tbs.foZ::$+ The prophylaotic apnts prohbly for lens a bm rdi ties to determine whether prophylactic agents alter cataract Rats pre treated with p-dmpropiophenone and cysteine, as vel1 as untreated rats, have been exposed t o 750 rof 250 KVP X ray for Lushbaugh d Sections from mice rats expored to m e s i v s doses of gamma rays

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Studies of the peripherdl blood of rabbits ctv o dcd ly exposed t o 1.0 r a weak have been co@eted. production of abmd cells in controls and exposed animals because of factors other than radiation. Results have been very disappointing due t o No report is planned. LA-1191, "The Incidence of Abnormal Lymphocytes inthe Peripheral Blood of Rabbits During and After Chronic X Radiation," has been printed and ACO ~source received from T Site has been cut with the assistance of Ten Site and has ken stored at Beta Site for future calibration ad use. Ramination o f peripheral blood from the Bay0 Group for abnormal Examination of studies f o r biooa cell changes I n personnel :nvoLved in the Pa jari to accider.t is complete. 5esults are being analyzed.. Project archeoiogr. - h report on " A Cache o f Pbsiaian Artifact9 ,- uptake of nicotinic acid by nicrocrganisms. - The work has been completed with the Lactobacillus and the L.5 curie source. sera 72-hour period delivered t o an activel:: tTovinC culture had relatively little effect on the grovtk ana qtue zf ric3tinic acid. sxposures as hip as 123,030 r

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One trip of several days vas maae xi connection w l th SF SUP ect iv i ties at Sandia Base. A laboratory was made available and certain chemicsls vere ob td nd Study of serum sulfhydril and phosphatase activity was ex ted sd to include rats that were pretreated u l t t cysteine end para-aminopropicphenom and irradiated with 750 r . SUraiine rhcspzatase c zn cent x tic r In skin vas f3uM t3 be extremely small when measured usinf beta fiuc * aonic acid es the substrate. suggestion of ET. K. kbois,of tte Air Force Tadiation Labcratory, the alkaline pkAosphatases a r e now beirg measured usinE adenylic acid and ademsinetriphasphate post-radiation variation in these enzymes can be studied. These substrates Fronise t o give sufficiently Ugh yields that i - s t rapid rates was studied micrcscopicaily I n preparation fcr wri:inF up thi si - hi crop ap hy, radioautography, and 7atk:ologicel biochemistry. &a&cLZ 2ropionate i n toiuene-metr.zr.ol so iut isn did not behave properly. Ycurd that the reason for the nisbenavior c:' the ccmpoun? was insufficient 'de were asked to nutiine e prccecure for prep ring cedmiun propio nate

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a. A search fora possible method for labeling pyridoxine. b. The study of the reduction of CUE z to methanol using lithium - aluminum hydride is still i n progress. c. The literature search for the book m. a. A 200 g sample of extremely pure nitrobenzene uas prepared for CHI-7. b. One humired grams cf a special opticed cement vas prepared for 6.. Nine pounds cf vert: pure car him Frgpionnte vas prepared for A special classiffed experiment vas performed f o r D. MacKillan, Id-3. The Preparation ofa Stardard Sample o f C' Labeled Xnce the Field Section was a t full strength throughout the month, it some of vkich will ex ted into successive reporting periods. :t has beer, necessary to omit even menticn ofthe smaller imresticaticns ?ram but I t is anticipated that this situation vi11 be a ii evi a ted someukey :.zing The Laboratory Section is still extremely short o f personnel The Test Operations Section will transfer all .>fi ts activities

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operation without …