Fifth Meeting of the Board of Governors Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute Agenda

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FIFTH MEETING OF TJ3E BOARD OF CQWBWOBS ARMED FORCES RADIOBi3LOGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute National Naval Medical Center time of the last Board of Governors Meeting in February (This tout will emphasize new items not present at the 11. MINUTES of February 1962 Meeting.,.... Lt. Col. William S. Mullins 111. CURRENT STATUS OF ITEMS DISCUSSED IN THE MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING FIVE-YEAR Construction Program at AFRRI - Captain Charles Bratenahl FUNDS - Colonel James T. Brennan, Director Review of Main Events since February 1962 - Colonel James T. Brennan, IV. POLICY CONSIDERATIONS.......,........ Major General Robert H. Booth Colonel Robert H. Holmes Colonel James T. Brennan A. Operational Status of AFRRI B. SECNAV 5450 - Command, Personnel, and Fiscal Consequences. Efficiency, Fitness, and Effectiveness Reports.

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SUBJECT: Minutes of the Fifth Meeting, Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute Board of Governors, 24 September 1962 Defense Atomic Support Agency Major General Robert H, Booth Colonel Robert H. Holmes Service Represent at ives Major General Howard W. Doan Brig, General Robert E. Blount National Naval Medical Center Colonel Jamee T. Brennan Secretary, Board of Governors Deputy Surgeon General Department of t h e Army Director, Research Division Bureau of Medicine and Surgery Deputy Surgeon General, Department of the Air Force Director, Directorate of of t h e Surgeon General Csptain Francis W. Chambers, Jr. Deputy Director, Navy Lt. Colonel Carl L. Hansen, Jr. Deputy Director, Air Force ICDR Charles A. Carr Administrative Officer

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.. 2. The meeting of the Board of Governors w a s preceeded by a tour of t h e AFRRI t o show developments and equipment not present a t the time of the last Board of Governors meeting. by the Chairman at 1030 hours and the minutes of the fourth meeting were approved inthe form distributed previously. The fifth meeting of the Board was called t o order 3. The major portion of the agenda was concerned with current status reports on various phases of research, construction, consultant appointments, funding, and administrative procedures. 4. -BREN. Captain Chambers opened the AFRRI briefing portion of the meeting with the following report on Project BREN: We have recently submitted a preliminary report on one of our first research projects. It is referred t o as Operation BREN atthe Nevada Test Site, and is a joint AEC-MWI-AFRRI experiment. I t was mentioned briefly at the last Board of Governors' meeting. Our program was established t o determine the depth dose distribution, i n simulated human torsos, of the radiations from a reactor which was designed t o simulate the weapons fired over Japan. limited the experiments t o instrumentation only, it was too low for biological The permissible operational level The operations area showing t h e 1500 feet tower and Japanese-type houses was presented on the first slide. mentation station. The stations were located so that the source t o phantom slant range varied from approximately 100 to 600 yards w i t h angles from approximately 2to 80 degrees above the horizontal. The phantoms which were filled with tissue equivalent fluid were instrumented with both tissue equivalent ionization chambers The next slide demonstrated atypical instruData was presented that showed that the dose distribution within the phantom is very dependent on (1) the local geometry, (2) angle of the primary beam and (3) the neutron t o gama ratio. After the reactor runs were completed, the reactor was replaced witha Cobalt 60 source and measurements similar t o t h e reactor measurements were made with this pure gamma field. Data obtained with the Cobalt 60 source demonstrated that under certain conditions scatter can play avery important role in the depth dose distribution.A slide was presented t o demonstrate thata scatter component can make it appear that the energy of the primary radiation is greater than it To summarize the dose distribution through the phantom is very dependent on local geometry, angle of the primary beam, and the neutron t o gamma ratios.A distribution shape within the phantom termed the "funnel effect" was observed i n practically all phantoms. This shape was considered strong evidence t o show the nearly isotropic nature of the incident radiation on the phantoms placed inthe field. The scattered component of the total dose was demonstrated t o be principally from air scatter rather than ground scatter. within the phantom was also shown t o have a large contribution t o what had been considered t o be an apparent hardness of the primary beam. The scattered component

