Health Physicist Karl Z. Morgan, Ph.D.

¹radiation of high penetrating power originating in outer space and consisting partly of high-energy atomic nuclei

²Manhattan Engineering District, the Government agency that oversaw development of the atomic bomb under the ultrasecret Manhattan Project

³Dr. Arthur Compton of the University of Chicago headed a National Academy of Sciences committee that in May 1941 recommended to Dr, Vannevar Bush, head of the National Defense Research Committee, that nuclear research be pursued as part of the national defense effort for several purposes, including development of an atomic bomb. In the summer of 1941, Bush instructed Compton to assess technical questions related to critical mass and destructive capability and verify a British conclusion that development of a uranium bomb that could be dropped from existing aircraft was feasible within two years. On November 6, 1941, Compton reported a conclusion less sanguine than that of the British but still confirming the feasibility of an atomic weapon deliverable by aircraft. Early in 1942, as part of the emerging effort to develop an atomic bomb, Bush appointed Compton to be one of three program chiefs with responsibility to run chain reactions and develop weapons theory. As a result, under Arthur Compton, the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago became a critical research facility for the Manhattan Project.

⁴radiation that interacts with matter by stripping electrons from their orbits around nuclei, leaving the nucleus with a positive charge

⁵Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. Fermi's underground labs would become the site of the world's first sustained nuclear chain reaction, December 2, 1942.

⁶Morgan actually spent less than 10 months in Chicago, ending in September 1943.

⁷For the transcript of the interview with Gamertsfelder, see DOE/EH-0467, Human Radiation Studies: Remembering the Early Years; Oral History of Dr. Carl C. Gamertsfelder, Ph.D. (scheduled to be published later in 1995).

⁸(eV)—a unit of energy equal to the energy acquired by an electron accelerating through a potential difference of 1 volt and equivalent to 1.602 × 1019 joules

⁹an abnormal reddening of the skin due to local congestion, such as inflammation

¹⁰an electron or positron emitted from an atomic nucleus in beta decay. Uranium emits beta particles because its beta-emitting decay products are present.

¹¹a highly penetrating photon of high frequency, usually 1019 Hz or more, emitted by an atomic nucleus

¹²a positively charged particle consisting of two protons and two neutrons, emitted in radioactive decay or nuclear fission; the nucleus of a helium atom

¹³not containing hydrogen

¹⁴instruments for detecting ionizing radiation and measuring dose rate

¹⁵white or colorless, tasteless, odorless, waxy, solid mixtures of alkanes, used especially in candles and sealing materials

¹⁶Dr. Leo Szilard (1898–1964) was a Hungarian-born American physicist who with Walter Zinn proved the possibility of self-sustaining nuclear fission in1939 at Columbia University. At the University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory with Enrico Fermi, Szilard determined the amount, configuration, and means to control uranium fuel and directed the first nuclear chain reaction, December 2, 1942. He remained at the Metallurgical Lab until 1946, when he returned to his university position and concentrated on research in molecular biology.

¹⁷a unit of radiation dosage equal to the amount of ionizing radiation required to produce one electrostatic unit of charge of either sign per cubic centimeter of air

¹⁸thin, flat plates with a thin layer of phosphorus-32

¹⁹radiation, especially braking radiation, gamma rays, or x rays, emitted by decelerating charged particles

²⁰the outermost layer of skin

²¹"man"—the species whose members are known popularly as "human beings"

²²director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Biology Division

²³a professor of Radiology at the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, site of research involving plutonium and human subjects. Dr. Warren worked on the Manhattan Project and headed an Intramedical Advisory Committee.

²⁴For the transcript of the interview with Friedell, see DOE/EH-0466, Human Radiation Studies: Remembering the Early Years; Oral History of Dr. Hymer L. Friedell, Ph.D. (scheduled to be published later in 1995).

²⁵Joseph Hamilton, an M.D., worked at Crocker Laboratory, then the site of a 60-inch cyclotron that he operated to produce radioisotopes in support of research and some medical diagnosis and treatment. Crocker was part of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, later renamed Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, located at the University of California at Berkeley. Hamilton is discussed in several transcripts of this series, notably in the interviews with John Gofman (DOE/EH-0457, June 1995) and Earl Miller (DOE/EH-0474, June 1995). Hamilton spent most of his career at the Laboratory before dying prematurely of leukemia brought on, colleagues believe, by occupational exposure to radiation.

²⁶Dr. Paul Aebersold established the administrative system for distribution of radioactive isotopes. After working on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, from 1942 to 1946, he served as director of the Atomic Energy Commission's Isotopes Division at Oak Ridge from 1947 to 1957. He retired as the Director of the AEC's Office of Isotopes Development in 1965. Two-and-a-half years later, he committed suicide. For additional information on Dr. Aebersold, see "Safety of the Nuclear Industry" in the interview with Merril Eisenbud (DOE/EH-0456, May 1995) and "Remembrances of Personalities" in the interview with Earl Miller (DOE/EH-0474, June 1995).

