UNCLASSIFIED Part Vi Biology and Medicine - BROOKHAVEN MEDICAL RESEARCH CENTER (UNCLASSIFIED) The Brookhaven National Laboratory Medical Research Reactor (MRR) frent critical at 9:44 p.m., March 15, 1959. Critical loading is 2,249.3 grams of uranium 239 approximately 100 grams less than was calculated. The MRR will be run for several week to conduct low power measurements. Patient treatment is expected to begin later this yea The program at Brookhaven utilizing the medical reactor will involve (9) exploration of therapeutic effectiveness of neutron capture therapy in certain types of braifh tumors, (2) exploration of diagnostic usefulness and therapeutic effectiveness of radioisot§pes of very short half-life, which will be produced in the reactor, and (3) activation analysis gpplied specifically to biological specimens. With regard to short-lived radioisotopes, one of these, magnesium 56, has been applied at Brookhaven to liver metastases in malignant neoplasia, FALLOUT HEARINGS Preparation of material was under way for the new hearings on falloutfto be held before the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, scheduled to begin on May 5, 1959 Bibliographic ma-~ terial was being prepared by the Technical Information Service Extension,JOak Ridge. PROJECT CHARIOT A Planning Committee on Environmental Sciences has been establish studies aimed at accomplishing a biological survey of the Cape Thompsonfarea of Alaska. In these studies, information will be compiled on marine and land populationjdensities, migratory habits, food chains, oceanography, and other pertinent subjects, as part of an investigation to enable the Commission to make the necessary evaluation as to the feasibflity of Project CHARIOT, a proposed experimental nuclear detonation near Cape Thompgon which would pro- vide an excavation suitable for a harbor. Dr. John N. Wolfe, Chief of the Environmental Sciences Branch of Division of Biology — and Medicine, is Chairman of the Planning Committee. Other members ihclude representatives of the Laboratory of Radiation Biology at the University of Washington, the Atomic Energy Project of the University of California at Los Angeles, and other appropiate organizations. Committee members will confer with such organizations as the Alaska h and Game Depart- x UNCLASSIFIED D0E VES