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Declassified record · U.S. Department of Energy

Annual Report of the Biological and Medical Research Group (H-4) of the LASL Health Division, La-5227-PR (January Through December, 1972) (Redacted)

Dated
Jan 31, 1972
Document type
Report
Length
160 pages
Open the original scanArchive record OSTI ID 16295777 · public domain

Document text

Machine-read from the scan, so expect some errors. Lines that couldn’t be read are left out.

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Annual Report of the Biological and Medical Research Group (H-4) LASL Health Division January through Decomber 1972 Contributions from the staff are indicated by section. ExparimtaI rnimrlr used in work p r m t e d in this rcpwt WOW maintained in animal care facilities that are fully rcarditd by the American Association for Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care.

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In tho i n t u w of prompt distribution, this pfogros rspwt was not ditd by the Technical Information ruff. Rintd in the Unitd htm of Anmiu. Awrilrbb from National Tlchniul Information Sawice Price: Printed Copy $3.00:Microfiche $0.95

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Biological Effects of G--l.y Dae Protraction during Cantinuoru ExPmure With Fixed Coqarative 8io logical Effects of R diet ioa Doae Protract ioa in Dop and Wrt8 Radiobiological Pilot Ia~estiptiorufor the Negative Pioa Radiotherapy Pro gru Ratention of Tin-113 In M u after Oral, Intra perito ned, and Intravenoku InfUCtiOa Cesi-137 Activity in a Nod Nev lhxico Population ?wpuLIAN WTA BOL IS I PUYSICAL RADIO BI ~ OCY SECTION Y8I (TI) Spectrorter a d Ttuuuraniru Element Chest Counter Interface With PDP-a/I Huwco 11 Interface with PDP-B/F Computer -5i: Sam rr tor and Counting Logics

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educatioa c d tr-6 of advmacmd attadmats and faculty part ic ipa tim appointma. The function of Awu i8to promote .nd coordinate orfentation d trriniat o project. of a re&& = tun that reul r rly concerned vltb orwutioa a d of pro aru adf a cill t tu that cw t be undertaken with equal 8ffecti1m.rwa b7 a miwe ln at it u tim. 8uch area of later ut $8 the prom tion Of trends in the biol.0Gc.l acieoces. collaboration would aemm the beat intermats of the Uaivwrsity personnel benefit by facreased opportmiti- for trdniag .ad teachias, by access t o unique or s pcc irl l ted LASL facilities, .ad by rue of La Alva u a foam, or curl gat, for dti - b lolo wu beamfit fra mater cmt8ct with aminra it y fac u1ti.r and graduate r tud rau. i8t8 part ici pat in iio this prog rr benefit fror sltrul collaborativm effortr ,croor - fert il frat i a a of ideu, and by rharlns apec lal iud erpertlae, unique cap abi li tim, and cmtly rquiprrnt. .ad other ruN member8 l a of gnat potenti d value and graduate training. participants in the Ayu-LASL bio rd ical research It Is felt that increaming op port tat it iu for All bio lop Follaving is a list of Departmat of Pbyaiu. Uni ve mig of W.r Ilufco, warded on L competitivr b8.i. for one ~ 8 ruith the pa albi U ty for reaw8.l fora wcod VU. participated in the LASL bia ad ical rerearch progr.r during part or all of 1972, vith thdr pmVhUS academic a ff ili at lo ~.rrd ujor rmaearch intamst.* Application of cvtology urd hi8to cbe mi at q Identification of molecular effects of varioua ionizing radi at iom up armfully characterized mdel ry mtr r

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i rarher spectacular aerial phorograph shws ! UWF) on the righc of the prominent Loa Al.1108 the br ld ge over Lor hlaooe curyon vhich links the canvon. k'ithin the area shown are reaccora, acmjor Laboratory sites and fac il it ius it nch c aiomedical Research Laboratory-Los A lr mos ?!edical -chine shows, and all tire related equipment and celerarors, iophisticarcd computing frciliricr. - Center complex ana town s i t e . To che east ( t o ? ) of technologv associared wich a large, vell-rsraot h e bridge are located the airstrip on rne left and li shed laboratory concerned Gith researcn i: :he

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Two urial viua of the th.lch Ruaatch Laboratory,which houses the Biomedical Ueaurch Group Health Divirion, are ahom above. The l e f t photo8raph ahow the do& proximity of the Health Reourch Laboratoty tothe bridge whlch spuu Los constructed in 1952, and the single - level annex wed t o house experiPcntal animals v u added i n oratory is sham che 84-bed Lon Alamoa *dfcal The do msl tir tor led building w11 Lm di at ely above the Health Rcsaarch Labthater. l dr to l ste red by the Lutheran lb pit d and H o a Society of Fargo, North Dakota, vhich 8ervea Loa A k a and surrounding c-1ti.S. physical tah tion between the Lo8 hl- & did Center and t h e Health Rerearch Laboratory fo8term the exchange of Ideas and in tere8tamag re8p.cHealth bse8rch Laboratory and Los AIM Kedfcd Centrr complex and its spatial reh tion r hip to the main centralized Laboratory complex acrois Loa Sham in the rib t photog?apb iathe

