Some of this week's stories

DOE authorizes startup
of Fuel Conditioning Facility

The FCF will prepare for environmentally safe disposal 125 fuel spent assemblies from Experimental Breeder Reactor Two, which was shut down nearly two years ago. The three-year project is aimed at demonstrating Argonne's electrometallurgical technology for conditioning and preparing DOE spent nuclear fuel for disposal.

Authorization to begin the demonstration project came after a DOE environmental assessment found that the project will have no significant environmental impact.

"The Argonne project represents a promising technology to treat fuel from EBR-II and other forms of DOE spent nuclear fuel and is a step forward to take waste in Idaho and prepare it for a permanent repository," said U.S. Sen. Dirk Kempthorne, R-Idaho. "The National Academy of Sciences and the DOE agree this is an important technology that ought to be pursued."

Kempthorne holds a key position on the Senate Armed Service Committee, which oversees DOE programs.

DOE has some 3,000 tons and 150 different types of spent nuclear fuel at various sites around the nation. Some of it is seriously degraded, highly enriched with fissionable or chemically reactive materials, and lacks the chemical integrity to remain stable during long-term storage.

"Permission to move ahead with this demonstration is a major step toward safely disposing of DOE spent nuclear fuels," said Chuck Till, Argonne's Associate Laboratory Director for Engineering Research. "The nation owes a debt of gratitude to Senator Kempthorne, whose personal interest in this project has been a major factor in its success."

OSHA to try regulating
lab's safety and health

The exercise is designed to show the feasibility of transferring responsibility for safety and health programs at many Energy Department facilities to OSHA.

The pilot program's roots go back at least a year, to testimony given by Argonne Director Alan Schriesheim before a DOE advisory panel known as the Ahearne committee. Schriesheim said DOE's regulation of the laboratory's environment, safety and health programs is "grossly duplicative," because several levels of the organization have responsibility for oversight.

Essentially all of the activities at Argonne are similar to those in commercial light industry and research institutions, Schriesheim said, and such activities are normally regulated by the OSHA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Under regulation by these agencies, enforcement responsibilities would be more clearly defined, and outside users of the labs' facilities would have only a single set of environment, safety and health requirements with which to comply.

DOE has taken up Schriesheim's challenge, said Bill Hannum, director of Argonne's Office for Environment, Safety and Health/Quality Assurance Oversight.

"Because Argonne took such a strong position on the Ahearne committee, we got `volunteered' to be the demonstration," Hannum said. "DOE and OSHA will be monitoring the pilot program to draw conclusions about applying the program to other DOE facilities."

The exercise will be based on a modern OSHA process called "The Partnership in Excellence Program." OSHA will determine whether Argonne's established programs meet its expectations and can be relied on to protect the laboratory's employees.

Since Argonne practices already adhere to most OSHA regulations, employees will note little difference in day-to-day activities. Notices will be posted with information on how to report safety concerns directly to OSHA.

DOE will discontinue routine safety surveillance during the pilot program. However, OSHA representatives, accompanied by representatives of Argonne and DOE, will conduct "spot checks" of various workplaces to validate the effectiveness of the laboratory's programs.

If unsafe conditions are found, OSHA will notify those involved and require a corrective action plan. The agency will not have the authority to levy fines against the laboratory during the pilot period.

"Employees should be open and cooperate fully with the OSHA inspectors," Hannum said. "You are free to report safety concerns directly to OSHA, but we hope you will have already used the usual routes, which will still be in place -- supervisors, the ESH Division, DOE."

Former directors, Seaborg
to speak at symposium

The Argonne Directors Forum, moderated by current director Alan Schriesheim, will begin at 1:30 p.m. in Building 402 (Advanced Photon Source Conference Center).

Scheduled to speak are Albert Crewe (1961-67), Robert Duffield (1967-73), Robert Sachs (1973-1979) and Walter Massey (1979-1984). University of Chicago President Hugo Sonnenschein will present the opening remarks, followed by Keynote speaker Glenn Seaborg. Seaborg was among the many scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project and was part of the staff of the Metallurgical Laboratory. Seaborg synthesized plutonium with Edwin McMillan in 1941, and was involved in the discovery of many transuranic elements. He and McMillan shared the 1951 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

Other upcoming 50th anniversary events include:

* Thursday, May 30 -- Director's Special Colloquium: "Changing Technology and the U.S. Economy" by Dr. Ralph E. Gomory, President, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

* Monday, June 3 -- Chemistry Division 50th Anniversary Seminar: "Nuclear Chemistry" by John Huizenga (CHM-retired).

