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(1)John Lawrence, M.D., brother of
Ernest O. Lawrence, was Director of the Division of Medical Physics at the
University of California, Berkeley. He operated a clinic at Donner Laboratory,
where he treated leukemia and polycythemia patients with radioactive phosphorus.
For a colleague's recollection of Dr. Lawrence's clinic, see the interview with
Dr. John Gofman (DOE/EH-0457), the
sections "From Research to Laboratory Production of Plutonium," "Medical
Treatments With Radioactive Phosphorus (32P)," "Conflict Between
University of California San Francisco and Berkeley," "Heparin and
Lipoprotein Research With Human Subjects," and "Radiophosphorus
Therapy for Polycythemia Vera."
(2)"the bends." The bends are
caused by tiny air bubbles released into tissue by a too-rapid decrease in air
pressure after staying in a compressed atmosphere, such as the too-rapid ascent
of a diver from deep in the sea to normal atmosphere at sea level. It is
potentially fatal. Aviators experience a similar phenomenon in ascending too
rapidly to high altitude in an unpressurized cockpit without the protection of a
pressurized flightsuit. In this circumstance, aviators are at high risk of
blacking out and losing control of their aircraft.
(3)an accelerator in which particles move
in spiral paths in a constant magnetic field
(4)the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
organization set up to administer the development of the atomic bomb under the
top-secret Manhattan Project. Originally headquartered in New York, it was moved
to Washington, D.C., and finally to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in the summer of 1943.
(5)established by an executive
order June 28, 1941—six days after German troops invaded the Soviet Union.
The OSRD's Director reported directly to the President and could invoke the
prestige of the White House when dealing with other Federal agencies. The
National Defense Research Committee, at the time headed by Harvard President
James Conant, became an advisory body responsible for making research and
development recommendations to the OSRD.
(6)The UC Radiation Laboratory was
founded by Ernest Lawrence in 1936 on the campus of the University of California
at Berkeley. Upon Lawrence's death in 1958, the lab's name was changed to
Lawrence Radiation Laboratory. The name changed again, in 1971, to Lawrence
Berkeley Laboratory, a National Laboratory under the U.S. Department of Energy.
(7)Joseph Hamilton, 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. 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 Lawrence Radiation Laboratory before dying
prematurely of leukemia brought on, colleagues believe, by occupational exposure
to radiation.
(8)then a generic term for the U.S. Army
Air Corps, which became the U.S. Air Force, a separate service, in 1947
(9)a thousandth of a curie; one thousand
microcuries. A curie represents 37 billion radioactive decays per second.
(10)a millionth of a curie
(11)U.S. physicist, 1901–1958; a
pioneer in nuclear physics who built and operated (with M. Stanley Livingston
and Milton White) the first cyclotron in 1930 on the Berkeley campus of the
University of California; established University of California Radiation
Laboratory in 1936 and served as its director until his death. His ingenuity and
drive made the Berkeley-based Radiation Laboratory the unofficial capital of
nuclear physics in the United States.
(12)U.S. nuclear physicist (1904–1967)
who played a principal role in the development of the atomic bomb
(13)any of several cancers of the bone
marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of white blood cells in the
tissues, resulting in anemia, increased susceptibility to infection, and
impaired blood clotting
(14)a class of diseases characterized by
overproduction of red blood cells
(15)a 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
(16)the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission,
predecessor agency to the U.S. Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC); established January 1, 1947
(17)U.S. chemist, born 1912, professor
of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, discoverer of several
heavy elements and Nobel Prize recipient in 1952
(18)a protein in red blood cells that
transports oxygen from the lungs to the tissues of the body
(19)unattached cells
(20)a medical specialist who studies the
nature, function, and diseases of the blood and of blood-forming organs
(21)radiation-detection instruments
for counting the rate of radiation emissions from radionuclides inside a
subject's body
(22)radiation of high penetrating
power originating in outer space and consisting partly of high-energy atomic
nuclei
(23)The particles would appear
fleetingly, as flashes of light.
(24)a laboratory set up at the UC
Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley during the 1930s specifically to conduct
experiments in medical physics
(25)National Aeronautics Civilian
Administration (NACA), the predecessor to the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA)
(26)The U.S. Department of Energy was
established in 1977. Tobias may be referring to the U.S. Energy Research and
Development Administration (ERDA), a predecessor agency established earlier that
decade.
(27)an accelerator in which protons are
raised to very high energy levels, measured in billion electron-volts (BeV), by
modulating the frequency of accelerating voltage. Derives its name from BeV +
a (connective) + tron.
(28)a hybrid of two accelerators: a
bevatron and a super-HILAC or Heavy
Ion Linear ACcelerator
(29)Albuquerque, New Mexico
(30)Upton, New York
(31)Brain tumor patients were injected
with a discrete amount of boron that was intended to deposit in the tumor. The
tumor was then bombarded with a beam of neutrons that was directed to the boron
in the hope of destroying the tumor.