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The upper photograph shws the Bio rd ical ity located in a remote area of the Laboratory about 10 miles from che plla Hoalth Research Laboratory. Built in 1962, the 1800-square Coot facility houses cobalt-60 sources of 10, 100, urd lo00 C i encased in steel capsules which can be raised or l were d into a led shield beneath the floor from another building about 50 yards away. The octagonal concrete igloo, 40 ioet in diameter and 20 feet i n height, i o buried in the side of ahill and is accessible through a %-foot loa8 tunnel. Studi u of the biological effects of radiation delivered i n different total doses, dose ratem, or fractionation# are conducted in this building. The luver photograph shows t h e holding cage arrangement within the Radiation Exposure Facility whlch penn its simultaneous exposure oC dogs sad mnkevs toa wide range of cobalt-# gam rays.

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LASL h u uwxcellod fac i lt tia a for tbe producti- of lup quaatitlu of h i $ t l y enriched atable begin i n rbe noar futuro. Siau these arm all by u a a tic maoomce t.choiquea Y mll w by cop chd4stud lea util i daar hue isotop.. .nd orgamic mad biological sptheur. in a j mc tion tra ot ers rd other d rur ced tcchniqus of physical bio e hal at rf, la jut begloaing t o @in - am. Two ru ruch rw c toral outed MU the t kal th Reuarch Laboratory are avdlable Y radiation cap&& of operatioa at all pouer h ~ l afm 0 t o 25 ki la ratt a, .ad the b rgu at t Or* *at reactor. Smveral elactramtic .calera toro. inelding

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A a ign if i can thir to ric rl event vhich altered the courae of mmdclad occurrod QO F.bwry 23, 1941, Berkeley. Thc i.otopa of mum-238 and not t h e more familiar -a-239 v u first dia cm red at that ti=; the pl utd u isotope of rus-239 v u not isolated until the spring of 1941, rod el ern t 94 remained u an ud until Much of the fol la ring year. On to produce plutoni~m-239 in qwntlv ford li tarp purposes vas begun. plutonium v u recognized aooa after its disco wv aud availability in qua atl tiu for biomedical reThe potential toxicity of I t is worth recalling that anly extramoly amdl quant it iu of this precious material were available for experimentation during the early 1940's. As an example, the fol la ring I rw rm dm Written t o the Director of t h e Health Diviaion of the Metallurgical Laboratory is indicative of the early concern about the potential toxicity of pluto pi u. statu in part : physiological hazard. of vor ting with plutonium and its coqouads m y be very great. radiation and long life it m8y be that the permanent location in the body of even very s ~ l lamounts, say 1mill lg rr or leas, ayy be very har rful. aom few teas of dcr0gr.r might be un p leu ant,if it locates it a elfin a permanent position. In the handling of then lat iv dy large amounts soon t o begin here and a t site Y (Loa AI-), there are many conceivable at hods bv which amounts of thia order might be taken in unless the greatest care l a in handling so aa to prmvmnt t h e occurrence of such accidents, I would like to suggeat thata program t o trace the courae of plutonium inthe body b e initiated am soon u possible. In y opinion, such a program should ham the vary highest priority. " "It ham occurred to ot that the Dueto its alpha In addition to helping set up meuurem fie writer of this memorandum v u Dr. Clem T. Senborg, and the date vu J.ntl.y 1944. The biomedical resoarch program a t Lo8 AIh u evoAved from ita conception i n 1943 as aamdl Health Croup estr b lia he d to protect the health of the workers, t o develop safe working procedures, and to establish tolerance levels for exposure t o radioactivity, plutoniuo. and other rad1onuclld.a. I n 1944, once s igo if i cant amounts of pluconim began t o accumulate a t Lor Xlamw,the Laboratoq of the Health Croup, authorized the tempor.- establishment of a group of four people to initiate a research program designed t o develop test a for setting exposure limits for plutonium. Several wths later, this saul l group una absorbed by the Health Group UI a Biochemistry Section, and the Laboratory's biomedical research program vas born. I n 1945, the Section moved intoa small building of It. own, and Its members established the urine -say procedure f o r diagnosing exposure of Laboratory personnel t o plutonium. conducted which led to the first successful labaling of a biologically important canpound (nl cot in tc meuureaent of carbon-14 by scintillation counting procedures was accomplished here and formed the basis for chc present generation of commercially available liquid scintillation counting syst cu. By 1948. the Health Group vas a Division in the Laboratory, and the Biochemistry Soctioa beca Croup H-4. t h e Biomedical Research Croup. In Fig. 1. Wta hi ft building used for biomedical research activities dur iw the war years (photographed i n 1946 sharing three d di - tion a to the original structure).

