|
[B foro FE
ACA eg
re RANDeeoatin
1790
MAIN
37%,
.
SANT A
TA
i
A
CAL? FORATA
US DQE,ABCHIVES
326 U.S. ATOMIC ENERGY
COMMISSION
23 April 1953
Dre Walter D. Clans
Chief,
Biophysics Branch
Division of Biology and Medicine
U. S. Atomic Energy Commission
-
_O0E" HISTORIAN (08/4)
Box
3363
Collection
Washington 25, De Ce
Dear Dr, Claus:
,
RG
Folder
//32
#2
This confirms our conversation by phone with you andU%~
We are going ahead with plans for an AEC sponsored extended
radtosstive.fallout
and.brojeatGabrigh. We
confer=
hope to get participation
by high caiiber talent not otherwise available. We have generally had good
duck with such conferences. The luck depends on the choice of the chairman,
amount, of preparation before and after the session, and the caliber of the
participants.
Preliminarily, we are planning the session to last three or four weeks, broken
into three phases. The first will be a two or three day session devoted to
familiarizing the entire group with the work that has already been done and
to formulate the course of action for a smaller, working group. In the second
phase, the smaller working group will spend the next two weeks preparing a
report summarizing the state of the art and a recommended research programe
Then, in the third phase the summary report will be submitted informally to
the entire group for critical review, revision, and final acceptance, Final
editing will probably be done largely by the RAND staff, If the session is
successful, the resulting report should form an authoritative statement of
what is known and what might profitably be further investigated in the fallout
problem.
We suggest that the conference be limited to the radiochemical and geophysical
aspects of the problea, While it might be well to do a similar thing on the
biological side of the problem, we suggest that this be considered separately,
if for no other reason than the fact that HAND has relatively little experience
in this area, while your staff dces have considerahle competence.
Attached is a preliminary list of people who might be invited for the first
and third phases. Some six or eight people of the total group, tabulated
separately, in addition to the RAND people, would be appropriate for the
second phase, with occasional participation by others.
or Dr. Wexler would make an excellent chairman.
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
27906
—————
Either Professor Libby
Dr. von Neumann is, of course,
ORGANIZATION & pagiencres”77
-
-DO® ARCHIVES