H Division Progress Report, H-287 (January 20 - February 20, 1959) (Redacted)

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The period covered by this month's report hns been one of unusual activity in the Health Division, and in Wtion to more or lcrr Doshetry studies on t h e fatal accident caae of Decembtr 30, 1958It noy becmes apparent that the principal cause of deatb In this cue VU primarily rrdiatlon Injury to the he# pruscle itre=. of the individual peculiarities of this particular care. t+@t hd t h i s p.rticuUr irrjury not uirted the victim the a cci ht would ilmort ccrt.1nl.y have died vithln atfcr of ham perfectly typical central nervous damage. We are vaiting vith coqlderable LnkrtfSt the results of the assays of varioalr tirmer far plutonium content. The victim of the accident was kmua previotuly to hve ly pod over a period of years appraxiarcrkly half a pcnrimibh This Vu lipply one It is pcfiectly This case gives the first apportrurrity to betamine depositton of plutonium In the body behves u we hra the past fifteen years. 2. Careful preparations were lpdc to insure ssicty for ill 7 1 in connection vith the caning criticality of LAPRE 11. This involved M a e up a series of specific rules to be follaved in the wmt o f m y untauud 3. llbc caapilation of radiation exposures for .U. Lor year 1958 has been carnplcttd and ir prc sea ~ ~under of KM A m virkvlly caplekd. ovemge rill be 8ufYIciantly complete to evah8%athe b g r e e of It ir felt vary definite4 - .< z - ,, b a d to aparrting personnel vithin the remnider of the provine

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sie pi fi cant contamination will not be produced outside the Jackass Flats 5 . The annual visit atl on of high school students On EdllOn'6 birthday, February 11, went off smoothly. girls visited t h e Health Research Laboratory during the d 4 . evenrs require a l o t of work and ;:ractically all research problem6 in *he building cane toa halt during the day. that the experience is a stimuisting one for our staff end people Lnvariably feel well rewarded. held to consider ways in v n ich s.i:h atour might be more effective. is f e l t in general that it shocld be confined t o the upper-class students and slso those witha more o r less bona fide interest :n coning. I'irsr prize for good mnners. sttentiveness. and Lateiligent questions goes, as it has before, to the girls fram Lore t to Academy in Santa Fe. It is interrating t o note that a t present this scuol has no course i n biology, but ruch a course in planned for t h e next academic year. Something over 600 boys and It cannot be denied, hovever, Preliminary discussions have already been

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1. Jerme W r was assigned to NTS from 2 . Ray Pederson returned from on February t b far a Wo-vtclt period and returned to that site on February 18. 3. Carl Buckknd attended a one day traffic transportation meeting in Albuquerque on February 2 . to the shipment of radioactive materials. The discussion was confined *yo the regulations pertaining 1. On January 2 4 a contaminated incident occwred at the CMB-6 Press Building during deep drawing operations uith 3-j8 uraniun. found that an oven had overheated forsing a thick coating of oxide on the sr;rfaces OZ three large u-im Bieces. %e a i s c s were removed :ran :he oven and piaced in to higher elevation horizontal surfaces such a6 beams. the work. The oven read 4000 c/m and the floor in front of the prem 18,000 C/m paper floor covering and. was therefore readily removed. were wearing respirators because the highest air count was 655 c/m-M" near the An abundance of steam and vapor fKm the quench water carried Oxide ORNL personnel uere perfOXdng The majority of the floor contamination was confined to the Fortunately all pereomcl 4 T.r?.ichtank. 2 1 of the urinalyses results ver? zero. 1. On Febhlary 15. ciya-ing z rout ix ncnitoring surrey of S L 15.3 :oats: an alpha COUE: of 10,OOO c/ra was aets:%d an sne c o a t . had processed and injected sane aninals ; r i t h either zhorium or ionium. 20.000 c,;m was detected in the animel quarters bench area and the hood of Roam 247 as can be determined. no radioacti.ve iraterial vas spread o r carried beyond the immediate en-;irons of Roams 137 and 247. I. The experirBenta1 reactor LAPRE 11 began a series of subcritlzal testa the week of Febmary 16. On Tuesday. Febmary 17, a 100 cTJrie lanthanum source was added LO the ?;el solution to serve as a source for detecrlng the liquid level in On Febxxary 13 the reactor was critlzal 'co a f e w vatts As the experiments progressed, aifflculty iras encountered vith the