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Ocrobet 1952, the qou) wvad f r a twruy woodeo by the e d of that dad &a uub li aba itself in both nuid md inadd circlw Y -uthority QO the effecu of d tia fr or nuclear w e ~ m ,vorl&i& fabat, Oa the pbyriolom .Oa util i zia g the dr velo pu at of luy-wl- liqdd COul t log 8yst- dui ~ e df o r botb ruearch d b a d YO .Id making we of the L.boratow's .i@fCroup contributed sip if i untl y to the field of rad h tion protection by cdr tio g studiu OD the rptake, di.tri but ioa, .Ira utcntim of rad loi so top u kim tics WY .to applied t o tho err & ng field of nucl u rwd i ched url nt the late 1930'r. Shortly after the discorrzy i n 19SS of the p rum ce of ca iur U7 in ma from uorl & ide nuclear fallout, muu-ow vet. be- 011 a controlled population of sdjects residing in the Lor Ahms tia dre pre rat perhaps the mt =.ningful docrp.ntatioo of the tqord ch.nt.r in lyll of a radioactive uteri d n-d to the en ri roar nt. v u placed a~the fundrrotrl reuuch upecu of the bio rdi ul nsearch program. Alt how fnmrtig at ions corrtinwd in the WUM mt abou s. and -1.0 Wo bio low Soctiom m late d to the msponae of h i # m r Org8nisU to i ou irl n ~rdisciolu Tbe into r astin rt.bollc W directed touard research in the fields o f molecular and cellular biology. The late 19960'8 1Lou rke d the start ofa rcllearch prog rr related to the q wr tion of the probable bio logic d effects resulting from part ic data in the l-. difficult pro bl rh r mceivad cani & r & t8CUr t&oa but little nr ol ut lan since the dd-WO's. of tha e It pl u tar rir ru regardm bdr remsuch.u the hurt pacer and artificial hmut, Y of this mtrrirl f o r oatiomal defelue. ft f. Intermati- in a smme tb at part of tbe ~raq,I s a w actively worklog on the pro bla vhich rel at a to pluto pi u efforts duct ed SOI 2Q ywprr exploit thew of stable e leu o tr in the # field of bio rd ical res urch. In uti, .IIIsoCope App liu tio lu sectiocl Yam fonrd vithin the group t o concaatrate m the bloor did aspects of tbe 1prog rm wbicb involves smril groups withi0 the La ~ luo mS cie nti fic Laboratory. The I ble cul u bdiobiolow Sacciarr f. rarrrrd in arar faty of or mcs y ~ thui. procedure# t o usdle polynucleotides hari al knam bum nproteinm participating in i of or nti on tr muf rr ruatioar. The structure, fm c tion, urd uUb0li.r of both acidic and bul c nu char protoinm, be lim d to be involved i n readout o f genetic spec if i uti oom and thus differentiation, are being investigated. Bio los la tr uut b ioc hds u in the Cel lulu Radiobiology Section are inventigating the tw ral sequence of a vu ie ty of cellular proeessw irr -10tioa to specific phases of the cell lffs cycle wing synchronized cultures of diM cells. Art hod h u been developed in this Laboratory for producing relatively large qua ot it iu of cultured ul u liao cell. rynchronizod vith reepect t o period in the trolling synthetic processes, energy ru bolls r, nama. and uthep.ticrl mmthod. of cell groutla are

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?or tho co ave de ~ ~ oof tho mad arb ve reput here tho protocol for preliminary ox per ira tau TAlo 1 lip.. tho plutonium content of l0 batchor Table 2 rtrudtu the8up o our e lml~which uero Iajectod lut you. Ihue oxporirnto uorr plm4 u an exploratory rurrray c mr lng aw id. dynamic mhu them ted l7 that up.ctuioo my bo in orror in tho d ra@8 of tha pra ihi nu y urpurivt Vitb8 in March 1972, 00. yopp of 130 animal8 Vu ir rj ~ tod (0.22 pCi/8ph.I.). The total 1-8 burda for rhro bor 1971). C-red with tho o rigid tho crow. in mphore odor gan a total i rr ~ ~of kbro im dia tel mg dry. and h wort wr incfdaco rote8 than thmo ve have o br or rd ham been nportd for other animala oxpoaod t o dl0 total don a of pl uta a iu. appeur t o bo that uroool won inhaled to tho othor oxporiweu, thw giving mxposurro touch ticlu. Thim uauld ros ul t in a IDTO nurly \miform irradiation of md -0 …

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