ki = AT 7, o} CENTRAL RESEARCH LIBRAP™ DOCUMENT COLLECTION OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY operated by UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION NUCLEAR DIVISION for the U.S. ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION ORNL- TM - 2367 LOCKHEED MARTIN ENERG KA 3 445k 0513155 9 THE LANGUAGE OF NUCLEAR SCIENCE Francois Kertesz UNION CARBIDE i o 08 E - September 17, 1968 The wartime codes and the more recent special terms are reviewed. «~ used in the nuclear literature and engineering trade jargon Study of these exp€essions revealed that in spite of the requirements of secrecy, there is a definite correlation between the terms qnd the objects or concepts involved. In contradiction to other scientific fields, words of Latin and Greek origin are not preferred by nuclear . scien- tists, oY-N @ ol NA-%TIONAL LABORATORY CENTRAL RESEARCH LIBRARY . ‘DOCUMENT COLLECTION LIBRARY LOAN COPY DO NOT TRANSFER TO ANOTHER PERSON If you wish someone else to see this document, send in name with document and the library:will arrange a loan. | UCN-73673 ) 3-67/ NOTICE This document contains information of a preliminary nature and was prepared primarily for internal use at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It is subject to revision or correction and therefore does not represent a final report. LEGAL NOTICE This report was prepared as an account of Government sponsored work. Neither the United States, nor the Commission, nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission: A. Makes any warranty or representation, expressed or implied, with respect to the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of the information contained in this report, or that the use of any information, apparatus, method, or process disclosed in this report may not infringe privately owned rights; or B. Assumes any liabilities with respect to the use of, or for damages resulting from the use of any information, apparatus, method, or process disclosed in this report. As used in the above, '‘person acting on behalf of the Commission’’ includes any employee or contractor of the Commission, or employee of such contractor, to the extent that such employee or contractor of the Commission, or employee of such contractor prepares, disseminates, or provides access to, any information pursuant to his employment or contract with the Commission, or his employment with such contractor. o "THE LANGUAGE OF NUCLEAR SCIENCE "The publications’ of scientists. concerning their 1nd1v1dual work -have been so copious -- and. so. unreadable for _anyone but their fellow spec1allsts ‘This has been a great handicap to science itself, - »for basic advances' in scientific' knowledge often _,sprlng from the cross-fertilization of knowledge '7from different spec1allsts. What is even more _ominous is that science .has increasingly lost touch - with non-scientists. Under such circumstances scien- ~ tists come to be regarded as magicians -- feared rather than admired. And the: impression that science 1s 1ncomprehen81ble magic, to be understood only by a chosen few who are suspiciously different from " ordinary mankind, 1s -bound to turn many youngsters away from science. . The. . Intelligent Man's Guide to Sciénce - Isaac As1mov Basic Books, Inc. ' New York] 1960 ' | '"At that point I killed the dead man." | I looked at the verbatim transcript'of a technical session devoted to reactor'operations'safety. dI read'the:Words;'Understood every one ~of them, and still failed to get the message. Only after careful con- sideration did I realize that the speaker was referring to the so-called "dead man's button', -- a'safety‘devfce installed in subway trains and electric 1ocomotiveSL The englneer must keep this button depressed otherw1se; the' traln stops, protectlng the’ passengers agalnst the con- sequences of a heart attack. In this particular case, it was necessary ‘to eliminate temporarily this'safety device by means. of a bypass circuit; thus, the speaker could State qu1te naturally that. he ”k111ed the dead man'', o | ' ' ' ‘ ' In51ders understand the spec1a1 meanlng of common words and get unerrlngly the correct 51gn1f1cance of coined terms. When show bu51ness people’ ‘read the headline in ”Varlety” POP OP FLOP, they know without consultlng a slang d1ct10nary that the attempt to’ popularlze opera ‘was not successful ‘Modern life has become very comp11cated and our . language reflects this. In an 1solated, homogeneous communlty everybody speaks the;same_language, LOCKHEED MARTIN ENERGY RESEA| IR 3 445k 0513155 9 but 20th Century man lives in aisociety which produces and uses tools. of ever-increasing complexity; therefore, new terms must be. invented. v —3 or new meanings must be given- to old words, in order to identify a specialized concept.. The great uariety of these specialized terms o L& “used in variouS‘professions'mayvbe_glimpsed by bfowsing~threugh an interesting compilation,uedited by.the~we11~known*1inguist,.MarioAPeil. Turning the pages of this“book; ne encounter the”jargon,of anthropology, architecture, e linguisties,tliterature, and of the theatre. We may | thus learn that in the speech of‘aetors, ”darling"_meané "a casual acquaintance whose name I do not remember'". On the other hand, the j T meaning of colorful electronics engineering teims, such as ''negative .feedback” and '"white noise'", is also hidden from'the uninitiated. The editor points out that of the about one million WOrdS'in‘the English language, the average cultivated person probably.uses only about 30,000 words and is abile to reeognize and understand only an additional 60,000. I would like to examine briefly another highly specialiied lan- ~guage, -- that of the nuclear engineer and scientist. This relatively _ o new field needed many new words te convey a specialized meaning or to | designate new machines and facilities. Some of the terms were taken from thevbasic*sciences‘involved in