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chain drive of the counter brake, dropping the chain arrd counter t0 the bottom of the reactor container tank. a t the chain drive mechsllism and afkr the break this level inc reald by a factor of four. This was due to the shielding of the counter in the p i p e being suddenly dropped. Gmxna levels vere low. February 21, md is baing repaired. Sane conbmination resulted fhmn this apcZrt2arr. Alp& counts to 20,000 c/m vere found in the area of the s h i m mechanism. gama l e v e l s were also obwrved.-Iran 700 c/m to 1000 c/m 00 his hand which reduced to 300 c/m a f t e r the third washing. Prior to the break a neutron survey shaved 10 n/cm -6ec The shim drive mecbapism failed on Saturday, Sane beta-gamm vas observed on h i s hand which subsequently disappeared with vashing. 0also had e thumb contaminated t o 100 c/m after a third washing. the stsirs u86 observed b u t would not wipe and is believed t o h8ve residue frolP UPRE 1 contamination. The Same alpha ContEUnlPatiOn of The reactor p wer to date 'has been a far kilwatts. viscosity of the fuel is such that difficulty with the flow rate has been U rpC riC n Ced. A long copper tube has been inserted into the fuel so tbst l i v e steam can worm the liquid so that the nou rrte vill be faster. fuel pin within a bell Jar a t TA-46 by Roehling. vas evacuated witha vacuum pump. detected on the scrczn inside the Jar. 2. Monitoring took place during the bambardmtnt heating of an oralloy During the heating the bell Jar Following the test a count of 2000 c/m val 3. Ten Site had a complete pwer oLtage for3lne hours on Zanuary 31 i n order t o make repairs and necessary changes on :he eiectrical system. necessary t o close the air vents i n Lab C and the Reis cell to keep contaminstiai fran back drafting into these rooms. Mng the pwer outage the filter builtling floor was slightly contaminated. monitor was i n attendance. The floor vas decontaminated by Februsry 2. A 4. The exposure to Kappa Site and Kiva I11 during working hours vas calculated for gama8 and neutrons with the following results fora period fran January 1 5 through February 14: Kappa Site, .1?1; Klva 111. .317. 5 . The W-11 Phcmcx Electron Gun was again Inspected by an E-1 health physicist. The methods of monitoring this &vice are s t i l l dependent upon the use of planted film w s . Recent badges retrieved rndi-aced ao significant exposure 6. The remainder of the 4-7 nonsuspect areas of the ice house were man it or cd. Several contanhated cauponents vere disposed of and one was contaminated and necessitaced cleanup. The

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made of literrture a dircussian with K-Diviaicm perronnel resulted in a l % B t i W of oscilb~tiondue to solution transfer betvcen the rtactar vessel ard reservoir. This potential appcued to have 2ommenced at lesst on the night of February 22 when failure or a valve alloved unequal gas pressure to be applied to the m3merVoir causing the solution transfer to the reactor vessel in excess of w h a t had been desired at the psrtFcu3.w time. One of the potentials 18 described 8s a reactor P0w.r On the other band no hazard actually developed. An evaluation of the hazards has been discusred in 8 report f o r ClrCUhtiOB LncLdent at Ten Site is extremely small. environmental conscguences of reactor accidents and fran weapon data by H-6, it hr been estimated that a release of up to 3 megacuries fission products could be released to the atwnph.re. vind conditions prevailing at Lo6 Alamos one could expect exposures from betveen 3 to 4 r total dose over a 50-year period. It has Seen zoncluded that the probability of a nuclear On the basis of calc:latio~ by Haya It vu ertimted et one mile md w i t h the average 2 . On Febnaary 20 H-l inspected a newly developed hi@ intensity 300 kv up to 1WO ampers X-ray tube to be pl;t into service by Fagan and Richter of WX-4. Radiation will be emitted in one quarter microsecond burscs. for only about 15 to 100 busts. and &ue t o the short duration of Dust can be monitored vith f:lm badgts only. 9-1 vili be notified once this equipment I s put into use. with GMX-ll in an attempt to obtain a picture by means of X ray vith a short t b e The tnbe life Ls good Sxgected radiation is thought not to be great The vork 1s in coajunctiar Don McKovn organized a fozmal monitor training program to canmence on The training i s being given a6 an experiment in anticipation of anMarch :. expanded program to cover all of the monitors in the future. will be limited to 12 persons and will last five to six weeks. tvo rereions aweek. For the first tlme problems will be given to be vorked by the monitor outride the The current sesriolu, Preliminary evaluations of :ndium criticality foils have been strrtcd. Foils exposed at 100 It from codive gave readings detectable by survey meter 3 to hours after about 10l6 fissions. Film badges plated vith f o f l s are being evnluat8d.

