New Hot Laboratory Facilities which support three major research programs directed by the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory of the University of California are described. For the Nuclear Rocket Propulsion Program, a hot cell addition to the Radio Chemistry Building at Los Alamos will be completed early in 1963, and construction is expected to start soon on the hot cell addition to the Maintenance, Assembly and Disassembly Building at the Nuclear Rocket Development Station in Nevada. Integral hot laboratories are designed in the facilities for the Ultra High Temperature Reactor Experiment and the Fast Reactor Core Test at Los Alamos. (auth)

Abstract: Two nuclear accidents involving a plutonium sphere just subcritical in size occurred at the Los Alamos Laboratory, LA-1 in 1945 and LA-2 in 1946. Because remote control devices were deemed unreliable at the time, the tamper material (tungsten carbide bricks in LA-1 and beryllium hemispheres in LA-2) was added by hand with the operator standing next to the assembly. In each case the critical size of the assembly was accidentally exceeded and the resultant exponentially increasing chain reaction emitted a burst of neutrons and gamma rays. Ten persons were exposed to the radiation bursts which were largely composed of neutrons. The doses ranged from fatal in the case of the two operators, to small in the case of some survivors. The two operators died within weeks as a result of acute radiation injury. Only six of the eight survivors were available for follow-up study ten or more years after the accident. Four of these six survivors are now dead, but the two living survivors are in excellent health with no clinical or laboratory evidence of late radiation injury. Two of the deceased died of acute myelogenous leukemia, another died at age 83 of refractory anemia, and the fourth of …

The operation of the Fast Reactor is considered in terms of normal equilibrium conditions and normal shut-down. The proposed loading, control rod adjustment and subsequent "floating" operation are discussed. Safety devices and interlocks are described. Temperature and reactivity changes are examined with respect to various system failures, phase changes, and "flashing" of the reactor. Slow changes due to faulty slug cooling are also considered. The calculations were initially based upon 10 kw operation. Performance tests of the mercury system now indicate that 20-kw operation may be feasible.

The following report describes the high pressure and temperature homogeneous reactor experiment which has been started at Los Alamos, as well as the hazards and safety aspects for the experiments.

Abstract: This document is a survey analysis of soil samples from Los Alamos, Pueblo, Bayo, and Mortandad canyons to determine the presence and activities of radioactive contaminants. Also included are the results of analyses of a few samples of grass and of surface water. This survey covers the period from spring 1953 to spring 1955.

Abstract: "A description of the instrumentation for neutron flux measurement from Kiwi-A at NTS is given as some discussion of start-up considerations, detector design, system response adjustments, and power calibration of the reactor at some low level of power."

Photograph of Helen Moore, wearing a dress and a hat, sits on rocks near a road at the base of a cliff at Frijoles Canyon, New Mexico. On the back of the photograph is written: "Frijoles Canyon, N. M. June 1, 1959."

Onionskin carbon copy of letter from John J. Herrera, LULAC National President, to Ivey Gonzalez, Superintendent of the Identification Bureau, Police Department, Wichita Falls, Texas dated January 8, 1953. Herrera inquires about setting up a meeting to discuss LULAC and possibly organizing a LULAC council in Wichita, Falls. Herrera mentions the eight new councils set up so far in his presidency of LULAC: El Paso; Port Arthur; Wharton; Seguin; Smeltertown, and Victoria, Texas; and Deming and Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Preface: This report contains data and information on the resurvey effort and the effect of residual contamination as a result of nuclear weapons development programs conducted in this area.

This report documents the CY 1975 environmental monitoring program of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL). Data are presented for concentrations of radioactivity measured in air, ground and surface waters, sediments, soils, and foodstuffs, and are compared with relevant U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration guides and/or data from other reporting periods. Levels of external penetrating radiation measured in the LASL environs are given. The average whole-body radiation dose to residents of Los Alamos County resulting from LASL operations is calculated. Chemical qualities of surface and ground waters in the LASL environs have been determined and compared to applicable standards. Results of related environmental studies are summarized.

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Quarterly LULAC Information Sheet from Men's LULAC Council Number 212 of Los Alamos, New Mexico. Signed by Samuel O. Sandoval, President of the council.

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Abstract: "This report indicates some of the methods employed at Los Alamos for the fabrication of refractory products."

Notes Based on a set of five lectures given by R. Serber during the first two weeks of April 1943, as an "indoctrination course" in connection with the starting of the Los Alamos project.