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The BREN program provided empirical data that will enable us t o do a better job in simulating weapons radiation in our fast neutron exposure room. Admiral Galloway congratulated the AFRRI staff on their commendable research efforts in support of Project BREN. the entire Board of Governors and the Defense Atomic Support Agency. The Chairman added the congratulations of 5. Captain Bratenahl explained the AF'RRI five year construction program using a plastic, transparent model. Phase (1) is the present construction a s it exists. Phase (2) is in the military construction authorization bill for FY Phase (2)63 and has been approved by Congress and signed by t h e President. consists of an addition to the animal clinical research facility and an addition tothe laboratory building. Phase (3) FY 64 consists of the construction of an underground housing area fora positive ion accelerator. The construction cost is estimated at 1.2 million. The cost of the positive ion accelerator is estimated at2 million. The 2 million funding accelerator w i l l come under Research and Development funds and has been approved by DASA. The 1.2 million YCA funds w i l l be processed through Congress inthe usual fashion. Phase (4) FY 66 - 1.1 million f o r a building t o house Training and Health Phase ( 5 ) FY 67 - $200,000 f o r a Radiation Standardization Laboratory. Phase (6), 1968 - $250,000 f o r increased laboratory space, contaminated waste disposal data processing facilities. In FY 65 AFRRI is listed in the DASA budget for $500,000 for the construct ion of a fallout simulator facility.This will probably be located at the Nevada Test Site and in any case, cannot be located at the Naval Medical Center. Hence, it is not considered as a Phase in t h e AFRRI construction program. Phase 2 is necessary in order t o accommodate the personnel, equipment, and mission that AFRRI is now authorized. Phase 3will require approximately 8 additional people (military and civilian total) but will not require any change in mission since the PIA has been in the AFRRI plans since 1958. Phases 4, 5 , and 6 , 1966 through 1968, are predicated on t h e assumption that there will be an increase in the AFRRI mission t o include a training and standardization mission that we do not now have. It is the opinion of the Directorate at the present time i f AFRRI succeeds in the objectives through 1965, we will inevitably acquire some training, standardization and staffing reeponoibilities for some parts of the Department of Defense. The more w e succeed the more

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6. Personnel. Colonel Hansen presented the following personnel resume for At this time I would like to present briefly our personnel picture aa originally authorized, as it was at the time of the fourth Board of Governors' meeting on 15 February 1962, and as it exists today. 'It can be Been from this chart that we were originally authorized 24 officers, 17 enlisted men and 67 civilian e.At this time we have a requeet i n Channel8 asking for an increaee of three enlisted (1 from each Service) and three civilian guard spaces. AFRRI suffered a loss of 1 naval o f f i c e r in March 1962 by death and as yet a replacement has not been secured. W e are, at this time, actively recruiting for six positions and ifthe six additional spaces are approved and filled,we will have a total of 73 present for duty. It is our belief that this number approacher the maximum that can be handled efficiently in our present office and laboratory facilities. When definitive word is received that Phase I1 construction has been approved, we will again recruit for members of the scientific staff. *3 additional enlisted and 3 additional civilian spaces requested 7. Funds. Colonel Brennan gave the following resume of the statue of AFRRI-funds : Ob 1ig at ed

