Word: aec
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Ordinary steel rings are put in the AEC's atomic pile at Oak Ridge and "cooked" for a month in neutrons. The process changes part of their normal iron into radioactive iron 59. Packed in 300-lb. lead cases, the "hot" rings are shipped to Richmond, Calif, and stored in a thick-walled closet (called "the cave") in the Research Corp.'s basement...
Atomic-age man had better learn, and quickly, how to live with radiation. Last week the Atomic Energy Commission called a conference in Washington of sanitary engineers and sewage and water supply experts from all over the U.S. There is no reason to get panicky, the AEC said in its best scientific manner, but the U.S. must realize that the use of radioactive substances is increasing rapidly. Public health authorities must familiarize themselves with radioactivity as a regular problem. In the curriculum of the atomic age, said AEC Chairman David E. Lilienthal, radiation "has become a kind of fourth...
Locks & Winds. At present, AEC experts explained, this fiercely dangerous stuff is well locked up. The Clinch River flowing near Oak Ridge is less radioactive than many mineral springs whose water is highly prized for drinking. The air outside the Oak Ridge plant is safe too. A man moving to Oak Ridge would get increased radiation equivalent only to the increase he would get (from cosmic rays) if he moved from sea level to an altitude of 5,000 feet, e.g., Denver...
Plumbing & Clams. But the time is coming, the AEC warned, when radioactive substances will be common outside such guarded centers. More & more laboratories are using radioisotopes (see above), and the atomic power plants of the future will necessarily contain vast quantities of radioactive material. It will be the duty of health authorities to see that none of the stuff damages the public...
Hafstad's job in the AEC will require at least as much tact as physics. He will have to get along with atom-minded private companies, such as General Electric and Westinghouse, and with the Navy and Air Force, which are also atom-minded. "The intent," he says, "is to increase the tempo and get more aggressive and effective work going...