H Division Progress Report, H-227 (January 20 - February 20, 1956) (Redacted)

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2/15 WJO, Doneria M. 8-2 Hapatology W h i s total Lncludes 3 caeual snd 5 limited personnel. At the end of this report y r f o d there were eight permenent hires

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1. Stanley Curry of Holmes and Narvtr nported to +Jw -toring Section for indactxinatios oa Jarn ~ a r y17. structlon progmm with the Civil Defense Organization i n Albuquerque 00 Juruuy 26. 4. Raywmd Pcdarson left for monitoring duty a t the Hmmda Tert Site on 1. On the morning of ~ a n u yestigated and detected as high as 2 actinium foil bd baas Pwhd i n the back of a safe flle krrrr .rd when laad cos ~ t e dthc desk and vicinity. PreUBliMry drcon-tion Val stu ted Sevtrrl papers were also contaminated. It waa found that a protoby the monitors, and Jim C o x of the Decontemiaetion Section eventually reduced a l l 2 . Over the week end bt$nr.in& Februw ll, one of the pipes cUr ying <he circulating water frcm the tank f & mto the filter buildlng of Ten Site developed e leak, and it was estimated that 35,000 galloxu of contaminated water ?asred into !.fortandad Canyon. The following lcvalr of act i vlt y were detected: j. On February 15, an eccumlation of acetylene and oxygen i n the sink of the dccontamlnation tocop at CMR Building detonated and blew- acrosl the rom. Fortunatekj, tht only d ter effect he suffered was a headache. 1. Pu-contaminated plywood fran TITS WM dissolved by J-IJ on Januyy 20. T h e a i r concentretion :n the roan was negative and no conternination vu sprrad except i n the south hood which accuan;lated l5,OOO c/m. The hiwv.. detected Tritium was run i a t o tke Size of the iil*-pressure fll?,& Wldix a t TA-33 on February 20. It was neceaswj for two monitors t o be os) b.nb during thc tarbj stages of the operation.

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3. -1lmhm-y rrrdiatim rafety precautions f o r Ten Site =actor operaThe reactor went hot critical for the firrt tiu the e a l y morning of Febnury 16 it w u noted that the rrrill*2 8 & increucd witbin the steam lfncr. Show thereafter, the cri it appear that tbr coacentr.tioa v u incremcd due to the lorr of water i n the form of steam. Later 00 during the o r activity in the air increared to a high of reactor cell. The contamlaction appeared to ccme frcQ gas i n the air, inlmmlch as several perron8 picked up as m c n as 70 rm hr or! 'Aeir hair. Personnel were evacuated frcm the entire east end of the building. Cantemi=tion decayed t o a general backgrarrrd of 5 0 0 mr/hr by 1:OO p.m.; the pmR roan e u t of the reactor 00 Febxtmry 17, the atem line vu wuhed bcm with ph O # m c acid. An alpha count of 2500 c/m maxlmum vas found In the c.nyoa. The tpma backgram& i n the canyon had decayed to 40 mr/'hr iroap a pn vio us high or 450 mr/hr. By urSng a high-range pocket dorimctcr for a rho^ term of ocpomxre, 1000 r / h r wes estimzted t o be tS.e cell backpomd on Febntar; 17. morning the general level of contamination r/hr in the vicinity of the received a neck mrcle rtraln while &acing 2 27 lb. piece of netel in a hooded dill in s machine. -first

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received tre8-t at Q Bullding on Jumuy 25 n d YU admit- to the Lor Alpor Medical center 011 Febnury 1. Lost time vas 1 3 days. eyes when urmlm nslduea with vhich he vas vorking flsrhed. 3. On Febrrury 10,-P-7, nceivcd a tbc left cornea when a glarr trap exploded. syatem and the slur trap v(u imnersed in liquid nitrogen. froze e d when the liquid nitrogen was removed, the frozen argon evaporated causing sufficlent presaure to break the glarr. Argon warn being i d thiGlgh the The Argon apparently Lost tae was 3 - 6 . 1. On Febru8ry 9, a propane leak develogtd i n the mdergroud line t o the Shag Suilding of 21-23. ?rmtljr extin,yished 57 employees oi the s mp with no loss. froze and burst ming dmage The crtinuted vster 2. On February ll, a k in. sprinkler line l n the attic of 5-2 Bulldiry the ceiling of the east end of the building. of the ceiling Ls $750.00. I>. Motor Vehicle Accidents Jm. 1 to Feb. 1, 1956 1955 Number Of Ac cid at81 30 "here was one vehicle z c cid at In Jmw involving Laboratory personnel. %is occurred when 3 panel trcck skidded into a past. / A survey was made of T'D Site to dettrmitle the locetion of a pel letting The magazines at TD Site were sunnyed and reccmenbstiom were mrdc Rec-tions were made concerning filters on cvhmrt myatem of machine end requlnd structural changes. in regard to heating them. liae end ncnifold system at were =de concerning t h e installation of butane 5ao

