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Radiation safety in industrial operations
NUCLEAR ENERGY NEWS
DISTRIBUTION
OF CYCLOTRON-PRODUCED
RADIOISOTOPES
The Atomic Energy Commission has decided to discontinue, effective November 30, 19.55, its program for the processing and distribution of cyclotron-produced radioisotopes because private industry appears to be prepared to assume this function. The decision will not affect the Commission’s program for the production and distribution of reactor-produced radioisotopes and electromagneticallv-concentrated stable isotopes. The bulk of the radioisotopes distributed by the Commission has been produced in reactors. The Commission will also continue to perform, upon payment of applicable charges, service irradiations in its cyclotrons. The AEC began the production, processing and distribution of cyclotron-produced radioisotopes in 1949. The purpose of the program was to assist medical and biological research by providing radioisotopes that could not be produced in a nuclear reactor or could not be prepared from reactor-produced radioisotopes to meet activit? specifications. The more important of these radioisotopes are Beryllium 7, Sodium 22, Arsenic 73 and 74, Iron 59, Zinc 6.5 and Iodine 125. ,A total of 793 shipments of cyclotron-produced radioisotopes with a total activity of 4,065 millicuries, was distributed from June 1949 through June 1955. RADIATION
SAFETY IN INDUSTRIAL
OPERATIONS
The steps taken to protect workers from radiation in the Hanford plutonium plant were described at the Geneva Atoms-for-Peace Conference by Herbert M. Parker, head of the radiological sciences department at the Hanford plant, which is operated by the General Electric Company for the Atomic Energy Commission. He said that a sensible approach to radiation hazards in atomic energy installations is “to accept it as a necessary evil of the business.” He described the Hanford plant as a “good cross section” of the radiation hazards that may be expected in peaceful applications of He said that Hanford includes a number of high-power atomic energy. nuclear reactors, chemical separation plants, plutonium purification facilities, associated control laboratories and major research and development laboratories. In 10 years at Hanford, Parker reported, there has been no case of serious overexposure to radiation or contamination, even though 411
412
NUCLEARENERGYNEWS
[J. F. I.
“the magnitude of the radiation hazard can be described as the equivalent of handling some millions or tens of millions times the available world’s supply of radium.” He said the Hanford record indicates that radiation hazards in the atomic energy industry can be adequately controlled by methods that are economically reasonable. Hanford studies indicate that the cost of operating with high standards is little more than the necessary cost for marginal protection. He said that this condition fortunately removes the risk of jeopardizing the future of the atomic energy industry by “over-zealous competitive reduction” of hazard controls. SMALLAECTESTREACTOR The Atomic Energy Commission has asked industrial firms interested in designing and fabricating a small nuclear reactor for testing reactor cores to submit proposals for construction. The reactor, to be built at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho, will be a high pressure water-moderated and water-cooled type. Tests of reactor cores will be conducted in the reactor under severe operating conditions as part of the Commission’s program for determining safe operating limits and developing reactor designs incorporating maximun safety characteristics. This small reactor is expected to cost between $250,000 and $500,000. It will supplement the $15,000,000 engineering test reactor that is to be built at the same site. (See this JOURNAL,Vol. 260, p. 132.) The small reactor is to be in operation in mid-1956 and the large ETR the next year. GENERALELECTRICRADIATIONLABORATORY A new radiation laboratory was opened by the General Electric A former factory building at the SchenecCompany in mid-August. tady plant was converted to this new use. It now houses a U-millionvolt betatron, a high-voltage heavy-particle accelerator and a lOOOcurie cobalt-60 source. It also contains several laboratories for the handling, testing, and analysis of radioactive materials. The new facility will serve operating components of the company as well as carry on an engineering program of its own. This program will concern primarily studies of activation analysis, tracers, accelerators, radiation effects on various materials, and instrumentation. ADDITIONAL PROCUREMENT OF ZIRCONIUMAND HAFNIUM The Atomic Energy Commission plans to procure additional quantities of high-purity zirconium and hafnium metals to meet the increasing requirements of its reactor development program and of The tentative goal is 2,000,OOO currently scheduled Navy projects.