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8 . Consultants. Colonel Ransen briefed the Board on the status of consultant matters as follows: A t our last meeting this Board gave the AFRRI Directorate permission t o informally determine the availability and willingness of prospective members to serve on the panel of consultants. This has been accomplished and w e want t o present the list t o you at this time. The list is composed of those who have indicated affirmatively their willingness t o serve. As you can see some 50 outstanding personnel make up the list. I would like to emphasize at this time that all on the list have been approached informally and no commitments made o r implied. In those cases where the desired person is either military or a civilian employee of a Defense establishment, no official efforts through channels have been made. The Charter expressly states that consultants will be appointed by the ThisSecretary of the Navy following recommendation by the Board of Governors. list is presented f o r your consideration. 9. LINAC. Captain Chambers gave the following status report on the LINAC:- With regard tothe progress of the linear accelerator, the first round of bids "came in" with a figure that wa6 approximately a factor of 2 above available funds. The r pec if i cations were rewritten retaining sufficient flexibility t o permit the procurement of a useful machine that could be expanded as funds became available. The second round of bids w i l l be opened around 30 October. 10. Events since last Board of Governors Meeting. Colonel Brennan outlined Phase I11 training activities as follows: Phase I11 Training has comprised the major effort on the part of the majority of the staff of AFRRI over the past several months. bo king over the

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work prepared by GA i n La Jolla which is a training manual related to the MSATRIGA reactor, it was felt that an expansion of this material was needed. Accordingly, of the seven chapters in the original manual, six have been completely reworked, one chapder taken out entirely and a new radiological safety manual as related t o AFRRI and the DASA-TRIGA reactor completely rewritten. many outlines and handouts have been prepared so that there has been a much greater volume of paper work accomplished regarding this Phase I11 training. Some 426 slides of 173 views have been prepared. Whenever possible, multiple slides, so thata 3-dimensional picture of the system in question could be effected, were made. I would like to emphasize that th io work has been done almost entirely by the AFRRI staff. GA has had one man in charge of Phase I11 Training here since February 1962. He has furnished inestimable help i n the preparation of this material, however, almost in its entirety this work has been accomplished by the AFRRI staff. This gives us a complete course outline for further Phase I11 type of training, that is tosay,reactor operator training, available and on the shelf so that this work will not have t o be repeated and offers a very valuable source of information. Following is a resume of main events since the last meeting of t h e Board. 20 Jun Final Safeguards Summary accepted by AEC 26 Jun Utilization licenses issued by AEC 28 Jun Reactor reached critical it y 28 Jun Acceptance tests started 29 Jun First Entry into FNER 23 Jul Phase 111, Didactic Portion Started 23 Jul First Pulse 1 Aug Acceptance Tests Finished 24 Aug Phase 111, Didactic Portion Finished 31 Aug Readtor and System accepted by Bureau of Yards 0 Dock6 3 Sep Practical Portion of Phase I11 started 8 - 11 Oct GA Certification Tests 15 Oct Finish Phase I11 Training 16 - 19 Oct AEC Tests 11. Policy Considerations. Colonel Holmes opened t h e discussion by stating that recent developments in the formation of AFRRI operating procedurer had indicated the need for a careful study of command and management procedures incident tothe operation of the Institute. presented for discussion by the Board: The following recommended action w a s A. Recommend formation of a top level Task Force with the specific obdective of providing a DOD-Tri-Service coordinated plan for the operation of

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the AFRRI, t o include command and management proceduree. mitte d to the Board o f Governors for its consideration at the earliest hsi ble This plan would be SubL-B. Recommend that the Board of Governors reaffirm its intent that the AFRRI be a "joint agency of the three military departments". C. Reconrmend that the Task Force be comprised of the following: Charles Brewer - DOD Office of Adm, DOD After discuasion by those present of the need for such a study, it wa6 agreed that the Chaliman would initiate the necessary action for formation of the recommended study group and report on the findings of the group at the next Board of Governor8 meeting. 12. Dedication, The matter of a speaker for the dedication of the AFRRI was discussed and General Booth proposed General blame11 Taylor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,for coneideration. would be invited t o be the principal speaker at the dedication. It was agreed that General Taylor 13. There being no further business, the meet was adjourned at 1230 hour8. Secretary, Board of Qover