²⁷International Commission on Radiological Protection

²⁸ National Council on Radiation Protection. Although the words "and Measurements" were later appended to the name, the council's initials remain NCRP.

²⁹ radioactive nuclides (atomic species in which the atoms all have the same atomic number and mass number)

³⁰After the interview, Morgan submitted the following clarification: "Insofar as I can determine, I published the first paper in the open literature showing how to calculate permissible levels of exposure to radionuclides (Morgan, K.Z., ?Tolerance Concentration of Radioactive Substances,' J. Physical & Colloid Chemistry, 51, p. 984). All my previous publications were on cosmic radiation and on the meson, the fourth basic particle of matter. Now there were known four basic particles: the electron, the proton, the neutron, and the meson. All were published in the Physical Review (Vol. 52, No. 6, Sept. 1937; Vol. 54., No. 4, Aug. 15, 1938; Vol. 56, No. 11, June 1939; and, Vol. 57, No. 2, Jan. 15, 1940). These publications were [written] jointly with W.M. Nielsen and L.W. Nordheim of Duke University."

³¹determining of the amount of material present in tissue, urine or feces by any trial measurement

³²having an atomic number higher than 92, the atomic number of uranium

³³Morgan adds: "Our first studies on body fluid analysis were conducted by Ralph Firmanack and Larry Farabee. They developed the early methods of determining uranium, plutonium, and strontium (238U, 239Pu, and 89Sr and 90Sr) in urinal feces, among other research."

³⁴Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

³⁵The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was created in 1947. Morgan meant to say the Manhattan Engineer District (MED).

³⁶For the transcript of the interview with Lushbaugh, see DOE/EH-0453, Human Radiation Studies: Remembering the Early Years; Oral History of Pathologist Clarence Lushbaugh, M.D. (April 1995).

³⁷Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, established in 1946 by the Manhattan Engineer District and operated under a Manhattan Project (and later Atomic Energy Commission) contract. ORINS was responsible for training physicians and researchers in the safe handling of radioisotopes and in the development of isotope applications in medicine. In addition, ORINS was responsible for selecting both students and established scientists for fellowships and other temporary research assignments. Today, the educational and training functions of ORINS are carried out by its successor, Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE).

³⁸using pressurized air

³⁹Medium-Exposure-Rate Total Body Irradiator

⁴⁰The 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.

⁴¹The Idaho Falls National Laboratory accident, SL-1, was a reactor accident that resulted in the death of three workers. For an extended discussion of the SL-1 reactor accident, see "Fatal Worker Accident at Idaho's SL-1 Reactor (1961)" in DOE/EH-0454, Remembering the Early Years: Interview With Dr. George Voelz, M.D. (May 1995).

⁴²breastbone

⁴³the total-body irradiation facilities

⁴⁴a family of cells that function in the immune system's defense against foreign bodies

⁴⁵See also the comments by Lushbaugh in the section of his interview, "Charges That the Oak Ridge Radiation Therapy was Not Effective."

⁴⁶Mother Jones is a monthly magazine specializing in investigative journalism from a progressive political perspective. It is published by the Foundation for National Progress.

⁴⁷originating in the bone marrow

⁴⁸Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representative, 97th Congress, First Session, September 23, 1981, No. 63: Human Total Body Irradiation (TBI) Program at Oak Ridge, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington: 1982.

⁴⁹the Systême Internationale (SI) unit of dose equivalent when the absorbed dose is measured in gray

⁵⁰Sipe worked with Lushbaugh at Oak Ridge in the 1960s, serving as the day-to-day manager of the Low-Exposure-Rate Total Body Irradiator (LETBI). She was present during the Lushbaugh interview; her comments are found throughout that transcript (DOE/EH-0453). In that interview, Lushbaugh and Sipe vigorously challenge charges that their therapeutic radioisotope treatments were unethical.

⁵¹For the transcript of the interview with Vodopick, see DOE/EH-0482, Human Radiation Studies: Remembering the Early Years; Oral History of Dr. Helen Vodopick, M.D. (August 1995).

⁵²the portion of a fraction that appears below the "divided by" line—the amount into which the value above the line is divided

⁵³managing and operating contractor of the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, formerly known as Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies (ORINS)

⁵⁴operated by the U.S. Army, Dugway Proving Grounds is the field test site for U.S. chemical warfare agents. Dugway also has been used for radiological effects testing.