nuclear‘research; many entries in nuclear glossaries, and terminology books are simple englneerlng and sc1ent1f1c terms as used in nuclear appllcatlons o * The purely scientific terms represent an 1mportant source of the nuclear language. . The concepts must be carefully deflned -to ensure that the reader will understand. exactly what the author means. They usually are issued by national ‘and 1nternat10na1 committees and are 2, As a member of such a made available in form of off1c1a1 glossarles ”work group', I had an opportunlty to observe how much critical thought is needed to def1ne a seemingly 1nnocuous term. Commlttee members must represent the various fields 1nvolved in nuclear science to ensure that the health phy51c1st the metallurglst or the de51gn englneer «¥ indeed mean the same thing when they use the same word. Although the reader of a techn1ca1 paper is not a layman he must - be advised what is meant by expressions such as decontamination factor, _migration area, muZtipZicatiofl:factor;aet al.. Modern science deals_With. . citizen or the newspapérman 1is. able td“?ind answers to his questions ¥ exact quantities,and any reference to concentration, weight or volume -must be clear and unequivocal. Committee members who usually are both generators of new scientific information and avid readers of the techni- cal literature, must .decide - whether a twice enriched uranium contains tWice the original 0.7% of 235y, :ior, 1.4% added to the original 0.7, resulting in 2.1%. Qf 235y, * In addition to such assistance to professionals by meafis of these official glossaries, the requirements of general'readers and students have not been forgottenS.: Technical societies and government agencies provide assistance to science writers by providing compilations and simplified definitions of terms, including many of interest to the nuclear field. These~collections are of educational character; the terms are explained, rather than defined. As the nuclear field continued'tq grow and assumed -an increasing importance in the economy and political life throughout the world, more ambitious cyclopedias and lexicons were published in various 1anguages; They cater to"a variety of people, - the specialist, the interested 4 When we examlne the origins of "nuclear language'', we must keep in ‘mind that the field grew up in secrecy, it was born under conditions of wartime urgency, followed by a period of mutual suspicion which divided the scientific countries of the world into opposite camps. When the first truly world-wide meeting was held in Geneva in August 1955, many nations discovered that their language,did not have the terms suitable to express the new concepts.' Because of its rich nuclear literature, English became the.predominant language and ever since has exerted a great .influehce on the terminology throughout the world. One of the first acts of the organizers of the 1955 Geneva Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy was to commission the compilation of a dictionary ** The U.S. Glossary points out that enrichment may mean enrichment factor or enrichment factor minus one (degree of enrichment). These terms: - should: be-avoided.. Under enrichment factor reference is made to separation f&ctor, a different but related concept. covering the official languages of the United-Natiohs' ~ A new improved ,ed1t1on was published in time for the Second Geneva’ Conference5. Within a short t1me ~a number of b111ngua1 and multlllngual nuclear dictionaries , 7 appeared on the market©. _ The plethora of these def1n1t1ons, explanatlons and equivalents in other languages was helpful in clarifying the méaning of terms. However, it should be kept in mind that;language is a living organismj words, expressione, and specialized meahings are born, are used and ultimately die. We may define correct usage and coin suitable expreSsions,,but they remainvwithout effect if the technical men do not use them and » editors do not insist oh their oorrect meaning. One well-known scien- tific lexicographer étated_lt very aptly in an international meeting on nuclear terminology, when he cautioned'the-partioipants against excessiVe zeal: "We are only recordlng angels and not God Almighty". 7 It is indeed useless to devise 1og1ca1 def1n1t10ns, if authors and ed1tors refuse to use them. ' | | In this short review I proposevto leare‘the serious examination of technlcal ‘terms to the learned commlttees, and will examine primarily the more ephemeral and colorful express1ons of the nuclear: language £ which enrich the field and give it a special. flavor - There are many expressions, such as the first sentence of this paper, which are used primarily_orally and are seldom written down. I heard alnuclear incident descrihed as a felt-hat incident. ‘This ‘concept poetulates that a worker.hear a swimmlng-poolrreaotor will some- ~ times wear a felt hat which will drop into the pool and will he sucked to the fuel elements where it will prevent'the'flow of cooling water, resulting in a meltdoWn.of.the_element . Such accidents have indeed oc- curred, although withléhoetcovers,jloose pieces of metal etc. instead of felt hats. They are usually.referred to‘as‘"felt-hat accidents' although not in formal reports B o o Such expre551ons were c01ned because they sat1sfy a communication ~ Lo ¥ need and perhaps, also to keep the subject matter from the unanltlated This often resulted in a compromlse as if techn1cal discussions were ‘\"\ a guessing game, in which the subject is drsgu1sed but some helpful hints are»given. The language of specialists may be analyzed from different_points_of.view. We'oould examine the origin of the words a “ AJargon of space technologists ~7- used, studying the 1nf1uence of spec1f1c cultures Another,approach_is- “that used by a psychologist ‘who analyzed "space speak”, the engineering 8 He found that spec1f1c, new meanings of space terms,such as countdown pad abort umbilical, made those words more W1dely