This quarterly progress report gives an overview of the University of Rochester Atomic Energy Project for April 1, 1950 thru June 30, 1950. Sections included are entitled (1) Biological Effects of External Radiation (X-rays and gamma rays), (2) Biological Effects of External Radiation (Infra-red and ultraviolet), (3) Biological effects of radioactive materials (polonium, radon, thoron, and miscellaneous project materials), (4) Uranium, (5) Beryllium, (7) thorium, (8) fluoride, (9) zirconium, (10) special materials, (11) Isotopes, (12) Outside services, (12) Project health, (13) Health physics, (14) Special Clinical Service, and (15) Instrumentation (Spectroscopy, electron microscopy, x-ray and nuclear radiation detectors, x-ray diffraction, and electronics).

Radioactive strontium can serve as a tracer to gain information concerning calcium metabolism in human subjects. Gamma-emitting Sr{sup 85} is used rather than the much more hazardous, beta-emitting Sr{sup 89} and Sr{sup 90}. (ca{sup 47} -- the ideal tracer for normal calcium -- is quite expensive and difficult to procure.) Very significant information may be obtained merely by measuring and recording the changes in radioactivity in various body areas during the first hour after intravenous injection of the bone-seeking radioisotope. This is accomplished by placing a lead-shielded gamma-scintillation detector in contact with the skin over the sites of interest and recording the activities on a scaler or ratemeter. The activity versus time curves so obtained are called radioisotope osteograms. Data were presented which indicated that Sr{sup 85} osteograms for patients afflicted with osteoporosis, Paget`s disease, tumor metastases to bone, and possibly multiple myeloma, differ significantly from those obtained from subjects with no skeletal abnormalities. Some interpretations of these deviations were discussed. The value of conducting double-tracer tests (e.g. -- Sr{sup 85} plus radio-iodinated serum albumin) was demonstrated, and correlations with excretion data were made. With further refinements the technique may ultimately become useful for certain diagnostic problems in the clinic …

This report covers the activities of the Biomedical Research Group (H-4) of the Health Division during the period January 1 through December 31, 1954. Organizationally, Group H-4 is divided into five sections, namely, Biochemistry, Radiobiology, Radiopathology, Biophysics, and Organic Chemistry. The activities of the Group are summarized under the headings of the various sections. The general nature of each section`s program, publications, documents and reports originating from its members, and abstracts and summaries of the projects pursued during the year are presented.

In this report ten cases of acute radiation syndrome are described resulting from two accidents occurring at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory of unique nature involving fissionable material. These cases are described in considerable detail. The report comprises ten sections. This volume, part II of the report, is comprised of sections entitled: (1) the Biological Basis for the Clinical Response seen in the Acute radiation Syndrome, (2) Clinical Signs and Symptoms, (3) Discussion of Hematological Findings, (4) Chemistry of the Blood and Urine, (5) Discussion of Pathological Findings, and (6) Reconsiderations of the Calculated Radiation Doses in Terms of the Observed Biological Response of the Patients. This report was prepared primarily for the clinician who is interested in radiation injuries and therefore emphasis has been placed on the correlation of clinical and pathological changes with the type of cytogenetic change known to be produced by ionizing radiation.

This document provides the monthly reports for the Reactor Operation Branch for the months of January through December 1955.

This volume is a quarterly progress report for the University of Chicago Toxicology Laboratory. Thirteen individual reports are contain herein and each has been separately indexed and abstracted for the database.

Fission-production of krypton-85 in natural uranium piles is substantial and in direct proportion to plutonium production. The known chemical and nuclear properties of krypton are such as to permit its determination in air samples taken at considerable distance from its force and to allow correlation of such measurements with plutonium production.

A healthy 39-year-old male weighing 65 kg was exposed for a period of 8 months to varying levels of HTO. The average tritium activity in body fluids over the entire period was 23 {mu}c/liter. A few weeks after exposure, when the HTO activity in body fluids had declined to about 0.2 {mu}c/liter, a biopsy was pe formed on skin and fat taken from the region of the lower abdomen, and the material was analyzed for tritium activity. The skin showed an average activity equivalent to 0.4 {mu}c/kg of dry tissue and the fat about 0.3 {mu}c/kg of dry tissue. The radiation dose per unit time from these activities was only 1 to 2 percent of the radiation dose per unit time during the 8-month exposure period. It was concluded that the radiation hazard due to retention of tritium in the organic components of these tissues of man after chronic exposure was negligible compared to the radiation hazard from HTO activity in the body fluids which was necessary to induce the activity into the organic components. Comparable experiments on mice previously reported indicate that this conclusion may hold for all tissues in the body. The water content of the skin and …

This memorandum has been prepared to define the proposed plant waste scavenging test and to present an operating flow diagram and operating procedures for use during the test.

