Attachment 12

Minutes of November 10, 1950 meeting with AEC Advisory Board of
the Division of Biology and Medicine, written by F. C. Greaves,
dated November 15, 1950.

15 Nov 1950

Resume of the meeting with the Advisory Board of the Division of
Biology and Medicine, Atomic Energy Commission - 10 November
1950.

1. The Advisory committee consists of the following:

Dr. Alan Gregg - Chairman
Dr. Ernest W. Goodpasture
Dr. Detlev W. Bronk
Dr. Edward A. Doisy
Dr. Curt Stern
Dr. Joseph T. Wearn

2. The Surgeons General were represented by Brig. Gen. James P.
Cooney, USA; Brig. Gen. William Powell, USAF; and Rear Admiral F.
C. Greaves, USN. Dr. Shields Warren represented the AEC.

3. The meeting was opened with a report upon the various research
projects in the medical field being currently sponsored by the
AEC.

4. Dr. Warren stated that the problem of the AEC encompassed the
whole field of atomic energy implications within the field of
medicine and necessarily included both military and civilian
interests. The first item on the agenda was to ascertain the
viewpoints of the military services with respect to the AEC
research program, particularly as it affected their problems.

5. The Chairman called upon the various service representatives
in turn for such comments as they desired to make.

6. The Navy viewpoint was expressed by Admiral Greaves who stated
that he believed the program as outlined to be satisfactorily
broad and comprehensive and obviously designed to answer many of
the problems that affected the country as a whole. The Navy was
interested in all these investigations because it has the same
problems, in common with the civilian components of the nation as
well as with the other branches of the Armed Forces. The data
resulting from the AEC research program would be universally
applicable. There were some additional problems which are
peculiar to the Naval Service which were being investigated at
naval installations. One of these concerned contamination and
decontamination of ships. Another problem, as yet unanswered was
that concerned with permissible exposure data if and when nuclear
energy is used to provide the power in submarines and other
ships. It was pointed out that the problem was of concern because
of necessity for the crews to continue the operation of the ship
without the probable chance for replacements of those who might
become over-exposed.

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7. Captain Behrens and Captain Haight elaborated upon what was
known about permissible dosages and the difficulties of applying
those data to the problem, the main consideration being
operational effectiveness and proper disposition of personnel who
have received a substantial dose of radiation.

8. General Cooney presented the Army viewpoint by stating the
great discrepancy among recognized authorities on permissible
dosages. The opinions of these experts had been canvassed and was
found to vary from 25 r to 800 r. Such data is of little value to
the medical officer with troops who is asked to determine the
availability of exposed men for combat duty.

9. The Army proposed human experimentation on a group of 200
service volunteers to determine the effects of operational
effectiveness to dosages of total body radiation within
presumably low safe zones.

10. This provoked general discussion among all the members of the
Advisory committee. They felt that human experimentation was not
justified and that sufficient information could be obtained from
animal experimentation and interpolation from clinical data.

11. The Chairman volunteered to obtain the opinions of qualified
authorities in the field of radiology upon the value of present
information in solving the problem of the military services.

F. C. GREAVES

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