used ‘in general speech However hlS main approach - was 11ngulst1c ana1y51s, he found . that space engineers make abundant 'use of nominal compounds. I do not 1ntend to make such a complete grammatical ana1y31s of techni- cal texts and in the follow1ng pages. will concentrate 'my attention on individual terms and c code names used by nuclear spec1alists, try1ng to decipher how“and why they were chosen It is important to keep 1n mind that words not - only have 1ntellectual meanlngs, but may also carry an emotlonal impact. Some of them hit us 'and arouse strong feellngs°_ We may react with fear, dlsgust enthu51asm, ‘pride etc. to words such as ptnk yeZZow scab our country This power of words is well known and is sklllfully used by such d1fferent people as orators, politicians, demagogues and preachers ‘The ‘emotional impact of words is of, great 1mportance for the nuclear 'f1eld because its pub11c acceptance is Stlll affected by the legacy of its first appllcation the atom1c bomb The term atomic or nuclear has an ambivalent effect: 1t may 1nduce fear or arouse admlratlon If one wanted to describe a very br1ght h1ghly skilled 1nd1V1dual he probably would have stated,untll recently, a bra1n surgeon or a nuclear phy51c1st Today he probably would cite a. heart transplant surgeon or an astronaut Well, -- sic transit gloria mund1l , , 1 shall return. later to the question of ”loaded” terms 1n connectlon with the 1mpact of ‘the nuclear f1e1d or soc1ety Let me state that use .of certaln expre551ons indicates that the user belongs to a "spec1a1 1nterest group" It is of 1nterest to note that in add1t10n to the Spelllng of a. word 1ts pronounc1atlon cla551f1es the user. Thus an ‘ aud1ence of ‘space englneers will con51der as an out51der a speaker who- pronounces their agency, NASA, as Naysa just ;aS _chemists prefer to ronounce the element 1od1ne w1th a short "i't; the usual ronounc1at10n P . 1od1ne 1nd1cates that the speaker is a layman o | As our goal is the examination of 1nd1v1dual terms in the nuclear field, we must be struck by the fact that thlS area of endeavor is- based on the linguistica11y7incompa?ible term atomic fission. Atomic means;indivisible;'fission indicates division. Thus, progress of science overtook the old definition, whosé,ofiginal meaning has been fqrgotten by now. o i o R - A When new WOrds are coined,'there is always a tendency to avoid dis- agreeable images and to arouse pléaéant-thqughts° In a well-known weekly magazine it was brought up that physicians are stérting.to call pépfpiils activity boosters and garage mechanics call themselves automotive in- ternists. In the same article, a Jules Feiffer cartoon character is i» cited as follows: '"First I was poor. Then I became needy. Then I was .underprivilegéd.. Now I am disadvanfiaged, 'I.still don't have a penny to my name - but I have a great'vocabulary;fl | The requirements.of seérecy, ego boosfing as expressed by bélonging to a select group, and euphemisfic‘tefidencies are thus the chief factors affecting theilanguagevof the fiew'$¢ience. ‘Let us see how they have shaped the language of huclear4science. ' | o At the beginning .of the Manha;tan'Project, steps were taken to avoid : - 4 mentionihg the element uranium. . In all the reports it was referred to | | | as Tuballoy énd designated by fihé'symbol T. The enriched material was : & called Oralloy, and 235y was»désignated as element 25 (from its atomic. | number 9§_ahd atomic weight 235), :On the same basis, plutonium was. designated as 49, since it was. element 94 with an atomic weight of 239. Urahium and plutonium were referred to in many of the early reports as ‘sofirce material and product,'reépectively.:~ | The problem of naming the néw element was an important precaution during the early days. I fouhd=an interesting document representing the minutes of a meeting held;on:Apfil 22-23, 1942 in Chiqagolof A portion of the SeSsion Was‘devotedhto a réviéw of the various code names. The participanfs sound!liké;é.th's Who of the project: Spedding, | Thiele,‘Seaerg, Kennedy, Urey;:Wigner,'Hilberry, Boyd, Johns, Wilhelm, Perlman, Wahl and Wheeler. Amqngudther subjects, a suitable terminology. - y for the heaviest elements WaS-discu$sed. One of the possibilities ‘ \fi considered was to name Elementf93fnéptuniumtand Element 94 plutonium. It was agreed, however, that these designations might eventually be the actual names for these elementékand;therefore«should'ndt be used as code names. Up to that time the.terms“éopper and silver were used to designate the new elements.'.Thisfmethod'was not. specific conce;ning the "~ isotopes and caused'eonsiderable confusion with the actual elements named,'if_they.Were involved in the same analytical process. It was often necessary to use the term honest to God silver -to distinguish' "silver"’from other elements. Therefore it was suggested to use a terminology based on the last digit,in the atomic number and atomic weight characterizing ‘the given substance: Element 94, Atomic weight 239 - 49 Element 93, Atomic weight 239 - 39. Element 92, Atomic weight 238 - 28 ° Element 92, Atomic weight 235 - 25 Element 92, Atomic weight 234 - 24 " Element 94 (generic) .40 or 4 Element 92 (generic) 20 or 2 . According to a recent artiele by a prominent?pagticipant, it was McMillan who named Element 93 neptuniwm because Neptune is the next planet after Uranus, andAproposed that Element 94 should be named after Plutoll, A discussion developed whether its symbol should be Pl or Pu. The-author: wrote: 'we liked the symbol 'Pu" better for the reaeon that you might suspect'". The expected great.reaction to the symbol, after it was declassified, never materlallzed The above coding system was probably respon51ble for the naming ' of the X-25 Plant, the vast, . gaseous diffusion plant designed and built by a subsidiary of the Kellog Corporatlon to separate the - f1551onab1e isotope 235U. | | Research on transuranium elements . contlnued Unfortunately, there