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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (May 31, 1959)
to run this is important to budgetmakers. Yet it would take a bold man to assess in terms of mere cash a recent yard-long BNL product no thicker than the business end of a softball bat. lt was pure cobalt metal. BNL scientists irradiated it for most of a year in another of their tools, the controlled A bomb known as an atomic research reactor. This turned the bar into cobalt"", a great blessing to cancer patients. BNL people get a lot more satisfaction knowing their cobalt" is helping keep fellow human beings alive than in thinking about its money value. Nonetheless, the price tag on a chunk of natural radium the size of this one would exceed $80 million or what it cost us to build Brookhaven! What is Brookhaven's main goal? It is one so broad you have to stop and think a P lip w minute before it starts to focus; it is some thing which, unfortunately, you cannot touch, taste, smell, see, or hear. Knowledge is its name, and it alone is the main work of the 1,800 men and women of BNL. How does Brookhaven justify its dedica tion to pure research without concern about discovering things which can be converted promptly to cash? It doesn't try to. Along with President Eisenhower and others re sponsible for the free world's future, BNL feels that its objectives justify themselves. In use around the clock at Brookhaven, for example, are a number of different atom smashers. Oldest is the nuclear reactor, a many-slotted, 25-foot graphite cube shielded with five feet of high-density concrete. This is to protect scientists from neutron radia tion as the uranium slugs inside the reactor turn out up to 30 megawatts (30,000 kilo watts) of incidental thermal power. Cost of this one atom smasher: $27 million. The immediate product of this chain reacting 700-ton cube is called a neutron. By carefully bringing together enough fission able material (in this case, Uranium 235), a "critical mass" is obtained. That means the stuff reacts with itself to produce neutrons n greater quantity than the reacting mass can absorb them. These split off other neu trons to keep the process going. With inspection and uranium-fuel replen ishment shutdowns every couple of weeks or so, the reactor has steadily churned out neu ' j!is and irradiated some 300 items a month for medical and other research purposes. The reactor even has facilities for "radiating animals and instruments. During research on neutron-bombardment therapy 'or the brain tumor known as glioma, the reactor also was able to accommodate human wings in a delicate 150-man procedure. Prospects for this therapy and similar medi cal programs were so promising that, last December, Brookhaven dedicated the only hospital with its own research reactor to continue the work. Treatments which called for 150 helpers per patient at the original reactor will now be handled by two or three nuclear experts under medical supervision. How safe is the reactor? So safe that it couldn't possibly explode, no matter what happened. Could it "run away" or burn up and spew radioactive material into the at mosphere? Never. Why not? Because of the "scram circuits" or automatic shutdown alarms. The reactor is responsive to a total of 56, yet any one of these "scram circuits" can smother the chain reaction in a flash by automatically ramming home all the boron steel control rods. Similar multiple-check, foolproof devices prevent any accidental withdrawal of those rods too rapidly. Brookhaven has first hospital devoted ex clusively to atomic research in medi cine. Geiger counter shown here follows path of radioactive material swallowed by patient with can cer condition in thy roid gland. The "X" marked on throat en ables operator to focus machine accu rately durinq test. Among the more interesting features of Brookhaven for the general public or at any rate for the first 10.000 who write in for invitations to the annual three-day open house in October is the so-called Gamma Garden. This carefully guarded 10-acre cir cular tract has a pipe at dead center with a radioactive cobalt slug inside that is hoisted for 20 out of each 24 hours to test the effects of gamma radiation on plant life. To permit work in the garden, the cobalt is lowered for half an hour at .8: 30 a.m. and again for three-and-a-half hours at 1 p.m. From May to October the plants nearest the "source," as the cobalt slug is called, wither and die. while in concentric rings out from it they develop the mutations which BNL geneti cists study for clues to the secrets