(1) For the transcript of the
interview with Dr. Voelz, see DOE/EH-0454, Human Radiation Studies:
Remembering the Early Years; Oral History of Dr. George Voelz, M.D. (May
1995)
(2) Wilmington, Delaware, Du
Pont headquarters
(3)a substance that slows or
thermalizes neutrons to enable the fission process. In modern reactors, water is
used as the neutron moderator.
(4) Mr. Healy chose to rewrite
his introductory statement, "to make it flow better and to make some items
somewhat clearer." It retains its original flavor.
(5) a fundamental particle of
matter
(6) a radiation detector that
matches two simultaneous emissions from a single radioactive decay
(7) All Government cars had been
fitted with speed governors to save gas.
(8) The time required for half
the atoms of a radioactive substance to decay
(9) A device that measures beta
particle emissions from radioactive materials
(10) A round, clear, convex
piece of glass used to cover beakers when boiling solutions to prevent spillage
(11) As the radionuclides
decayed, they caused the watch glass to glow with visible light, like a watch
dial coated with tritium or (formerly) radium.
(12) Both river samples and
reactor water
(13) Facilities where plutonium
is extracted from irradiated fuel elements
(14) A unit of measure
expressing activity of radioactive substances
(15) A radioactive substance
that emits electrons or positrons during radioactive decay
(16) Million electron-volts, a
unit of energy
(17) Release of alpha particles
from atomic nuclei during radioactive decay
(18) 52 percent of the
disintegrations were detectable with this counting geometry.
(19) In 1988, Congress changed
the name and mission of the National Bureau of Standards to the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
(20) T = time since the blast
(21) A U.S. Air Force version
of the Douglas DC-3 commercial airliner
(22) Chemically inert gases
such as neon, helium, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon
(23) A risk philosophy now
commonly practiced in radiation safety and better known by its acronym, ALARA
(24) The quantity of ionizing
radiation whose biological effect is equal to that produced by one roentgen of x
rays
(25) The first British
production reactors went into operation in 1950-51 in Windscale, England on the
Irish Sea. In October 1957, an incident occurred at Reactor Number One which
resulted in the release of excessive amounts of radioiodine and other
radioisotopes to the environment. Use of milk from local farms was discovered to
pose the greatest radiological health hazard to the local community.
(26) The derivation of release
limits for iodine-131
(27) 16-day cooling material
refers to the time between the end of irradiation in reactor and the start of
reprocessing of fuel elements.
(28) A gaseous element
(29) U.S. Atomic Energy
Commission, the predecessor agency to the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
(30) For the transcript of the
interview with Gamertsfelder, see DOE/EH-0467, Human Radiation Studies:
Remembering the Early Years; Oral History of Carl C. Gamertsfelder,
(scheduled to be published later in 1995).
(31) Vent to the atmosphere
(32) "Pi-ball" stands
for spherical or 4 pi ( ) geometry, the shape of the plastic neutron moderator
around the neutron detector.
(33) A metallic element
belonging to the platinum group of metals; the isotope was mainly ruthenium-106
(34) Radioactive
(35) A colloquial term commonly
used to refer to the Hanford site, or the Hanford Engineer Works, north of
Richland, Washington
(36) Because of the heavy
winter overcast or inversion that persists for many weeks
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