Reactor Safety During 1958, the Commission conducted 166 safety reviews on licensee and Government-owned reactors. In addition, advisory service was provided to the governments of three nations with respect to hazards analyses of reactors planned by the governments of those countries. The Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards held nine meetings during 1958 to review reactor projects referred to it and prepare advice to the Commission. The Advisory Committee was increased to 12 members by appointment of Henry W. Newson, professor of physics, Duke University; Franklin A. Gifford, Jr., meteorologist-incharge, Weather Bureau Office, Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Leslie Silverman, associate professor of industrial hygiene engineering, Harvard University School of Public Health; and Charles R. Williams, assistant vice president, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. Manson Benedict, professor of nuclear engineering, MIT, resigned in December. Inspections During the year, the Commission conducted about 2,500 inspections of installations and facilities licensed to possess special nuclear, byproduct and source materials. Top priority was given to more hazardous activities, especially in industrial use of materials. Sixty-two of the inspections were of licensed reactors either under construction or operating to determine compliance with specifications, regulations, and license conditions, and in general to examine features relating to safety. Experience during 1958 indicated that about 14 percent of all instances of noncompliance found have a direct bearing on safety of operation. Those instances generally involved inadequate attention to operating procedure, or failure to maintain equipment in good operating order. For the most part, followup inspections have shown satisfactory improvement in conditions. Of 12 radiation incidents that occurred in licensee activities during the year, investigation of 10 has been completed. The only significant consequence resulting from any of these incidents was that one person received a radiation burn to the hand. Any contamination was satisfactorily cleaned up. In addition, there have been 16 instances where the prescribed standards for exposure or radiation level have been slightly exceeded. SUPPLYING TECHNICAL INFORMATION Broadened declassification of information continued during 1958. Further declassification is under consideration. The number of persons maintaining access permits for information that still is classified remained at about last year's level. The volume of reports sold, both classified and unclassified, continued to increase. Declassification At the start of 1958 the Commission already had declassified the bulk of all information on nuclear reactors, retaining as classified only that which tended to reveal military capabilities or nuclear materials production rates and technology. A continuing effort was made to provide industry on an unclassified basis additional information useful in the related fields of fuel fabrication and processing. It is Commission policy to release information promptly as practicable when the need for its being classified no longer exists. The following actions were taken during 1958: a) Research related to controlled thermonuclear reactors was declassified in its entirety. b) Technology of plutonium alloys containing up to 90 atomic percent plutonium and useful as reactor fuels was declassified. c) Depleted uranium and its price schedule were declassified, making it possible to calculate financing more accurately. A proposed revision of the "Declassification Guide for Responsible Reviewers" to release additional information to industry was discussed with representatives of the United Kingdom and Canada at the Ninth Tripartite Declassification Conference in September 1958, and met with substantial agreement. Continuing its efforts to define, as consistently and precisely as possible, the classifications assigned to information and materials in day-to-day work on projects, the Commission issued about 25 additional guides for local projects or areas of information. Most areas are now covered. A complete review is being made of classification in the weapons field, with a view toward revising basic policy. This review, which is in accord with established Commission practice of periodically reviewing classification rules, becomes even more desirable since a recent action of Congress 28 amending the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 allows the exchange of nuclear weapons information with certain allies. 25 Public Law 85-479, signed July 2, 1958. Access Permits As of December 31, about 1,400 access permits were in effect, providing individuals and concerns access to restricted data for industrial uses. This was about the same number as a year previously. The distribution of permits by geographic area, industry and field of interest is given in Appendix 7. Access permits are issued for periods of 2 years. The renewal rate during the year indicated that the interest of permit holders. in the program continues at about a constant level. As declassification broadens, the usefulness of the access permit program as a means for industry to obtain technical information is gradually diminishing. However, several thousand reports in the civilian application program remained classified, and visits to certain Commission facilities for technical discussions must be made on a classified basis. On November 19, the Commission announced that after December 31 it would no longer provide any free investigation for the security clearances necessary for access permittees with the single exception of employees of nonprofit institutions; all others will have to pay fees. This is in line with the Government-wide policy that services provided to private persons by Federal agencies should ordinarily be on a selfsustaining basis. At inception of the program in early 1955, and continuing until December 31, 1958, the Commission provided each applicant for an access permit with clearance investigations of 25 employees