paper by Professor Donald P.

Geesaman:

So there is a hot particle problem with plutonlum in the luny, and tne not particle proklem is .ot

understlocd, and there is no guidance as to the risk.
I don't think there is any controversy about that.

Let re: guote

to you from Dr.

K.

2.

Morgan's

testimony

in January of this year before the Joint Committee on

Atomic Energy,

U.S.

Congress.

[a]

Dr.

K.

2.

Morgan

is one of the United States' two members to the main
Committee of the International Commission on Radiclogical Protection;

he has been a member of the com-

mittee lonausr tnan anyone; and ne is director of
Health Physics Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
I quote:
"There are many things about radiation

exposure we do not understand,

and there will continue

to be uncertainties until health physics can provide
a coherent theory of radiation damage.
This is why

some of the basic research studies of the USAEC are so

important.

D.

P. Geesaman and Tamplin have pointed

out recently the problems of plutonium-239

particles

and the uncertainty of the risk to a man who carries

such a particle of hiah specific activity in his lungs.
At tne Sana Rearlinc, in response to the committee's

inquiry about priorities in basic research on the biological effects of radiation, Dr.

M.

Eisenbud,

then

Director of the New York City Environmental Protection

Administration,

in part replied,

"For some reason or

other the particle problem has not come upon us in
quite a little while, but it probabiy will one of these
_days.
We are not much further along on the basic
’ question of whether a given amount of energy delivered
to a progressively smaller and smaller volume of tissue
is better or worse fcr the recipient.
This is another

way of asking the question of how you calculate the dose

when you inhale a single particle."
correct;

[a]

[b]

the proplem has come up again.

Morgan, K. Z.,

He was

“Radiation Standards for Reactor Siting,"

in Environmental Effects of Producing Electrical Power

Testimony presented at Hearings before the Joint

Phase 2.

Committee on Atomic Energy,

91st Congress,

1970.

Washington, D. C., U. S. Government Printing Office.
[b>]

Eisenbud, M.

Panel Discussion.

In:

Environmental Effects

of Producing Electrical Power, Phase 2.

Testimody presented

at Hearings before the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy,

Jlst Congress,

1970.

Printing Office.

Washington, D. C., U. S. Government

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