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A t o t a l of 15 air suuples vere collected in the Beryllium Shop during thir period and the maximum conceatration was found to be 0.33 Wg/M . Vork on the solubility of beryllium cmpounds continued. beryllium oxide were terminated, sad a new scrLcs of studies using beryllium m e k l 3r. 3arrict Rardy in the near future. A t the requelrt of CMR-6, a study vas made of the reported increased betagurrma activity of uranium in conthct vith graphite. oxide, graphite snd carbides were prepme& and c a n t e d for both beta-- and ect iv i ties of both types. Apparentlj, the reported enhancement of activity by carbon does aot exist. Various cmbinatiozu of metal, I t war found that the p w e uranium =aterials shoved the highest A stack sampling grogam a t the Tubailoy shop h&6 been initiated to determine the amount of uraniwn being releared by the sbckr. -&formation regudiag filtering requiremeats for the new shop a M i t i o a now in the srising from proccrring of uranium at TA-9. Eonitor durtng the proceering of this materid. jeer. =de and monitoring has ehovn the contaminstlo,? to be insi-ificant. Thir should give This work will continue t M @ the next rep emo d .I rc. A conference vas held vith 0 % - 2 personnel regarding -3 hazards Mr. Mlford has bHn derignated t o Since the meeting, two rxs Save

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D u r b g the p.ak verk lod period in the Oralloy Machine Sbop, breathing Of the ll breathing zone samples collected t o date, the smgler vere collected to supplement infozmatlon presently being obtained the Filter Queen. macinnm concentration v u iound t o be approxinratcly one-hJf of th. prnirsiblr An extensive study is now under way a t 3P West to detemAm which proccsms contribute the activity to the stmckr DP West. TVo cmtinuozu air sampler-counters have been run on Stack $4 and on Mair? Air Duct #2. time, stack rcrmples were collected davnstresm frm the filter8 located on the roof of Roan 201 a d on the final roan filters of Roan 213. far indicates that the major pzrt of the activity in the stack a hnu st came from Main Air Xct #2, and that this was practically all ccrping fr m Roan 201. prodam i s continuing and will be extcndcd t o other vings a t CB West. Hr. Milford haa been designated to do routlne &taring l n the Uic m bly Building Information gathered so of plutcmita p.rtr la th, 8 Slta ka ably IUlUng, during t h i s vork. Grnp8 R-2 and R-6 are investigating other w e 8 of %is ' 1 - leteminction of plutonium in urine. Ion exchange is being studied as a Studies a r e continuing on the 5c tat i vel j from glass fiber filter paper s A study of air-borne lead concentrations during procesring of finely sound lead powder by Croup m-3was made a t this period. samples were collected during weighing, filling of mixers, aad emptying the were fer above pennissible levels. A total of 24 air A U breathing zone samples collected during the first two operations General roan air samples, however, were a l l Respirators were worn by the operators throughout this A n inspection was made durind melting of lead in Shop # but no hazard sd this ;rill be included I n the GMX-1 revised safety manual. Another inspection was d e of leed aelting md pouring operations A memormdum was written mzlinlng sefe haadling pmcednres for led

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m a is put of a study of cmm ew g ailver An ayr o of there samples iave nst been campleted Y e. ThaUirnn aeidt prepared by WX-2 bas been &taasted a t Dp S i t e with no detonation at the firing rite shared a corrcentration of 29.4 dl4 . Orrc air sqle collected FpmediatePj after 3 I!o trece of thalliun was f a & on svipe ssrszles. awing heating in the furcace. Ur samples vlll be zollected to de ted ne tire UDoUpt of flupe girm off A total of 1 5 air samples Vert collected during tt.t mackining operations w5-A antimony aad bismuth in t h e hoodcd machines located in '&e BcYjllium Shop. deternine t h e toxic contaminants and their concentrations durlng varlms types of velbing and soldering. air sap les have been collected to date. This study was started on Pebnrcry 17, rod a t o t & cf 7 There include tvo air uuplcs colitctcd nttro ~ e soxides will also be carried out a8 pert of Air sempling for ozone and

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in shap # were runtcbd vith the mcfcury vapor detector. Cmplaints of shch distress vere received fram mschiafats at 5Site who were working with plastic bm&b paterial containing c~.anUric acid. Hmtver, e satisfactory 3cthod of maid=: C?fs anelysis k s not been worked --,,2 Group. This Fs ev cq hr ze job ~6 ccmpletior. of the work is expected t o yrogresses. A coaferencc was &so held w i t h representatives of Zng-2, 3 g - 4 and 8-1 t o disccss se'thods of UQrovinG the filtering systez a t Ten Site.A pro;ossl to e.xk.aust gases fKm t h e north end of the '3uil&inga t W-46. These vente have nQv Plans for the hoods in the new Psbiochdstrj Buildins were received fran u g - 2 snd rctleved and approved. for ef:ectlveness. Pace *;elocity was found t o be far 5claw the reqazements m d recamendations have been made to Enp4 for correction of this equipment.

