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IOLOGY AND MEDICINE
radiation dose and the incidence of genetic mutations. Although this relationship has not been
demonstrated at the low dose rates prevailing in nature, the possibility of such a relationship
has led to the suggestion that geographical variations in the frequency of spontaneous mutations may be correlated ultimately with differences in the natural radiation dose to populations,
The July-September 1957 quarterly report described the preliminary results of a study of
natural background radiation performed in August by a team from the Health and Safety Laboratory of the New York Operations Office. A report dated March 11 entitled “External Environmental Radiation Measurements in the United States” (HASL-25) presents the data and the
team’s analysis,
In order to establish the approximate range of population exposures to cosmic and terres-
trial gamma radiation, an effort was made to attain results which would be representative of
the unperturbed natural background and which would be influenced as little as possible by the
occasional substantial variations in the observed natural radiation levels produced by localized
sources. Such sources might be ore bodies, granite buildings, brick paving, fallout, etc.
The measurements were made with a specially designed ionization chamber over a period
of 17 days during the course of a round trip by automobile from New York City to Utah. Readings were recorded from 154 locations in 19 states.
To account for the cosmic ray contribution at the higher altitude locations in the mountain
states, measurements were later made at corresponding altitudes along the east coast during
airplane and airship flights. In general, the terrestrial contribution to natural background radiation was found to be about 60 to 90 millirads per year. The cosmic ray contribution was
found to range from about 30 millirads at sea level to about 90 millirads at Denver, Colorado,
where the elevation is about 5,000 feet above sea level.
ACTIVITIES IN ATOMS FOR PEACE PROGRAM
Mobile Radioisotope Training Laboratory
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DOE ARCHIVES
Preliminary plans have been drawn up for two mobile radioisotope training laboratories
for presentation to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Each mobile laboratory would
consist of two units, a laboratory and a counting room, contained in a trailer. The two
trailer laboratories, accommodating a total of 12 students in each laboratory session, would
cost an estimated $85,000. It is felt that a course can be presented that would be essentially
the same as the basic course given by the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies except for
the omission of an activation experiment.
It is planned to include the two mobile laboratories in the United States technical exhibit
at the International Conference at Geneva in September 1958. The laboratories would be
presented to the International Atomic Energy Agency at the General Conference to be held in
Vienna shortly after the close of the Geneva Conference.
Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Turrialba, Costa Rica
Under the AEC program for the support of agricultural research and radioisotopes training at the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences at Turrialba, Costa Rica, a 200-
curie gamma irradiation source supplied by Brookhaven National Laboratory has been installed
in a gammafield constructed at the institute.
Work continued in preparation for the course in radioisotope techniques to be offered for
the first time in the fall of 1958. A humidity-controlled room for counting equipment and a