of life. Since all but a tiny fraction of BNL's work is unclassified, and none of it is connected with atomic weapons, the three-day October open house is welcomed by the entire staff as an opportunity to show what we as a nation are doing for the nuclear future. One day is for high-school students, one for col lege people, and one for Mr. and Mrs. U.S.A. As you might expect in a lofty operation like BNL, run as it is by Associated Univer sities, Inc. (Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Colum bia, Princeton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Rochester, Pennsylvania, Har vard, and Yale) under a nonprofit, no-strings-attached contract with our Atomic Energy Commission, there are no mad scien tists. You might ask directions of one with a distant look in his eye, as I did, but he will always be a helpful soul who could tell you a great deal more than how to get to the place you're going. The nearest thing to a mad scientist that I found at this exciting place was a computer or electronic brain known, in all seriousness, as MANIAC. It's a condensed nickname for the special counting job it handles. Family Weekly, May Jl, 1959 IS " COLD ? HAY"FEVER?J'AtXERGY?' NEW 'SPRAY HELPS CLEAR NASAL-SINUS AREAS UP TO 20 TIMES FASTER than any tablet! Anahist Research Laboratories, N. J. Doctors know that spray therapy is the fastest effective way to relieve nasal-sinus congestion caused by summer colds, hay. fever and other allergic reactions. And now, doctors have developed a new nasal-spray formula that is so effective it helps clear your nasal-sinus areas up to 20 limes faster than any meredeconges tant tablet. Called Super Anahist Nasal Spray, it reduces congestive pressure . . . relieves head pain . . . restores easy breath ing . . . almost instantly! Super Anahist Nasal Spray contains an exclusive antihistamine, Thonzylamine, tocounteract allergic reactions that cause nasal-sinus congestion. Plus amazinp Thonzide that melts away mucus. Plus decongestants to help shrink swollen nasal-sinus membranes. Plus an anti biotic that kills germs on contact. T Gel new Super Anahist Nasal Spray, in the handy purse or pocket-size plastic squeeze bottle, at any drug counter. For adults and children. Also in nose-drop form. DON'T LIE AWAKE AGAIN TONIGHT! You'll fall asleep fast, sleep soundly all night, with safe, non-narcotic SLEEP-EZE Tablets. Contain no dangerous, habit-forming drugs. Yet proved effective as barbiturate pills in clinical tests. Coronet Magazine reports SLEEP-EZE "well within the safe medication zone" the only tablets so designated. Get SLEEP-EZE today. At drug counters everywhere, 79c. No prescription needed. Money back guarantee. Don't lie awake again tonight. Just take SLEEP-EZE and close your eyes. Next thing you'll know, it's morning ! . u s r.i oti. 4 Minion BABIES That's the number of babies that will be born in the U.S.A. this year. They'll be needing more food, clothing, houses, schools, roads more of everything that makes oppor tunities for us all. FREE ! Send for this new 24 page illustrated booklet of .facts, "Your Great Future in a Growing America." Drop a post card today to: ADVER TISING CouNCIt, Box 30, Mid town Station, New York 18, New York. SWHB I SUPER-, --RELIEF DOUEJ r QUICK O REMOVAL -Dr. 5v.!oU' 2'uo-ne, not oaiy epeedily relieve coma, aora toea n4 torn tar arjota they aim remove coma one of the qukhent wava known to medical acitmcet Gel thitt feat relief today. SLOW GOING? Hurry it up a little. ..chew Feen-a-mint! It works where a laxative should chiefly in the lower bowel. Removes mostly waste, not good food you need for health. Non irritating you feel fine, full of life and energy. So get delicious Feen-a-mint. 16 tablets, 37 also small and economy sizes. FEEN-A-MINT. The Chewing-Gum Laxative? was r lawn pin I QUICK f Speed It up tact with just a few drops of 3-IN-ONE. Penetrates hard-to-get-at places. Dosen't gum up. 3in-o:iE oil lMnl on tratf IIKIIK M10I Photo Oredit( Page 2: UN, Harold M. Lamb.rt. f Page 4: llth Annual Graftal Photo Contest. Page 7: UPI. Paget C, 15: Brookh jvon National Laboratory, Page It: Oitie Sweet. FALSE TEETH KLUTCH holds them tighter KI.t'TCII forma a cmnrort rtnhlon; holda dental plilpi to nuih llrmer and tniwaer that one ran eat and talk with greater comfort and aerurttw In many raiei almoit vail aa wltk natural taetfc. Klutrh lrrn the mutant fear of a dropplni, rorklna, rhallnc plate. 8." and tOr at druialilt. If your druinlil hain't It. daa't waile ajeaey ta tnbitltutei, but tend ui 10 and we will nail you a gctteroui trial boi. KLUTCH CO Se sm-ce, EMra, N. Y.