* Friday, June 7 -- Chemistry Division 50th Anniversary Seminar: "Chemical Research with New Elements" by Glenn Seaborg.

* Monday, July 17 -- Director's Special Colloquium: "Possible Futures for U.S. Research in a Peacetime Society" by Dr. Edward David, Jr., President, EED, Inc.

Argonne at 50:

Patent for nuclear reactor
was a long time coming

Their names are the stuff of legend: Eli Whitney, Samuel Morse, Alexander Graham Bell, Enrico Fermi. Their inventions -- the cotton gin, the telegraph, the telephone, and the nuclear reactor -- have been compared to the discoveries of fire and the wheel in their impact on human history.

The Italian-born Fermi and his team of scientists at the University of Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory -- predecessor to Argonne National Laboratory -- ushered in the nuclear age when they achieved the world's first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction on December 2, 1942. But getting a patent on their historic invention turned out to be nearly as difficult as the breakthrough itself.

Within three months, Fermi's reactor had been moved to the Met Lab's new "Argonne Laboratory," so named because it resided what was then called the Argonne Forest section of the Cook County Forest Preserve in Palos Park.

Fermi, the first director of the Argonne Laboratory, had received the 1938 Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of transuranic elements (man-made elements heavier than uranium) and his work on the effect of slow neutrons on nuclear reactions. In 1934, he had achieved nuclear fission without realizing it during experiments on neutron bombardment.

One member of Fermi's Met Lab team was the Hungarian-born scientist Leo Szilard. Two years after the 1932 discovery of the neutron, Szilard, then living in England, had applied for a patent for his concept of a nuclear chain reaction. His theory, which he kept secret, did not, in fact, prove practical.

Physicist Rudolph Peierls described Szilard's penchant for invention in these words:

"He was a physicist with a very original mind and a flair for invention. He held several patents, but I do not know whether any of them ever proved commercially viable. Almost as soon as the neutron was discovered, he thought of the possibility of a nuclear chain reaction and of its potential dangers. In 1934 he filed for a patent that described the laws governing such a reaction. For some reason, however, he also had the misguided idea that a chain reaction might be possible in lithium."

Research on atomic fission continued rapidly during the 1930s, but accelerated in the early 1940s as the United States geared up to beat Nazi Germany -- which had unknowingly achieved uranium fission in 1939 -- to the first atomic bomb.

In 1942, Fermi, Szilard and their American colleagues worked at breakneck speed in utmost secrecy. Work on the first reactor, called Chicago Pile 1, under the West Stands at the University of Chicago's Stagg Field was kept so secret that even Fermi's wife did not learn of it until mid-1945.

Work on the initial patent application had begun six months before the reactor was completed. And as the U.S. reactor program expanded over the next two years, so did the application. Ultimately, it included Chicago Pile 1, Chicago Pile 2 (the name given CP-1 after its move to Palos Park), the prototype reactor at Clinton Laboratory (the forerunner of today's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee), and finally the production reactors at Hanford, Wash.

The highly classified patent for the first atomic pile was filed with the U.S. Patent Office in December 1944. It listed Fermi and Szilard as co-inventors and described the method by which a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction had been achieved.

The patent -- number 2,708,656 -- was finally issued on May 18, 1955 -- 13 years after it had been started and nearly 11 years after it had been filed.

By then, Fermi had been dead for six months.

Distribution of new badges begins June 3

Date	Building	Time
Monday, June 3	205	9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Monday, June 3	203	1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Tuesday, June 4	201	9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Tuesday, June 4	362	1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Wednesday, June 5	900	9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Employees will be required to turn in their old badges to receive new ones. This exchange does not include APS employees and APS users. These badges will be distributed at a later date.

Barcode systems at laboratory buildings will be converted to read the new badges starting Monday, June 3. As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, June 5, old badges will no longer operate barcode systems.

Pool opens June 1

A special employee-only swim period is offered weekdays from noon to 1 p.m. Cost is $1 per person.

Open swim periods are 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekends. Cost is $2 for adults and $1.50 for children under 12. Family season tickets are $65. Individual season tickets are $35.

Swimmers must provide their own towels. Flotation devices are not allowed in the pool area.

Swim lessons

Youth swim lessons begin Monday, June 17, at 9 a.m. The schedule comprises three two-week sessions of eight lessons. The cost is $20 per session, per child. Lesson tickets may not be used for open swim periods.

Lesson registration and ticket sales can be arranged at the Argonne Pool in the 600 area (Lodging Facility). For more information, call ext. 2-7602 after June 1.

