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Honorable Lewis L, Strauss U,S, Atomic Energy Commission Asis customary i n my capacity of Chairman, I am writing to inform you of some of the more important matters which were considered atthe53rd meeting of the Advisory Committee for As you how,afull day vas given t mergy Commission research program in biology and medicine and several of the more important areas of research were considered tions of the Ad Hoc Committee set up t o advise on the genetics program and weare pleased t o concur in the findings of this The Committee recommended that full advantage b e taken of any future tests in the Pacific Proving Gro un wto increase our knowledge of surface and deep ocean currents and the transmission of radioactive fallout through the marine food chain to man. Further, because of the possible future ' need for disposal of radioactive wastes in the oceans, the Committee feels that the AEC should expand support of oceanographic studies directed at gaining more precise knowledge of the movements of water a t review of t h e Atomic We had an opportunity to review the recommendaI am attaching a copy of this report with Dr, Dunham's Dr. Charles Burnett, a member of the Ccmtdttee, reported to US on his recent trip to the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission asan AEC and ACBM representative along with a National Academysponsored group consisting of Dr, R. Keith Cannan, Director of the Division of Medical Sciences, NAS-NRC; Dr, Thomas Francis, Jr-? Professor of Epidemiology, University of Michigan; Dr,A, Baird Hastings, of the Committee on Atomic Casualties of the NAS-NRC; Dr. Seymour Jablon, Biometrician of the NBS-BRC staff, and Dr,Felix Moore, Biometrician of the National Heart Institute, Dr.Burnett expressed concern over the present status of ABCC and of its future. The former relates to a general disintegration in
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morale of the ABCC staff which is counter-balanced only in part by the present Director's excellent handling of ABCCNAS should be urged either to correct the situation by appointing a scientific director of considerable stature Or that AEC and NAS jointly seek out some other body such 8s Associated Universities, Inc. or a university to be the operating contractor for ~ c C . It felt that it would be helpful for the Director of the Division of Biologg and Medicine to mite a letter to the President of the NAS expressing the ACBMrI'S and the AEC * s concern in this matter, The Committee concurred in the Division of Biology and Medicinefs present policy of not expanding support of .teletherapyevaluation studies a s such at the present time, feeling that this form of therapy has now come of age with some 20 kilocuries and 24 hectocurie sources in use in the United States. The Committee was gratified to learn k a t through the new Division of Foreign Affairs and the International Cooperation Agency there exist channels for aiding research in selected underdeveloped countries as a part of the Atoms for Peace prop a masa means of cultivating throu&out the world research potential in the biomedical fields of atomic energy, It appeared to the Committee that a beginning could be made in those countries where the scientific skills a r e actually present and where training opportunities offered in the United States have been taken advantage of, but where for one reason or another adequate equipment for even a moderate-scale research effort with radioactive materials is lacking. The Committee was gratified to learn of t h e beginning propess toward declassification of declassifiable reports already in the hands of the Federal Civil Defense Administration and of the Plans for getting the substance out of the undeclassifiable reports and malring it available for all concerned in unclassified The Committee felt very strongly that the 1 8 . A s to the apparent inability of FCIlA properly to digest and transmitted to them by the AEC, the Cmmdttee restated the position it has always held that the AEC is obliged to do all course, that this effort may require going beyond AEC's responsibility to FCDA as defined by law but clearly required in the interest of the nation in the present situation. The Committee feels that AEC vould be severely criticized were it not to continue to do so and on an expanded scale. The Committee I " utilize the several hundred classified reports which have been 4 % in its power to help civil defense matters, recognizing, of