were no more .planets to supply names for further elements, and the next two elements were at first tentatively called pandemonium and delirium by the workers. These names~hever reached_the public. | The story of naming the following heavy elements has been described w1tt11y by the man who had so much to do with them ~AEC Chairman Glenn T, Seaborg12 | o " Element 97 was called berkelium after the city of Berkeley, Cali- fornla,and Element 98 was named californium after the university and the state where the work was done. However, this latter name: does not ~10- reflect the observed chemical analogy of Element 98 to Element 66, dysprosium, as the names of americium, curium and berkelium signified Ay v that these elements are chemical analogs of europium, gadolinium and terbium, named after a continent, a scientist and'a‘city,.respectively. . ir In anhouncing their discovery in the Physical Review, the authors | commented ''the best we can do is‘to point 6ut, in recognition of the fact that dysprosiwm is named on the basis of a Greek work meaning difficult to get at, that the searchers for another element a century | o ago found it 'difficult to get'to_California"!° The naming'of these i elements was commented on in an'unéxpected place, the Talk of the Town section of the New-Yorkef magazine. Thé writer remarked that ''the busy scientists in1California will come up with another element or two one of these days and the’ University has loét forever a chance of immorta- lizing itself in the atomic tables with some such sequence as uni- véréitium (97), ofium (98) ,californium (99), berkelium (100). In rebuttal, the discoverers“stated thatlfiby using’thése names first, we have forestalled the appaliing possibility that some New Yorker-might : . follow with the .discovery of 99 and 100 and 'apply the name »ewZum and \o Ty yorkium. The New Yorker: staff iejoined-that they are already working in theéir office laboratories on these two elements but ''so far we just have the names'". | Many ORNL staff members had an opportunity to ‘hear Chalrman Seaborg ‘hlmself tell this story when he presented in Oak Rldgq in November 1966, a reminiscence entitled 'Voices from the Past", contaln;ng“orlglnal tape recordings of great historical interest. Wartime codeslhad_toApe primarily innocuous words, unrelated to the concept, although we have seen:that this was. not always true. ' Thus, by an intefesting.coincidence, all buildings in which the actual electro- magnetié separation process.was‘carriéd out at the Y-12 Plaht, were ‘designated by numbers starting with 92 ... It is difficult to give a better hint to a.secret product. S o ' . , 7 The Munhattan District of the U. S Army Englneers camouflaged { .\"1\ well the giant wartlme operation. . The name of the town of Oak Ridge itself is a covér name. After the location was.found to satisfy the r®quirements, (fairly remote but conveniently near to centers of trans- portation, with large electrical and water supply available), it was 4 & i ~k - -11- tried to -chose a name which would not arOuse.suspiciofi,‘ Oneroffthe' ridges,in this-hilly area was called Blackoak Ridge, and. therefore -the = - term'Oak;Ridge was chosen, as beifig sufficientlyrbucolicAand/éeneral.f: to be uéed as a,cover»name;for,phe residential area. The. plant opera- tions were called Clinton E%gineer-Wbrks;;after.the~nearbyitown;of Clinton, ' | | The originalfihotellof the:towntstill.Stands-amqng other wartime. buildings; the oldtimers keep.calling it .the Guest House, disregarding: the change of' its. name to the Alexander Hotel. During the early days’. the place had. the distinction‘that_everYbody who checked in was given an honorary doctor title by the desk clerk. The headquartersVWhich today house the-Atomic-Energy,Commission's‘Oak-Ridg¢60peration5'0ffice, were located.in a barrack-like:structure; in view of the insigna of the U. S. Army Engineers, 'a medieval battlement, it was natural to call it Castle-on-the-Hill, or, because it consisted. of seven barracks, the Seven. Gables. This survivorffrom the heroic.days of the town is about to be replaced by é modern,officelbuilding. | The-MétaZZurgicaZALabbr&tory.of,therniversity of'Chigago-was another innocous cover name; of course, its Scope greatly exceeded the-fié1d~ofxmetallurgyfi_ It was the{firecursoruof‘theipreseht.Argonne National Laboratory. it.is‘of interesthto_recall;how this”institution acquired its name after the war. After the facilities of the Metal- lurgical Laboratory were found to be insufficient, additional space was provided in a wooded area belqngihg'to the'Codk'CountyAForest Preserve District. These preserves were named after famous battles of the First World War in which Americans participated; the site in question was.called the Argonne Forest. After the war, the.newly created ‘hational laboratory was transferred to a different site near Chicago but . for sentimental reasons, itfcarried its -name to the new location, even though it was pretty far from the original "Argonne Forest". ' . : | ' A metallurgical term was used also aé:a cover name for' the project's activities at Columbia University: SAM stood for -Substitute Alloy Ma- terials,‘.The~Union CarbidefCorporation'assumedé.responsibilityffor‘this activity. -12- For people interested in the 1ore of names,‘browsing through the - otherwise dry reading matter contained in lists of index headings, abbrev1at10ns, n1cknames and acronyms can be quite rewardlng13 - One may learn that Mighty Mouse represented a proposal for a. heterogeneous enriched-uranium heavy water-cooled and moderated re-- search reactor, related to the Argonne Advanced Research Reactor or A2R2 and that'Juggérnaut is the'Argonne Low Power Research Reactor. - Acronyms with special meanings-were‘created, with much work expended to coin terms ‘with a.special meaning, as in case of an early | high-speed computer at ORNL, the ORACLE (Oak Rldge Automatlc Computer Logical Engine). ‘ ' | | Attempts were made to'syetematize code designations. For example, the underground nuclear tests~at Los: Alamos were designated first by burrowing mammals such as Bandicoot, Bobac, Aardvark,detc., a seemingly appropriate category. When'theytran out of such names they were- forced to use sone "burrowing" mamnals'Which-may have dug_only an - occasional hole in the ground14t SUbsequent_series-of tests uere‘named after fish, birds, colors and alcoholic drinks. This was.fOund to be - of special‘”human” interest to a magazine writer -who described-an '1mag1nary scene of a handful of - scientists gatherlng around a table, as followsl5: | "Bourbon, Scoteh and Sazerac,"‘sayS'aierew—cut. nuclear physicist. "Daiquiri, my Wife.likeS’those,” . chimes in a’computer expert"‘”How about Martini and - Grasshopper and Screwdrlver?”