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6. The IBM annual report vas canpiled end submitted. This consisted of the routine report plus many additional breakdowns as requested by the AEC. fourth quarter report w a s also run and integrated with the above. A. Accident Record Jan. 1 to Feb. 1, 1952 as Number of Disabling Injuries 2 16 Severity (Days Lost per 1.ooO,OOOManhours) 22 1,021 Frequency (Accidents per 1,OOO.OOO Manhours) 4.0 2.6 B. Industrial Accident Experience an a grind:ng wheel. He lost :days from work. 2 . On Jan- 23f-L 2-1. fell into the pit at the contaminated dump and hac tu red his left leg. He is still off work. On January 30 a 5 lb bottle of acetone vas dropped a t DP Site and i @ kitA. The f i r e was quickly extinguished by employees with C02 extinguishers. Nuuiber of Accidents U 54 There were ir vehicle accidents involving Laboratory employees during January. D . Motor Vehicle Accidents Jan. 1 t o Feb. 1, 1959 Three were backing accidents and the other occurred when t h e vehicle skidded into a 1. 0. d . Moore, Ophthalmic Xspenser, vas taken t o SD-1 end TIP Site -i. The Safety Office, together with H-5, worked o u t procedures f o r the James Stearns returned from NTS on January 29. Roy Reider attended the annual meeting of the American institute of vnere he checked the safety glasses of tne employees. Electrl2al Snglneets in New York froin February f 3 m n ~ g h6.

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5. A member of the Safety Office met with 5-7 and discussed the type of Roy Reider met with representati-Jesof 5-7 to work out problems involving Several meetings were held to discuss constrvction end fire protection hydrogen detectors that are needed at NTS. a very hi@ pressure cell at TA-41. of a proposed new WWthO~6efor storage of J-Division electrode gc=. A. Evaluation aad Control dork A large number of beryllia air smples and surface wipe;tests were Pade during t h i s period in the 3erylliiun Shop and In Croups P-15. N-2, a - 5 , and during a shot at R Site. were found in any case. compounds at a l l sites where it has not been used for several y e a s is being continued. No :oncentrations abo:e the muinatnu permissible level The program of picking up beryllium m e t a l and Its At the request of Group P-2 and the Zia Paint Section, aa evaluatiar vas made of protective requirements f o r personnel working with a "Liquid which was to be applied to a newly constructed pit in the Cmega Vest reactor Zocrm. Since it was desired to keep the reactor vorklng. protection of adjacent personnel a5 vel1 as those applying the material vas required. solvent and it was found to be principally styrene. were devised and calibrated i3 the gas Ehamber against known concentrations of styrene before being used in the field.. . Field Section man stayed on the job cont:nuously supervising the supplled air system, checking the ventilation, and collecting air samples in the vorking area. was inotslled immediately outside the building 31th an exhaust duct extending to the bottom of the pit. kept below 100 ppm outslde the pit. industrial hygiene service vhich c a n be rendered vhen adequate notice of the operations is given and a l l necessary facilities can be applied to a specific job. An analysis was made of the Several methods of air sampling hriig the 5&y operation at least one Air concentrations reached 5 0 0 ppm in the pit but they uere This is an excellent -le of the type of Investigations were made of complaints fran the Lithograph Section of Group 3-8 and from operators at TA-46 where TCF. vapors vere involved. analysis indicated that exposures at TA-46 vere minimal but vere quite In the Lithoeaph Section. A study of the cleaaupopoertkhmmmrd

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concentrations of TCE and additional air samples w i l l be collected to evaluate the level during routine operations. will be rcccannanded to control this exposure. A ventilation study is being made and Lmprovanente 4. Tolylene dll roc m te (TDI) Four air samples were collected for TDI h Building of these showed exposures above permissible levels. Group CMF-5 has prepared same phosphine and plans to do further work w i t h this extremely toxic material. Special detectors and analytlcnl methods are being investigated for Inquiries have been received regarding the possible toxicity of mononitromethane. sulfur dioxide. PETN. mercrrry and niobium carbonyl. The 'nazards of liobium carbonyl are currently being investigated and plans are being =de …