DISTRIBUTION
OF CYCLOTRON-PRODUCED
RADIOISOTOPES
The Atomic Energy Commission has decided to discontinue, effective November 30, 19.55, its program for the processing and distribution of cyclotron-produced radioisotopes because private industry appears to be prepared to assume this function. The decision will not affect the Commission’s program for the production and distribution of reactor-produced radioisotopes and electromagneticallv-concentrated stable isotopes. The bulk of the radioisotopes distributed by the Commission has been produced in reactors. The Commission will also continue to perform, upon payment of applicable charges, service irradiations in its cyclotrons. The AEC began the production, processing and distribution of cyclotron-produced radioisotopes in 1949. The purpose of the program was to assist medical and biological research by providing radioisotopes that could not be produced in a nuclear reactor or could not be prepared from reactor-produced radioisotopes to meet activit? specifications. The more important of these radioisotopes are Beryllium 7, Sodium 22, Arsenic 73 and 74, Iron 59, Zinc 6.5 and Iodine 125. ,A total of 793 shipments of cyclotron-produced radioisotopes with a total activity of 4,065 millicuries, was distributed from June 1949 through June 1955. RADIATION
SAFETY IN INDUSTRIAL
OPERATIONS
The steps taken to protect workers from radiation in the Hanford plutonium plant were described at the Geneva Atoms-for-Peace Conference by Herbert M. Parker, head of the radiological sciences department at the Hanford plant, which is operated by the General Electric Company for the Atomic Energy Commission. He said that a sensible approach to radiation hazards in atomic energy installations is “to accept it as a necessary evil of the business.” He described the Hanford plant as a “good cross section” of the radiation hazards that may be expected in peaceful applications of He said that Hanford includes a number of high-power atomic energy. nuclear reactors, chemical separation plants, plutonium purification facilities, associated control laboratories and major research and development laboratories. In 10 years at Hanford, Parker reported, there has been no case of serious overexposure to radiation or contamination, even though 411
412
NUCLEARENERGYNEWS
[J. F. I.
“the magnitude of the radiation hazard can be described as the equivalent of handling some millions or tens of millions times the available world’s supply of radium.” He said the Hanford record indicates that radiation hazards in the atomic energy industry can be adequately controlled by methods that are economically reasonable. Hanford studies indicate that the cost of operating with high standards is little more than the necessary cost for marginal protection. He said that this condition fortunately removes the risk of jeopardizing the future of the atomic energy industry by “over-zealous competitive reduction” of hazard controls. SMALLAECTESTREACTOR The Atomic Energy Commission has asked industrial firms interested in designing and fabricating a small nuclear reactor for testing reactor cores to submit proposals for construction. The reactor, to be built at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho, will be a high pressure water-moderated and water-cooled type. Tests of reactor cores will be conducted in the reactor under severe operating conditions as part of the Commission’s program for determining safe operating limits and developing reactor designs incorporating maximun safety characteristics. This small reactor is expected to cost between $250,000 and $500,000. It will supplement the $15,000,000 engineering test reactor that is to be built at the same site. (See this JOURNAL,Vol. 260, p. 132.) The small reactor is to be in operation in mid-1956 and the large ETR the next year. GENERALELECTRICRADIATIONLABORATORY A new radiation laboratory was opened by the General Electric A former factory building at the SchenecCompany in mid-August. tady plant was converted to this new use. It now houses a U-millionvolt betatron, a high-voltage heavy-particle accelerator and a lOOOcurie cobalt-60 source. It also contains several laboratories for the handling, testing, and analysis of radioactive materials. The new facility will serve operating components of the company as well as carry on an engineering program of its own. This program will concern primarily studies of activation analysis, tracers, accelerators, radiation effects on various materials, and instrumentation. ADDITIONAL PROCUREMENT OF ZIRCONIUMAND HAFNIUM The Atomic Energy Commission plans to procure additional quantities of high-purity zirconium and hafnium metals to meet the increasing requirements of its reactor development program and of The tentative goal is 2,000,OOO currently scheduled Navy projects.