. - _' - Names were never a531gned 1n such a manner,although codes to designate actual sites of the large pro;ects were carefully selected.' Oak Ridge, Hanford and Los Alamos were de51gnated as Sites X, W and Y. At Berkeley, the Oak R1dge~2-12»PZant was known as- Shangri-La. The DuPont group, which was_inrchargefof-the'XfIO'Sitewhere the-Oak Ridge National~Lab0ratory.iS~noniocated;-was part‘of the Explosives Department of the company,.and‘was«Called TNX'Division although this had nothlng to do with the exp1051ve tr1n1troxy1ene | Sometimes, new terms have been 1ntroduced into the language be- cause somebody deliberately tr1ed to be: funny : Thus,_an Oak Ridge . ('-\ (@ (o= o~ "TJ o g ) ' ?13- waste tank;eencentratiOnnplant'carried:é sién for a while .after the war Lower Slobovian DistiZZery, after. the ''country' popularized by the cartoon- ist Al Capp; however, this was to? much.and a superintendent with a faint heart removed it. At Los Alamos, at the Kappa site there were installa- tions:talLed,Eenie,~Meény,;Miney and Lower Slobovia, the latter apparently for its isolation. - Reactors -are-the most impressive and exciting devices of the nuclear age. Let us examine reactor name compilations to see how they were - acquired.. - Many_of,the-names.given t0~the:reactors"during'the.last:two decades were quite prosaic; they were simply acronyms of rather unimaginative identifying terms. The first one was»the historic CP-1 (Chieego:Pile-l); on1y=e1evenfmenths-later, the first true reactor; with a sizeable power level, was in operation.'_This_was the~X—10-Reactor,‘now a.registered national historic landmark (Figure 1l). Going thrqugh the. series as listed in various compilations, we encounter names,whieh do notastir the blood of the reader: MIR (Materials‘Testing.Reactor; BWR (Boiling Water Reactor), PWR (Pressurized Water Reactor)-, -- or te use local examples, ORR (ORNL Research Reactor), TSR (Tower Shielding Reactor), HFIR (High ‘Flux Isotope. Reactor), LITR (Low. Inten51ty Testlng Reactor) and so forth These groups of letters are easily forgotten by all except ‘persons who use ‘them constantly. -Flgure42 illustrates. how this alphabet soup - of initials eenques-a,hapless.busrdriver;“ As mentioned before, the way these names are pronounced (a la - -."Monkey Ward' for'Montgqmery Ward of the stockmarket expert) identifies ‘the "insiders'". LITR is calledlliter,_the.metric unit of volume, HFIR became hifur; the Organic Moderated Reactor Experiment (OMRE) is pro- ‘nounced Oh,M&rie"'The many problems related t0»thevhandling of the molten Salt-fue1~were probably responsible for the niekname of the. 'Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) -- Mtsery - Luckily, most of the problems have beén solved. More - 1mag1nat10n was used in ‘the early days Let us-take. the plutonium- fueled reactor, which was. under. constructlon in one of . the canyons at Los.Alamos. One of the scientists who was transferred kept wonderlng about . the progress of. the . project but for reasons of - -14- security, could not ask about it openly The location of the project and the material they worked with (49) suddenly recalled to h1m | the old prospector's song: ' o o ' | - " "In -a’cavern, in a canydn, excavating for'a mine, - L oy Lived‘a‘mine},.forty;niner afid.his daughter, Clementine}”" He sent a telegram: "How is myhdarling Clementine?'.. The message was understood and the reactor becamefkfiown-as Clementinel, | There are other colorfulfeXéMPles of Los Alamos names: Jemima con- " o sisted of stacked flat plates thch evoked the well-known advertise- « ‘ment of hot cakes; Jezabel was 'mean and hard to handle" and prsy, he character -from Uncle Tom's cabin; 'she-just grew'. ' | One of the best-known among ‘the Los Alamos reactors is the one, - built without'reflectors,'whichIOperated with fast neutrons, -- the bare and fast Godiva. More recently, a’highly descriptive name was employed to designate a.reactor'protetypeyof>the’huclear,rocketeproject," used for SO—calledi”captive'firing” tests: the KIWI, a reactor-designed o .d, > to propel a rocket but held. on the ground, was.very. aptly named_after_ "_‘ '_ - the flightless New Zealand bird. L - The first reactor in Belglum which followed the main -lines of the - design of the X- 10 Reactor, was called BR-1 (Belgian Reactor l),, _ ‘was followed by BR-2 and_BR—S.A There is nothing specifically ”Be1g1an” h in' this name. On the other ~hand the acronym of the South African -Fundamental Atomic Reactor. Installat1on SAFARI gives us the flavor ~of that myster1ous continent. ' ' . From the very beglnnlng the Europeans used more imaginative names ‘for their reactors. Although the acronyms ‘were sometimes: forced, the resulting word usually had a speC1f1c meaning. The British have Dido (named because it was heavy—watersmoderated DDO or Dzoj and Zephyr (Zero Epergyifast Beactor);_thelErench‘reactor,-Mélusine, was named after a fairy. One needed SOfie_knowledgefof mythology to recognize-the reason for calling a plutoniumAfueled reactof‘experiment'Proserpine, — . d ¥ the wife of Pluto. The firStZErench:zero.power_reactor was. called ZOE after ''zero (power), oxide (ofFUranium)-andjeau lourde'(heavy-water). : | . - The French sodium-cooled, fast reactor-is- called Bapsodte, from the | flrst letters of the off1c1a1 descrlptlve terms rapide and sodium; ‘it - ‘4t 4 ' to note that the modern colony of such reactors ~ that flower. - -15- evokes an ecstatic feeling. The breeder reactor mockup at the Cadarache Nuclear Center is known as -Masurca, a compression of its formal name Maquette §E;regénératrite‘Egfiarache'which'recalls the Polish dance. Khowledge;of mythology is also helpful in understanding special hints. The international collaboration in Europe was emphasized by the name of the Cadarache fast reactor, Europa's sister-in-lawl8, -- Harmonie; in.Greekvmytholdgy Harmonia was The name Aquarium.was an obvious one for the Los Alamos .critical facility, immersed in water; it also designated the design, construction and operation of a swimming?pool type reactor for the First Geneva Con- ference in 1955. The term swimming pool reactor was used at ORNL for its own reactor prior to this conference; it was a logical expression to designate reéctorsiplaced~in a water-filled rectangular hole which looked like a swimming pool, I t was feared that this.less-than-serious term would be-disliked by the powers-that-be and therefore the official name of'the.reéétor,at40RNL was the Bulk Shielding Reactor- (BSR), a correct but colorless expression.. Although the term swimming pool was Temoved from the official papers | submitted to the Geneva Conferenée, the news- men got hold of it and no censorship could prevent references in various languages to the sWimming pool reactor, e.g., réacteur piscine, Schwimm- badreaktor, etc.19. Today, pool-type reactor is a generic ternm. | The Argonne National Laboratory's family of reactors presents' another interesting example of mythological references. These Teactors are called Argonaut for Argonne Naught Power Reactor, recalling the legendary Argo- nauts who sailed with Jason.on the ship Argo in quest of the Golden Fleece; the term now designates- enginegring, the golden and Holland. Most of the Soviet " there are examples of mo a name close to the Russ tor of the Kurchatov Ins an educational tool in the field of nuclear power fleece of the 20th Century. It is of interest Argonauts also crossed the sea and established a in Europe; there are Jason reactors in_England reactors also carry alphabetic designations, but re colorful names. The organic-cooled Arbus has ian word for melon (arbuz). The Romashka reac- titute in Moscow is .named for the Russian word for daisy; indeed,‘the design of its fuel elements recall the petals of -16- The first Soviet ‘power reactor at Obninsklhas'been called The First Atomic Power Reactor of the USSR20 in.the English.and.RUSSian literature, but mbre.recently it has heen referred ‘to occasionally as Pervii v Mire ' or Atom Mir 1, 1nd1cat1ng "The World's First" Atom1c Power Station. Colorful terms are still be1ng 1nvented The Tennessee Valley Authority announced recently»that_conta1nment structureSpof its new SequoyahiNuclear;power.plant7near‘Chattanooga-will be lined with five. | million pounds of ice cubes. }lt5wasfunavoidable:that the press would call it Reactor on the Rocks?l T The thermonuclear researchers, com1ng after reactor. men, seemed to - lean toward humor and mythology when nam1ng their fac111t1es ) Agaln even though-Ivam a loyal ORNL'er, I must admlt that the name of our DCX ma- chine,'standing for»Direct Current Experlment,vls not as colorful as that of the Los Alamos tor01da1 p1nch experlment Perhapsatron or the magnetlc m1rror experiment, SbyZZa.; Fu51on research is fraught with | dangers similar-to those encountered by Ulysses and his seafar1ng com- panions; we can expect sooner or later the appearance of a machlne called Charybdts. 3 : | | | " As the. thermonuclear fu51on tr1es to 1m1tate what's happenlng in the Sun ‘and other stars, 1t 1s natural that we. have deV1ces named SteZZarator or Astron. A L o o There are several (apocryphal) stor1es about the or1g1n of the i code for the project aimed to generate ‘energy by thermonuclear fus1on; 'Accordlng to one vers1on a. SC1ent15t sa1d to another "It would be - good to make the fusion energy of the Sun ava1lab1e to mankind". The other agreed: "It sure would"“ Thereupon the whole undertaklng was ‘dubbed Project'Sherwoodzz The other explanatlon attr1butes the code - to the name of the man in. charge James Tuck == who qu1te naturally recalls Friar Tuck and Sherwood Forest of Rob1n Hood The peaceful use of thermonuclear exp1051ons was emphasized by the name given to the underground excavatlon PZowshare recalling the Biblical admonition of the Prophet Isa1ah ”:;,.and they shall beat the1r }swords into plowshares and the1r spears 1nto prun1ng ‘hooks". In v1ew of ‘the underground nature of the act1v1ty, the term Gnome is well 'su1ted as a name for an ”exper1ment to study the productlon v . e ,_-\f,;. ’ e N ¢ (oo . ,.1;, \ et o -17- | , A_and-recoyery'Aof_heat,and isotopes,produced in a contained (underground) nuclear explosion";faccording'to the dictionary, it stands for:''an age- less dwarf creature‘of folklore concelved as. 11v1ng 1n the earth and usually guard1ng prec1ous ores or treasure” D . ~ A number of the accelerators,:known to the lay publlc as atom ,f‘ smashers,_have names end1ng in ", .tronU, recallrng the, generic term cchotron or magnet1c resonance accelerator .The linearvaccelerators are called Ztnac (always pronounced W1th a short 1) | | _ | The French cyclotron at Saclay has a. large ring, ---therefore it was logical to call it Saturne. The namepof’Ntmrod ar Harwell, England, indicates that,ltlls used for huntinglor_searchfng,,;Theimachine at 'Danesbury, England is. called Ntna,A intimate knowledge‘of.the.American television field 1s.revea1ed by the names of a German and a Swedish f accelerator Desy and Lusy,.they stand for Deutsches Elektron Synchrotron and Lund Synchrotron respectlvely Other