⁵⁵A Department of Energy weapons site in Aiken, South Carolina, that, during the Cold War, was the major source of tritium for hydrogen bombs

⁵⁶United Kingdom

⁵⁷in Canada

⁵⁸the biological effects of excessive exposure [greater than 100 rem (or 1 Sv) of penetrating radiation]

⁵⁹radiation warfare, the use of fission-product radiation to kill enemy troops

⁶⁰For more on the Green Run Experiment, with an emphasis on its military purpose and the involvement of the U.S. Air Force, see DOE/EH-0455, Human Radiation Studies: Remembering the Early Years; Oral History of John W. Healy (May 1995).

⁶¹an excavating machine with a bucket attached to a hinged boom that digs by being drawn toward the machine; invented in the first half of the 1940s

⁶²Eugene Paul Wigner (1902–95), U.S. physicist born in Hungary

⁶³where it would be assembled into nuclear bombs

⁶⁴time allowed for the short-lived fission products to decay away so that the fuel rods could be chemically processed and plutonium separated out

⁶⁵become incorporated, as by absorption

⁶⁶Photographic film manufactures strive to create silver iodide crystals that are flat and disklike, to expose more surface area to light. In the same way, Morgan and his group hoped to develop disklike metal particles, whose ample surface area would trap more iodine, which would fall to the chamber floor, fixed to the metal disks, where it could be safety disposed of.

⁶⁷the use of extremely low temperatures

⁶⁸referring to the site of the first atomic bomb explosion, July 16, 1945, in the New Mexico desert. Alamogordo is a small community 50 miles southeast of the test site.

⁶⁹In August 1949, the Soviet Union detonated a nuclear device that U.S. authorities subsequently coined "Little Joe." The United States responded in part by deciding in 1950 to advance to the next generation of thermonuclear weapons, fueling the country's need for tritium. Little Joe also necessitated the creation of a monitoring program to determine the design of other countries' nuclear weapons by analyzing the content of radionuclides present in fallout from their weapons' tests.

⁷⁰in reference to a single-source radiolanthanum test program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. See CIC documents # 707033, 707034 & 707689.

⁷¹Since the area of a circle is r2, the area increases as the square of the radius. Hence, by doubling the release-point–to–pasture distance from 5 miles to 10, the crew could have spread the fallout over 314 square miles (3.14 × 100) instead of 79 (3.14 × 25), effectively diluting by 75 percent the dose reaching the cows.

⁷²the Federal agency that regulates the safety of commercial nuclear power plants

⁷³Morgan adds: "This visitor from the UK has sent me reports showing the present MPC values of tritium, 3H, are too high by at least a factor of five. This visitor is Ian Fairline from St. Bartholomew's Medical College."

⁷⁴the Internal Dose Committee of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP)

⁷⁵Berger and Montague, P.C.

⁷⁶the branch of medicine dealing with the statistics of incidence and prevalence of disease in large populations and with detection of the source and cause of epidemics; also: the factors contributing to the presence of absence of a disease

⁷⁷relating to substances or agents that tend to produce cancer

⁷⁸the Freedom of Information Act of 1974, which entitles U.S. citizens to see Government documents that would otherwise remain privileged or classified

⁷⁹Iron-55 has a half-life of 2.94 years; iron-59, 45.1 days. Unlike iron-55, iron-59 emits beta and gamma radiation.

⁸⁰Martin Marietta Energy Systems (now Lockheed-Martin), the prime contractor for Oak Ridge National Laboratory

⁸¹Morgan adds: "I have the highest admiration for your Secretary O'Leary for the brave stand of openness and honesty she has taken, but I have a sense of uneasiness. I testified in the Karen Silkwood case and know of these heroic women who have suffered the same fate as Karen. I fear she has a bear by the tail."

⁸²Hyman George Rickover (1900–1986), U.S. Navy admiral, born in Poland; helped to develop the nuclear submarine and is sometimes called the "Father of the Nuclear Navy"

⁸³pressurized water reactor—one of the two kinds of light-water reactors used in virtually all domestic commercial nuclear reactors. Actually, U.S. Navy submarines rely chiefly on the other kind: boiling water reactors (BWRs).

⁸⁴Shoreham, the Long Island, New York, nuclear plant that operated for only a few days before being shut down because of safety concerns

⁸⁵ the other prime contractors operating Government-Owned, Contractor-Operated (GOCO) facilities that comprise the DOE's former Weapons Complex

⁸⁶Wigner Force, the short-range nuclear force of nonexchange type postulated by physicist Eugene Wigner as part of the interaction between nucleons

⁸⁷Nuclear waste from Swedish commercial nuclear reactors is encased in special copper-clad glass capsules, which in turn are stored underground in stable granite formations.

⁸⁸NaCl, ordinary table salt