BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
UNCLASSIFIED
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cient promise, experimental removal of radioactive strontium on a pilot-plant scale could be
undertaken, since the Department of Agriculture has facilities for processing a¢ s much as 100
gallons of milk per hour.
Reports on Fallout
On May 5 Chairman McCone announced that the AEC would release quarterly information
on fallout gathered by scientists of the AEC and its contractors.*
The quarterly reports containing detailed tabulations on domestic and world-wide fallout
levels will continue to be issued by the AEC Health and Safety Laboratory in New York. These
reports are published for sale through the Office of Technical Services, Department of Com-
merce.
'
PROJECT CHARIOT ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
The Commission has approved planning for biological studies to be conducted before and
after the proposed detonation of nuclear devices for excavating a harbor in Alaska, Not often
in the history of the United States has there been an opportunity to give scientific study to
landscapes and seascapes prior to their exploitation. Project CHARIOT offers the first complete opportunity to gauge the effects of nuclear detonation on ecological systems. The studies
associated with the project will provide much basic knowledge, important both economically
and scientifically, of natural living resources in a little known area of Alaska. Activities to be
conducted include:
1. Biological inventory listing taxonomically the flora and fauna of land, ocean,
:
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z
and fresh water,
2. Mapping and photography. of vegetation patterns and animal concentrations,
3. Dynamic aspects of biological communities such as food chains, land, sea and
water productivity, seasonal changes, and migrations of people, land and sea animals,
and birds and fishes,
4. Studies of human populations, including food habits and seasonal migrations,
and
5. Studies of the physical environment including geology, meteorology, marine
currents, and pre- and post-shot radiation measurements of plants, animals, and
soils.
Participating in this program will be the University of Washington, the University of
Alaska, the Arctic Research Center, and the ceoloey group of the General Electric Companyat
Hanford.
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Grants Awarded to Educational Institutions
The AEC announced in May that grants totaling $382,098 were being awarded to 41 universities to encourage nuclear training in life sciences. This was the seventh of a series of
* A statement on fallout was issued by the AEC to the public on September 8. The AEC will continue
to make routinely available fallout information, either through similar releases or through procedures
developed by the Federal Radiation Council. President Eisenhower on August 22 established by executive
order the Federal Radiation Council to advise him on radiological health. The President also directed that
the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare have the primary responsibility within the Executive
Branch for the collation, analysis, and interpretation of data on environmental radiation levels.
UNCLASSIFIED
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DOE ARCHIVES
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