acronyms : of . these 1nterest- 1ng dev1ces 1nc1ude ORIC (Oak R1dge Isochronous Cyclotron), ORELA (Oak Rldge Electron L1near Accelerator under construct1on) LAMPF (Los Alamos Meson Proton Fac111ty) and TRIUMF (Tr1 Unlver51ty Meson Meson FaC111ty) in Vancoyer% Canada:, A;fourth_unlvers1ty joined thejorrglnal Sponsors , but I do not belieue“that-the symholic acronym willibe changed . The names of Bevatron at. Berkeley and - Cbsmotron at the Brookhaven Natlonal Labora— tory emphasize the. tremendous 51ze of. these machlnes23 o , -The energywlevel, ofpcourse is a very important feature of accel- erators;,nowadays,-it“is~given_fn termsnof brlllonielectron yolts or Bev. . However, biZZion iS«a'"false friend”'which,confuses the.trusting reader -it means thousand million in the United States. and million m11110n An most of ‘the rest.of the world. Therefore the prefix, Gtga, abhrevlatedxastqehas been_adopted_for the‘factor;of_lOlz, and Bev | became Gev. In this connection, it has been reported that Professor .Victorfweisskopf'offiMIT? a former director.of-the European high-energy research center CERN, in Geneva, Switzerland started to say in a speech ”Gev - oh, I'm sorry; over, here, I have to remember to .use Brookhaven electron volts"24 ?He:;huspgape-an;excellent mnemonic- rule: Geneva electron vo}ts;and_Brookhgven;eleotrongpolts, for'use in. Europe and thepuzt§,,trespectiyelyfiftotindicate_1012 electron volts.. -18- Many ofsthe wartime termsfhsed in the;Various plans'of the Manhattan Project were simple arbitrarily chosén'codes In addition to the. pre- viously mentioned Tuballoy and Oralloy, there was also, by analogy, Myrnalloy for thor1um based on the name of the motion- plcture actress. Hex was uranium hexafluorlde (usually enrlched) while D-38 1nd1cated uranium depleted in the 235 isotope - The term derby 1nd1cated an ingot of depleted uranium received from the metal reduction plant ~ Fission- able materials were shlpped 1n,conta1ners held in a birdcage to prevent stacklng them and unwittingly. creatlng a critical mass. This highly descriptive term is still used. | | ' | Codes in use at the Gaseous’ lefUSion'(K 25) plant included L-28 for 11qu1d n1trogen and H-24 for helium (based again on the atomic number and weight). o | The production of the plant was reported in units of kegs of eggs 4fstand1ng for - k1lograms of X (or 235U) The center of the K-33 cell floor was called Sth Avenue ‘and 42nd Street, wh1le ‘the K- 29 complex was referred to as the anderosa N | | | Many of these terms outllved thelr usefulness, but the expressions of green salt and orange oxide are still used for uranium tetrafluorlde and trioxide, respectively., = | - | At the Electromagnetlc Separatlon (Y 12) Plant the letter F designated calutron ion beam; caZutron 1tse1f was a contract1on oflthe -words Callfornla University and cyclotron In that plant, the 238y ‘ 1sotope was indicated by the letter Q, and 235U by R; M des1gnated the -calutron source and E the calutron receiver. 'whlle W/ was the system's magnetlc fleld . The track was the complete magnet1c system conta1n1ng ~ many calutrons, and cubicle referred to the power supply and control center of an 1nd1v1dual calutron | The term atha separation 1nd1cated a first.pass in the separation process on the 48- inch radlus machine, while the beta separatlon referred to the - second pass on a 24- 1nch - radius device. o ) : f,j h o , ~ Today, most of.theSe buildings hare been'stripped of their original tracks and are used for other purposes but oldt1mers still refer to tthem as Alpha-1 or Beta-3. As has been mentloned before, all the buildings ‘in whlch the separatlon process was carrled out were de51gnated by a number start1ng with 92..;[}’5k [ St ¥ [ .. ".=19- A dee, because of its Shape like the letter D, indicated the alpha 1 calutron source, receiyer'and liner assembly; the term bin referred to the calutron's vacuum chamber and the Mae West was its electron drain system component. In that plant the liquid nitrogen (atomic number 7, atomic weight- 14) was designated by 714. Cooling was very important; "there was a special code (763) for the condensation trap using carbon dioxide and a solvent. The sump Was a calutron receiver for decelerat- ing and collecting the ion beam and slug* indicated a Qneeunit‘mass separation in the electromagnetic process. Crud (SupposedIy originally standing for Chalk River Unidentified Deposit) was a secret word at the Y-12 Plant. | | | Let us turn our attention to another new field which has also staffed,with the atomic.age. The healtH physicists\invéhted many colorful terms to designate their specialized instfuments. The first light-weight meter was named cutie pie after his wife by a romantic engineer. Even though some labbratories do not stand for such nonsense and insist calling the instrument "CP meter", cutie pte is a more pleasing term than CP-meter to designaté?fil,. a small, light weight, portable, gamma-measuring, beta-indicating , survey instrument with an ionization chamber coupled to a balancéd bridge circuit ."25;.'A' ~ portable detection instrument operated as if it wére:sniffing the alpha emitters; it was quite natura{;fio paste on its side a decal of the famous Disnéy dog,‘bluto “sniffing the ground. Unfortunately, a securlty—_ minded supervisor became disturbed by. this name which was very close to that of the still-classified plutonlum and }ssued an order forbidding ifs use. It was suggested to-rechristen the instrument Sandy, Little Orphan Annie' s dog, but this recommendat1on was not followed. Another instrument consisted of two units, a boron-coated ioniza- tion chamber which measured both neutron and gamma rays and a similar, uncoated chamber which mecasured the gamma rays alone; from the difference of the two readings the,neutron flux could be determined. The instru- ments always traveled together and therefore the unit was named Chang and Eng for the original Siamese twins. - . ! . . \ . ) * This term was also used to designate the short, aluminum-clad ‘uranium rods of the X-10 reactor. - o =20- The field of instrumentatlon also made use of mythology;. A portable survey instrument Zeus was followed by another one named Juno. A European modular instrument unit waS'callethdnusg‘ On the other hand, several .instrumentsbwere named after.theLnOiSe they make. These devices included Walkie Talkie, the output of wh1ch was fed to a pair of headphones, Walkie Squawkie wh1ch utlllzed a. loudspeaker ~and Walkie Poppy. which made a, ”popplng” noise. 