Tests performed to determine the hazard associated with the inhalation of radioactive materials as the result of smoking with contaminated hands indicate that for dry uranium compounds adhering to the palmar surfaces of the hands, approximately 1.0% of the material may be transferred to a cigarette, and that of this approximately 0.2% may appear in the smoke which is inhaled. Most of the contamination originally placed in a cigarette was found in the ash, and only 11% of the material was not recovered following burning; approximately half of this loss may be attributed to normal losses inherent in the analytical process, the recovery efficiency for which was found by supplementary experiments to be 95%.

Exploration of various types of power plant cycles for nuclear propelled aircraft has been continued during this quarter. The principal current objective of the project is the development of information which will make an intelligent choice of the basic power plant cycle possible. It is still hoped that this choice can be made late in 1950. The survey studies which have been under way for several months continued during the quarter. These consist of analyses and rough preliminary layouts for various types of aircraft, using each of the several basic cycles which have been seriously considered for each of the three phases of development. Although it is still extremely premature to discuss the relative merits of the various cycles, the information so for developed discloses some cycle differences which may, if confirmed by additional work, be significant. In this respect, there have been no recent major changes in the comparative standings of the cycles.

Six subjects received a few millicuries Of tritium by inhalation of isotopically labeled hydrogen gas. The concentration of H{sup 3} in the urine of these individuals has been followed for a period of some 15 days. The rate of excretion of the tritium was found to be constant for a given subject but to vary considerably, among individuals. Data on five individuals arbitrarily normalized to coincide at zero time showed a range in biological half-life from about 9 days to nearly 13 days. These values are to be compared with the value calculated for the Chalk River ``Standard Man`` of 13.5 days, assuming the tritim to be confined to the body water.

A series of experiments on exposure of man and rats to tritium gas (HT) or tritiated water (HTO) are reported. In one human experiment 3 millicuries of HTO was administered in 200 milliliters of water by ingestion. Absorption into the blood stream was linear with time and complete in about 45 minutes. Body water turnover was measured over a period of six days by weighing all food and fluid intake and all excretory output. For four days water turnover was kept near normal (2.7 liters per day). During the last two days water turnover was increased to 12.8 liters per day. Tritium excretion rates was determined on eight other human subjects in which water turnover in which measured less precisely. The biological half-life of HTO in nine human subjects varied from 9 to 14 days on ad libitum and was reduced to 2 1/2 days in one subject on high water intake. The tritium activity in sweat, expired water vapor, septum and urine was found to be essentially the same as that in water from the blood. Rats were continually exposed to various concentrations of tritium in inspired air (0.000001 to 0.03 microcuries per ml) for periods up to 145 …

This report is a bibliography of studies on the toxicology of polonium with focus on issues addressed by the Atomic Energy Commission, but also includes published literature. Some of the citations contain abstracts and the reports are annotated as to contemporary classification status of reports.

An archaeological field study was conducted along the Green River in the areas of Little Hole and Browns Park in Utah and Colorado. The purpose of the study was to measure the potential for hydropower operations at Flaming Gorge Dam to directly or indirectly affect archaeological sites in the study area. Thirty-four known sites were relocated, and six new sites were recorded. Information was collected at each site regarding location, description, geomorphic setting, sedimentary context, vegetation, slope, distance from river, elevation above river level, and site condition. Matching the hydrologic projections of river level and sediment load with the geomorphic and sedimentary context at specific site locations indicated that eight sites were in areas with a high potential for erosion.

The economic development of nuclear reactors depends upon the integrated progress in the fields of reactor design, fuel element design, reactor operation, and fuel production and separation. Broad criteria, which restrict the fuel element design, are determined by the mutual consideration of the problems encountered in all the above fields. Hence, no stage of reactor design or operation is independent of the fuel element problem, nor can the fuel element designer disregard the interest of any one field. As an introduction to the fuel element design problem, this chapter describes how the general criteria for a fuel element are determined.

