John W. Healy

⁽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