410387
April 19, 1953
Dr. John N. wolfe, Chiat
Bnvironmental sciences Branch
Division of Blology and Medicine
U.3. Atomic “nergy Commission
Washington 25, D.c.
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Dear Dr. Wolfe:
In response te your suggestion of April 9, we have reviewed
the Laboratory's past and present programs in an effort to determine how much of the ltaboratory's total effort has bean devoted
to
‘crash’ programs or te special
field expeditions or scientific
con3sultetions that were beyond the normal flow of jLaboratory
inguiry.
The Laboratory, by tradition, has been on call for special
services to the Atomic Energy Commission and,
in certain casas,
=o other agencies whose interests parallel those of tha Commis-
zion.
These services have Deen uaed consistently and with con-
Siderable frequency «ver the years because the Jaboratory,
particularly in its Pacific studies, has accunuiated an unparalleled familiarity with the environment in which nuclear acti~
vities have been conducted.
In addition,
the Laboratory's
specific interest in aquatic 3jitucdies is unique among Commission-
aponsyered agencies, and thus its services have been required
repeatedly in programs that were planned at the highest lavels
and which the [faboratory cauld not have anticipated in its plang
for budget and staff.
In such instances, the Laboratory has
been required to turn from its regularly scheduled investiqa~
tions toa make whatever field studies might currently be required,
and it is this combination of experience and flexibility that has
been characteristic of the Laboratory's performance.
In reviewing the occasions in which the Laboratory has been
requested to perform specilai missions for the Commission, the
“crash” programs have been considered to be those whica either
were of an emergency nature or involved the Laboratory in ways
that could not be anticivated in the preparation of the continuing program: and budgets,
[It must be recognired that in many