(32)From 1951 to 1961, Brookhaven
conducted boron neutron capture therapy on 45 patients. All were suffering from
aggressive and otherwise untreatable types of brain tumors; all had received
conventional radiation treatments. The therapy was unsuccessful. Patients
so-treated generally lived only as long as patients with the same types of brain
tumor who were treated with conventional radiation therapies. The work was
funded by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Source:
Human Radiation Experiments Associated with the U.S. Department of Energy
and Its Predecessors (213 pages), DOE/EH-0491, July 1995.
(33)Advances in technology that
deliver higher concentrations of boron to tumor tissues for potentially improved
therapy have brought about the return of boron neutron capture therapy. As a
result, Brookhaven is currently involved in BNCT research and clinical trials.
(34)Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
(35)an uncontrolled, abnormal,
circumscribed growth of cells in any tissue; neoplasm
(36)Argonne National Laboratory
outside Chicago
(37)A pioneer in radiation therapy, Robert
Stone, M.D., had conducted human radiation studies before World War II. He was
an early researcher at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory and became a major
figure in radiobiology research. When Joseph Hamilton began operating his
60-inch cyclotron at Crocker Laboratory, Stone requested that fission products
be made on the cyclotron and that their fate in mammals be systematically
studied in small animals. That information would be used for radiation
protection proposes. In 1942, while chairing the Department of Radiology at UC
San Francisco's medical school, Stone was recruited to lead the Medical Division
of the Manhattan Project, overseeing all biological, medical, and radiological
protection research. Accordingly, he moved to the University of Chicago, where
he served as Associate Director for Health under Arthur Compton. In the 1950s,
after serving in the Atomic Energy Commission, Stone returned to his post at the
UCSF as head of the Department of Radiology. Under Stone, UCSF acquired a 70-MeV
synchrotron for conducting therapeutic research.
(38)A 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 in Oak
Ridge as head of the medical section and headed an Intramedical Advisory
Committee. After World War II, Dr. Warren became dean of the University of
California, Los Angeles Medical School.
(39)Shields Warren, M.D., was Chief
Pathologist at New England Deaconess Hospital and Professor of Pathology at
Harvard Medical School. He joined the U.S. Navy Medical Department in 1939 and
wrote with others on what was then known about radiation during World War II.
Dr. Warren served on the first U.S. team to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki after
they were bombed with atomic weapons and was involved in creating what became
the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission. He was the first director of the AEC's
Division of Biology and Medicine and, later, established his own cancer research
institute at New England Deaconess Hospital. See "Recollections of Shields
Warren" in DOE/EH-0471, Human
Radiation Studies: Remembering the Early Years; Oral History of Radiologist
Henry I. Kohn, M.D., Ph.D. (June 1995).
(40)the small gland attached to the base
of the brain, constituting the master endocrine gland affecting all hormonal
functions of the body
(41)an endocrine gland located at the
base of the neck and secreting two hormones that regulate the rates of
metabolism, growth, and development
(42)The 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).
(43)the branch of pathology dealing with
the structure of normal or diseased tissue
(44)From 1951 to 1977, Durbin worked as
a chemist and radiobiologist at the Crocker Laboratory of the Lawrence Radiation
Laboratory (Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory). For the transcript of the November,
11, 1994 interview with Durbin, see DOE/EH-0458,
Human Radiation Studies: Remembering the Early Years; Oral History of Dr.
Patricia Wallace Durbin, Ph.D. (June 1995).
(45)AEC Headquarters
(46)In January 1978, the Soviet military
space satellite,
Cosmos 954, broke up during an uncontrolled reentry and scattered
radioactive parts and fuel from its on-board nuclear power plant over a
483-mile-wide swath in the vicinity of Great Slave Lake in the Northwest
Territories of Canada. Cosmos 954 was a Soviet radar ocean
reconnaissance satellite (RORSAT) that had been sent into orbit to detect and
track U.S. Navy aircraft carriers worldwide. Because the power demands of the
satellite's radar exceeded the capability of solar power systems of the day, the
Soviet low-earth-orbit RORSATs were powered by a small nuclear generator. The
U.S.–Canadian North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) detected the fact
that Cosmos 954's orbit had experienced unplanned decay, leaving the
time of reentry predictable to within a day, but the point of reentry impossible
to foretell. Civilian emergency service organizations in many parts of the world
were placed on secret alert (without being told why) until after the reentry.
The crash of Cosmos 954 in Canada resulted in no reported human
injuries. Under an existing treaty, the Soviet Union was liable for all costs
associated with cleanup. The event led to further international negotiation to
limit the use of nuclear power in space. Later generations of Soviet RORSATs
were redesigned to separate and boost their nuclear power plant into a higher
parking orbit at the end of their mission life.
