C:\backup 2000\My Documents\HCL History Board\History pg4.doc

Memorandum on Location of Cyclotron Building

Attached there will be found a plan drawing of the general area bounded by the University Museum, Oxford, Hammond, Gorham and Museum Streets, the Andover Theological School and the Biological Laboratories. It was Professor Bainbridge's original understanding that a suitable site for the cyclotron might be selected in this general region.

Four sites have been considered. These are numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4 on the plan drawing. The general shape of the building is as originally presented consisting of an area within which the cyclotron is housed, a passageway which has now been reduced to approximately 70 feet in length, and a laboratory housing the control room. Based on the criterion that he would like approximately 200 feet to separate the cyclotron from any building used for housing purposes (24hour occupancy), location 1 was chosen. When it was found that the ground north of the Museum was restricted, neither position 1 nor 2 could be 7 0 used without violation of the restriction; so position 3 was chosen (although it comes closer to the Palfrey House than is desirable), and a wire has been received from Professor Bainbridge, in Berkeley, California, indicating that this position would be satisfactory, though he stated that position 4 should be saved as a possible location for a betatron. It is to be noted that positions 1, 2, and 4 all involve locating the cyclotron essentially equidistant from the Museum, Conant Hall, and the dwellings on the extension of Divinity Avenue. Location 3 places the device a little closer to the more northerly of the two dwellings and implies that expansion, to make most efficient use of the undeveloped area, should be toward the Museum.

Discussions with Professor Bainbridge by letter and telephone have brought out the point that he hopes keenly that the general area being considered can be thought of as earmarked for nuclear physics. He has, from time to time, indicated that a betatron or other device might be located near the cyclotron, stating that they could share the same shop and some of the experimental facilities. It is believed he also feels that the Museum restriction should, if possible, be eventually removed.

Since the general problem of housing the cyclotron in the University area was covered in an earlier memorandum, dated 1 November 1945, it is believed that no additional argument for an intown location is necessary. It should again be emphasized, however,

that the cyclotron is fundamentally no more dangerous an instrument than when housed in Gordon McKay prior to the war. Professor Bainbridge at one time mentioned the possibility of erecting a fence around the general vicinity of the cyclotron. He has never mentioned the point again until a recent telegraphic inquiry elicited the response that if there were a necessity for keeping out the small boys of the neighborhood, a fence 50 feet distant might be erected. Radiation monitoring equipment can be used to show that adjacent University buildings can be occupied with safety. You will find noted on a separate sheet a brief list of the spacing between cyclotron and control room of ten prewar installations. No later information is available.

It is of interest to point out that Dr. M. Stanley Livingston, who is in charge of the M.I.T. instrument, states that periodic blood counts of the operating personnel have shown no effects of radiation. Since their operating controls are only twenty feet from the cyclotron, this certainly demonstrates the efficacy of their shielding.

It is, therefore, urged that if it is not feasible to remove the restriction on the Museum land which would allow building in position 1, then permission be obtained for placing the building in position 3.

Inasmuch as the Government has given assurance that the cyclotron will be returned, it is imperative that some decision be reached immediately.