G-270
-4-
from those to be manufactured in the HFIR - further complementing the basic function of the reactor. New heavy
elements have been made in the past by successive captures
of neutrons in nuclear reactors.
However,
this method is
very slow by comparison, and the elements formed break
down by radioactive decay, alpha particle emission or spontaneous fission, during the process of formation.
Rapid
production in an explosion does not give these competing
processes as much time to occur.
Nuclear explosives cannot,
the HFIR, Dr. Foster added.
however, do the job of
The PAR device was designed under the direction of
Dr. D. W. Dorn,
of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory,
Livermore.
Studies of the samples taken from the PAR
site have been conducted by teams of radiochemists under
the direction of Dr. R. W. Hoff at Lawrence Radiation
Laboratory,
Livermore; Dr. G. A. Cowan at Los Alamos
Scientific Laboratory; Dr. Paul Fields at the Argonne
National Laboratory; and Dr. Frank Asaro at Lawrence
Radiation Laboratory, Berkeley.
#
(NOTE TO EDITORS AND CORRESPONDENTS:
This
information is
being issued simultaneously by the Commission's Operations
Offices in Las Vegas,
Nevada,
the University of California.)
11/25/64
Berkeley, California,
and