The relative physiological and toxicological properties of americium and plutonium have been studied following their intravenous administration to rats. The urinary and fecal excretion of americium was similar to that of plutonium administered as Pu(N0{sub 3}){sub 4}. The deposition of americium the tissues and organs of the rat was also similar to that observed for plutonium. The liver and the skeleton were the major sites of deposition. Zirconium citrate administered 15 minutes after injection of americium increased the urinary excretion of americium and decreased the amount found in the liver and the skeleton at 4 and 16 days. LD{sub 30}{sup 50} studies showed americium was slightly less toxic when given in the acute toxic range than was plutonium. The difference was, however, too slight to be important in establishing a larger tolerance does for americium. Survival studies, hematological observations, bone marrow observations, comparison of tumor incidence and the incidence of skeletal abnormalities indicated that americium and plutonium have essentially the same chronic toxicity when given on an equal {mu}c. basis. These studies support the conclusion that the tolerance values for americium should be essentially the same as those for Plutonium.

The fifteenth quarterly report being submitted for Contract No. AT04-1-GEN-12 is issued in accordance with Service Request Number 1 except for the report of the Alamogordo Section, Code 91810, which is submitted in accordance with the provisions of Service Request Number 2. Work is in progress on continuing existing projects. In addition, new projects have been initiated including the Kinetics and Mechanism of Protein Denaturation (10018); The Effect of Irradiation on the Constituents of Embryonic Serum (30033); and The Use of Controlled Atmospheres for Spectrographic Excitation Sources (40053). Many of the Project units are either wholly or partially completed and the following initial reports are available: Identification of Ferritin in Blood of Dogs Subjected to Radiation from an Atomic Detonation (UCLA-180); The Nutritional Value of Intravenous Tapioca Dextrin in Normal and Irradiated Rabbits (UCLA-181); The-Decarboxylation and Reconstitution of Linoleic Acid (UCLA-183); Preparation and Properties of Thymus Nucleic Acid (UCLA-184); The Radiation Chemistry of Cysteine Solutions Part II. (a) The Action of Sulfite on the Irradiated Solutions; (b) The Effect on Cystine (UCLA-185); A Revolving Specimen Stage for the Electron Microscope (UCLA-178); An Automatic Geiger-Mueller Tube Tester (UCLA-186); The Value of Gamma Radiation Dosimetry in Atomic Warfare Including a Discussion of …

Physical data are presented for transverse CSF samples with capsule exposures of 568, 1049, and 1617 MD/CT. The higher exposures indicate a sharper damage gradient toward the front of the pile. Additional casings of various types of graphite were loaded into test holes during this month. Average values of the thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity for several types of virgin graphites are presented. Data of this nature will be a regular portion of this report henceforth. Process tube channel 2677-H was mined and traversed for bore diameter. Although several of the tube block junctions were obscured, the channel was quite uniform. Examination of all previously mined graphite powder samples for aluminum oxide corrosion product has been completed and the results are reported.

This document provides Part VII, Section I, Paragraphs 1 through 16 and Part VII, Section II of the Material and Equipment Section`s activities during the fabrication of reactor components and vessels at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation.

This document provides Part VII, Section III and Section IV of the report of the Material and Equipment Section`s activities at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation. The fabrication, inspection, and testing of reactor components is detailed.

This report is a letter describing the reactivity gains of the Hanford Production Reactors.

The purpose of this production test is to provide a standard method of obtaining scram transient reactivity information at the eight reactors, under conditions conducive to valid data. These conditions include the bypassing of the Panellit system at a low power level for a short, controlled period of time during May 1959.

The pinhole neutron experiment is sometimes called ``Pinex``, a name which has also been used to describe the pin method of measuring the time required for imploding metals to travel to certain locations in space. The two experiments are not related and should not be confused with each other. The pinhole neutron experiment is very similar to the optical pinhole camera in which light passing through a pinhole in an opaque screen produces an inverted image of the source. In the pinhole neutron experiment 14 Mev neutrons from a thermonuclear device travel in straight.lines from their respective points of origin outward in all directions. Those which pass through a pinhole in an opaque neutron shield make an inverted neutron image of the source. Some of the neutrons which form the image are captured by threshold detector plates which have been suitably located behind the pinhole. Neutrons that have sufficient energy react with the nuclei of the detector plate to form radioactive nuclei that by their decay locate the position of the image on the plate. The image may be made visible by autoradiography or counting techniques. In the autoradiograph, an x-ray film is placed in contact with the image plate. …