(47)Hanford Site, near Richland,
Washington
(48)See Tara O'Toole, et al., Hazards
Ahead: Managing Cleanup Worker Health and Safety at the Nuclear Weapons Complex
(80 pages),
OTA-BP-O-85, Washington, DC: Congressional Office of Technology Assessment,
February 1993. O'Toole is now DOE's Assistant Secretary for Environment,
Secretary, and Health. For DOE's perspective on the need for a cleanup, see Closing
the Circle on the Splitting of the Atom: The Environmental Legacy of Nuclear
Weapons Production in the United States and What the Department of Energy is
Doing About It (106 pages), DOE Office of Environmental Management, January
1995.
(49)a positively charged particle
consisting of a proton and a neutron, equivalent to the nucleus of an atom of
deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen having twice the mass of ordinary hydrogen)
(50)remove (or, in this context,
destroy) the pituitary gland
(51)relating to metastasis, the
spread of disease-producing organisms or of malignant or cancerous cells to
other parts of the body by way of the blood or lymphatic vessels or membranous
surfaces; or, the condition so produced
(52)relating to the nervous system
(53)the Advanced Biomedical Center at
Oakland, California
(54)National Cancer Institute
(55)In this context, technology transfer
means the transfer of Government-sponsored research results or benefit of
facilities to the private sector.
(56)Since the candidate was already
tumor-free, the risk-to-benefit ratio would have been unnecessarily high.
(57)in the Archives and Records Office of
the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
(58)William Emil Siri, (1919–),
a physicist, worked on the Manhattan Project at UC Berkeley from 1943 to 1945.
Afterward he conducted research at Donner Laboratory. Siri researched the
application of radioisotopes to biology and medicine. He also studied
high-altitude physiology, leading expeditions to the Peruvian Andes, the
Himalaya Mountains, and Antarctica.
(59)The subsequent interview with Siri
proved unusable as it was full of lacunae.
(60)National Council on Radiation
Protection. Although the words "and Measurement" were later appended
to the name, the council's initials remain NCRP.
(61)the DOE's former site for plutonium
production located near Richland, Washington
(62)the development of a cancer
(63)the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA)
(64) predecessor to the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services
(65)Tobias, likewise, was born in
Hungary.
(66)an accelerator in which electrons are
accelerated to high energies by an electric field
(67)highly penetrating photons of
high frequency, usually 1019 Hz or more, emitted by an atomic nucleus
(68)Phase III clinical trials, to
establish the validity of a therapy compared to other current methods.
(69)To ensure statistical validity, the
study had to remain "double blind": neither researcher nor patient was
to know whether the patient was receiving heavy ions, an alternative form of
radiation, or (for certain control groups) none at all.
(70)a partly muscular gland that surrounds
the urethra in males at the base of the bladder and secretes an alkaline fluid
that makes up part of the semen
(71)isotopes formed by radioactive
decay of another isotope
(72)For the transcript of the December
20, 1994 interview with Gofman, see DOE/EH-0457,
Human Radiation Studies: Remembering the Early Years; Oral History of Dr.
John W. Gofman, M.D. (June 1995).
(73)National Institutes of Health,
Bethesda, Maryland
(74)Laguna Honda Home—a hospice
for people dying of cancer
(75) an agency of the United Nations
headquartered in Vienna, Austria
(76) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(77) an agency of the United Nations
(78)Dr. 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 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); "Remembrances of
Personalities" in the interview with Earl Miller (DOE/EH-0474, June 1995); and "Oak Ridge
Committees (Isotope Distribution, Human Use, et al.") and "Vanderbilt
University Study of Pregnant Women and Iron-59" in the interview with Karl
Morgan (DOE/EH-0475, June 1995).
(79)the radioactive isotope in pure
form, without an added amount of stable isotope of the same element
(80)one of three clinical facilities
created by the AEC in 1948. While the AEC owned the 58-bed Chicago hospital, the
University of Chicago medical school administered and staffed the facility.
Patients were admitted on a selective basis: physicians chose persons whose
condition best suited the hospital's research and treatment applications. The
hospital admitted its first patient in January 1953. The AEC terminated its
contract with the hospital in 1974.
(81)research into preventing "the
bends" in bomber pilots
(82)Cordillera Mountains; a range
of the Andes in Peru and Columbia
(83)relating to the formation of
blood
(84)a disorder of the pituitary gland in
which too much growth hormone is produced, resulting in enlargement of the head,
hands, and feet
(85)residents of the Marshall
Islands, a group of 34 atolls in the west central Pacific where the United
States performed atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons in the 1950s. Since 1986
the Marshall Islands have been a self-governing area associated with the United
States.
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