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mpartmant, shops -nt, m hit ect Engineers and AEC nprcrentativas ragydlng the n u shop addition at TA-3. and hmidity mes8uracntr have been made in t h l 8 shop. te q era ture and humidity are well vithin zcceptable atandardr. has been held dre cm nd at ions sub ltte d. A 8 a result of caaplaintm received fran shop men a t a - 9 w, tanpcraw planr vera disapproved f o r a nickel-plating hood modif%~aUmto be inAfh € d :03hmF,Ce on the proper design Moving of varfous Laboratory groups into the new AhinifitratLon Builsterted durioc this m t h and Ls expeetee t o contLnl;e for the next several manth8. sita ted becacse of chengts ir ? ias lor occu?;scy siact the building was &sl@a+. Group 3-5 18 work2aG closclywitl: EnSneerFn6 Department i n cur;?p6 o u t these The Heath Division lnitieted 8 C garding the type of respirators z w bein ex l st iq problems. Orre representative of %>.e Field Section k e s bevoted zp?raxhatet;p half his tia e to work on the recent Zevabc Zest Site Rad-Me Propa. The Polarograph has now Zeei received, instelled, and i s performing satlszse on Ewide variety of ~ n aly tlc z lproblems. A k-eevj schedule of vork on this hstnrment hzs be,- t o permit its A t Lie request of Group b g - k , 80 Lnvestigetian was made of Mn king water tmxd over t o the Public Eeeltl: Cepertrcent for correction, These samples proved t o be kiwj tcrbid aad the problcm w u

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an a&qyately tlnifornr field for J-10 callbratlonn. nearis of Al abeorbers a t 6.4 Kev and 17.5 Kev. b. The monochraneticity of the P3mrescent beetus was checked by The ;-IO photamltlplier vas neasured with11 5!8" cry s tel and a by scattezdng of photons out of *e crystal. sniffers have been ncamtred end thas the sensitivity of all the scats b ve Seen Both fell off inre ~ ltl vit yabove about 17 Kev. d. The n l a t l v e values of the high reristoro of the brl.rrced trLtlum bee& finished and shipped. The film develcping etplpment kilt for lfatlonsl Lard C q a n y has reported t o duty 21 Jsn - ury, folloving TDY with departed 22 Januaxy for d wert bucs it rence at

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waa established for sgplrcodaat.1~10 April at a comference of 8llher8 of WDP with the Director for Scientific Utters. Chew Site personnel were sd vised relative to proprr locatioa of K-Divisia peruonnel consulted the Section relative t o the Qpe The Section prwided a study of surface Vind8, tanp.rrttlns d On 8-9 February, a meeting of MRI ?Or overseas Oprt.tiOa8 vu vird e quim t far sdcty purpoaer. ofwkd equlpent W d for srfety purposes. Follorlng the cm lc tim of the operstioaal phase of U m 56 Pro J mc t h%, t!x Rad-Safe personnel and equipent returned t o LASL. ovccexposures which occurred in Nevada, it vu nec rr ury to rcport 011 the incident in aeetingr at t h i o Laboratory and in memomda to the Test Director. As glpnnd, the seqAes collected by the FaU out Om pat Red were analyzed by varlous techniques after their return. Tbis has been c w e t . b with the exceptior~of particle size studicr, which blpc in promis in cmjtanctioP1 Due to the technical SaxQlcr have Seen supplied t o the Ssndia Corporatbn 380far %%eavailable data YM evaluated for its applicatioa i n the caorideratlon of propored rtructurer for the ~ iembl yof the optimized mapew rt speu rmd A R.d-Safe Annex for the Test Director Report, 56 Ro j ect NTS, vu 'hrir Annex dercribes t h e pbanaing and operatlosul Several bf8curaianr here end o m at SEdO were held on t h i s subject. suhnitted to the Teat Director.

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were sampled end m 8 ~ e dfor dpha s ct iv it y. .Ubatches were releued to H-7. we= rmlad ud uuyad for alpire activity. with previous histories of contsxinetion exhibited trace amounts O f plutoaitm lo activity w a a detected :n the c. six samples …