without charge. Above that number, a fee has been required. The fees at the year's end were $15 for investigation for an "L" clearance giving access to confidential data, and $385 for investigation for a "Q" clearance for access to both secret and confidential data. Distribution of Information Reports. During the 12-month period about 120,000 copies of classified and unclassified reports were sold to holders of access permits, and some 3,800 new unclassified reports were placed on public sale through the Office of Technical Services, U. S. Department of Commerce, Washington 25, D. C. Access permittees this year purchased approximately 5,000 copies of secret technical reports, and about 9,500 copies of confidential reports. Cumulative purchases as of December 31 were approximately 38,000 copies of confidential reports, and about 13,500 copies of secret reports. Book program. Eleven technical books, comprising 5,990 book pages, were prepared under Commission auspices and published during 1958. The Commission selected the Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., through competitive bidding, to publish and market the volumes. Descriptions and prices of the books are given in Appendix 17. All 11 titles were processed for publication within a 4-month period in order that a specially bound edition could be presented to delegates of other countries at the United Nations Second International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. A pictorial survey of nuclear energy was prepared under Commission sponsorship and distributed to delegates at the Conference. Technical symposia. During 1958, six information meetings were held to place before industry some late developments in atomic energy technology. The Commission published 11 collections of papers presented at scientific and technical meetings, conferences, and symposia, making this information more widely available to industry and the scientific community. Among these publications were: "First Conference on Analytical Chemistry in Nuclear Reactors Technology," Gatlinburg, Tenn., November 4-6, 1957, (TID-7555). Paperbound (Two Parts), $3.50.20 "Proceedings of the Inter-American Symposium for the Peaceful Application of Nuclear Energy," Brookhaven National Laboratory, May 13-17, 1957, (TID7554). Paperbound $6.00.29 "Fixation of Radioactivity in Stable, Solid Media," (TID-7550). Paperbound $2.50.29 "Fuel Elements Conference, Paris, November 18-23, 1957," (TID-7546). Paperbound $7.00.29 "Reactor Safety Conference, New York City, October 31, 1957," (Part Two, TID-7549). Paperbound $1.00.29 "Proceedings International Conference on the Neutron Interactions with the Nucleus, Held at Columbia University, New York, N. Y., September 9-13, 1957," (TID-7547). Paperbound $3.25.29 "Fifth Atomic Energy Commission Air Cleaning Conference, Held at the Harvard Air Cleaning Laboratory, June 25-27, 1957,” (TID-7551). Paperbound $2.00.29 "Design, Construction, and Operation of Engineering Test Reactor,” (TID–7552). Paperbound $2.50.29 "Proceedings of the SRE-OMRE Forum Held at Los Angeles, Calif., February 12–13, 1958,” (TID-7553). Paperbound $3.00.29 "Papers Presented at the Controlled Thermonuclear Conference," held at Washington, D. C., February 3–5, 1958, (TID-7558). Paperbound $4.75.29 "Fifth International Congress and Exhibition of Electronics and Atomic Energy," held in Rome, Italy, June 16-30, 1958, (U.S. papers only), (TID-7557). Paperbound $1.50.29 Available from Office of Technical Services, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington 25, D. C. Translations. The Commission continued its expanded program for producing translations of foreign literature of value to the national atomic energy program, undertaking the translation of a selected number of foreign scientific monographs and books for publication and sale. Some 12 monographic works covering such fields as mathematics, theoretical physics, nuclear physics, uranium ores and minerals, biochemistry, and hydrodynamics were translated into English during the year from Russian, German, French, and Arabic. PATENT POLICY During the year, the Commission undertook a review of its patent policies. Written comments were obtained from Commission contractors and a public hearing was held on the views offered. After collected information and comments were turned over to the Commission's Patent Advisory Panel for study, a series of discussions was held. The Commission had the entire matter under advisement as of the end of the reporting period. Interim reports have been made to the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. A cut-off date affecting the authority of the Commission to declare a patent affected with a public interest under section 153 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 is among the Patent sections of the act that received review. This section, which provides that the Commission may ". . . declare any patent to be affected with the public interest . . ." under certain conditions, and following certain procedures, applies only to patents issued on applications filed before September 1, 1959. HELPING TO SUPPLY MANPOWER Surveys completed under Commission auspices indicated that during 1958 shortages of scientists and engineers existed but that no important undertakings have been delayed.30 Since technical manpower supply and demand in the industry tend to fluctuate within relatively short periods, major Commission contractors regularly report their requirements. In general, contractor appraisals reflected no significant changes or trends during 1958. Requirements for junior and intermediate technical personnel were met through ordinary recruitment. Turnover has been about normal. In some plants, small-scale reductions in force occurred as operations and facilities became more efficient. Contractors continued to have difficulty in recruiting experienced statisticians, metallurgists, electronic engineers, and physicists, and are still seeking limited numbers of top nuclear scientists. One large 30 See page 117-118, Twenty-fourth Semiannual Report to Congress (January-June 1958). |