Session schedule Session 1 June 17-28 Session 2 July 8-July 19 Session 3 July 29-August 9

Times 9 a.m.- 9:30 a.m. Intermediate 9:45 a.m.-10:15 a.m. Intermediate/Beginner 10:30 a.m. - 11 a.m. Beginner

Ralph E. Gomory to speak on
technology and the economy

The talk will begin at 3 p.m. in the APS Conference Center Auditorium, Building 402 at Argonne-East.

As IBM director of research in the 1970s and 1980s, Gomory directed work that led to two successive Nobel Prizes in physics, one for the scanning tunneling microscope and the second for high-temperature superconductors.

As a research mathematician, he was a major contributor to the field of integer programming. His research was recognized by the title of IBM Fellow, the company's highest technical rank, and by numerous awards.

Gomory has been a trustee of Princeton University and a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering and received the National Medal of Science in 1988.

The colloquium is part of "Partners in Progress: Science, Technology and Society," a series of speeches in honor of Argonne's 50th anniversary.

Silver coins
ready for pickup

Ken Conner of Corporate Gold Coin will distribute the medallions from 11:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on these dates. For more information call Conner at (708) 226-1990.

Engineering Research hosts
seminars on nuclear energy

The next seminar is scheduled for Friday, May 31. Paul Persiani (TD) will speak about "The Status of International Fuel Cycles." The seminar will take place in Argonne-East's Building 212, Room A157 and will begin at 12:15 p.m.

Seminars are scheduled for the last Friday of the month through October. Future topics include "Spent Fuel Recycle Management Considerations," "Fuel Cycles and Their Deployment Considerations," and "Status of High-Level Waste Repositories and Temporary Storage."

Runner to bid farewell
at June 10 Director's Run

The run and walk will start at noon at the Argonne-East swimming pool . Schriesheim will officiate.

Refreshments and special commemorative ribbons for all participants will be provided at the finish line. Rain date is Monday, June 24, at the same location.

Tuesday, May 28

Joint Chemistry and Materials Science Divisions Seminar: "Homoepitaxial Diamond Growth in High-Temperature Plasmas" by Thomas S. McCauley, Department of Physics, The University of Alabama, Birmingham. 11 a.m., Bldg. 200, Conference Room J183.

Physics Division Special Nuclear Physics Seminar: "26Al Production in the Early Solar System" by Nick Bateman, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. 2:30 p.m., Bldg. 203, Conference Room R150.

Wednesday, May 29

High Energy Physics Division Seminar: "The Mass of the Quarks" by Ben Nefkens, University of California, Los Angeles. 11 a.m., Bldg. 362, Conference Room F108.

Materials Science Division Seminar: "Radiation-Induced Diamond Formation" by Tyrone Daulton, (MSD). 11 a.m., Bldg. 212, Conference Room A157.

Thursday, May 30

Environmental Research Division Seminar: "In Situ Remote Monitoring of Trace Metals in the Open Ocean" by Kenneth S. Johnson, Professor of Chemical Oceanography, Moss Landing Marine Laboratory, Moss Landing, Calif. 2:30 p.m., Bldg. 203 Auditorium.

Physics Division Theoretical Physics Seminar: "The (pi)0h Mixing in the (pi)+/- d --> (mu)NN Reactions" by Mijo Batinic, Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Zagreb, Croatia. 3 p.m., Bldg. 203, Conference Room B221.

Friday, May 31

Physics Division Colloquium: "Force Fluctuations in Granular Materials" by Susan Coppersmith, University of Chicago, Ill. 11 a.m., Bldg. 203 Auditorium.

IPNS Seminar: "Plans and Status of the Ongoing LANSCE Improvement Program" by Robert J. Macek, Los Alamos National Laboratory, N.M. 1:30 p.m., Bldg. 360, Conference Room A224.

Monday, June 3

Joint Chemistry Division Monday Morning Seminar Series and Physics Division Seminar: "The Discovery of Elements 99 and 100: Prelude to a Rich History of Accomplishment in Nuclear Chemistry at Argonne [50th Anniversary]" by John R. Huizenga, (CHM) and University of Rochester, N.Y. 11 a.m., Bldg. 200 Auditorium.

Joint Chemistry and Materials Science Divisions Seminar: "Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Study of Homoepitaxial Diamond (001) Films" by Yalei Kuang, Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park. 1:30 p.m., Bldg. 200, Conference Room J183.

Tuesday, June 4

Environmental Research Division Seminar: "The Coupling of Land, Water, and Air -- a Return to the Aristotelian Universe?" by Bruce B. Hicks, Director, Air Resources Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring, Md. 10:30 a.m., Bldg. 203 Auditorium.

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