'The modern PRM. (Personnel Radlatlon Monitor) is popularly called’the chtrper after its audlble 51gna1 | | The many new concepts in . the f1e1d of nuclear physics made it necessary for the sc1entlsts to 1nvent new terms In Cross section measurements the 4expre551on barn was 1ntroduced Thlsusmall surface 10-24 cm2 is "as big as a barn” for nuclear processes26 During the Study of the neutrlno, a ‘much smaller surface was used in theoretlcal studies and the area 10-44 -'cm2 waS‘qultelloglcally named the shed however, this latter name did not receive.general“acceptance An effort to change barn to square férmt 1(1 fermi be1ng 10-12 cm) was also unsuccessful. The well-known neutron cross section compllatlon BNL 325, has the p1cture of a barn: on. 1ts cover . and 1s popularly known as The Barn Book » | Barn is a rather unusual name for a sc1ent1f1c un1t although today. 1t sounds qu1te natural to us ; The usual (m1111, micro, etc. ) preflxes were used w1th it and thus it 1s ‘not- surprlslng ‘that a suspicious wife 'who did not 1like at all be1ng left out of dlscu551ons asked her friend ‘"Who 1s th1s M1111e Barn, | about whom the men always talk?!". | The flrst studies of nuclear cha1n reactlon were made w1th uranium and graphlte blocks that were stacked or p11ed whence the term ptZe recalllng the voltalc p11e, the or1g1na1 pr1mary battery, wh1ch con- sisted of a series of alternatlng copper and 21nc disks, with disks of cloth m01stened w1th an electrolyte between them ~ Later it was decided to use the more euphonlus term reactor Th1$~was not'a-perfect and un- amb1guous name it has been used to de51gnate ”a .piece of equipment in which a chemlcal reaction is- carrled out espec1ally on ‘an industrial scale', accordlng ‘to one author1ty27 whlch llsts the '"nuclear' meanlng in the second place. The term caused occa51ona1 confu51on. When. the - ORNL standard ptZe a graphlte assembly w1thout any uranium, was. restandard1zed _1t could not be called properly a reactor, but, an «p - ) -~ w~ b -y (e e editor, instructed to watch out and .eliminate. the term '"pile'", unthink- ‘1ngly changed the name to. reactor " Another, st111~w1delymused term‘beoamefipart of the technical lan- ~-guage at the birth of the atomic-age. During the experiment that culmlnated on December 2, 1942 in the accomplishment of:the first-u controlled nuclear chain reaction, a safety rod. was held by a rope runnrngnthrough.the pile and weighted-on the opposite end. The young physicist in charge was told to watch the indicator; if it exceeded a certain value, he was to cut the rope and scram. Since then the term scram is used to designate the emergency‘shutdown’of a reactor. Today the urgency is lost and the word scram 1nd1cates simply a fast- shutdown operation.' A few years ago the’ meetlng of “the international - committee on nuclear terminology, a member of the Br1t1sh:delegation expressed 'a strong dislike for -this word, calling it '"an inelegant: American-slang term" and wanted to substitute emergency shutdown?*; however, his face was red when during a subsequent visit of the com- mittee‘members to British“reattors revealed that‘the'emergency‘shutdown buttons carry a big SCRAM even in England the word' is more expre551ve and as it is shorter, it 1s easier to print on the ‘control panel. A cursorynglance_atathe new ‘terms’ applied to nuclear ‘concepts, -- hoth in pure science and in engineering,‘reveals“a definite tehdency | to use ordinary words, av01d1ng words of Greek-Latin or1g1n eommonly ' used in science. “Let us. look at”a few examples. The term cross section was mentioned above. In its new meaning, it is.'"'a measure of probability of a specified interaction between an incident radiation and a target particle'; it has the dimensions of area. The words- dollar and cent have nothing to do with money; they represent:-a unit.of reactiyity equal to the'differenee.between the prompt critical and delayed critical conditions of the reactor. The term rabbit designates a device to move radioactive samples from the reactor to the laboratory or to‘send specimensffor short periods .of. * A compromise was reached in the latest ed1t1on of the USA Glossary (2): Scram (see emergency shutdown). -Scram rod (see safety rod). .'_22_. time through'the reactor corej thefopening through which it entered the reactor was naturally called the rabbit hole. - After having been the exclusive property of nuclear engineers, the new meaning of - this : _ T word . has been 1isted_by'dictionary-editors, but one must_be-careful. oy when«transiating it into other languages. Milking has nothing to do.with cows and dairy science but refers to the contlnued removal of a daughter radloactlve decay product from the parent. Breedtng has no blologlcal implication for the nuclear engineer; it indicates COnversionlmhen the conversion ratio is greater than unity;' When the reactor'man7speaks‘of sandwich and states the o | . thickness. of the meat, he does not refer to h1s luncheon but to the. ’uranlum aluminum alloy fuel, covered W1th a sheet of alumlnum ‘the. meat in the central fissionable ‘portion.. DecZaddtng has nothing to -do with strip tease; 1t 1mp11es the removal of the protectlve coatlng from the. fuel -element, usually by chemlcal means. If the-operation. ~1s carrled out mechanlcally, we talk about degackettng Chemical processing has also developed 1ts spec1a1 expre551ons A direct strtke ‘-referred to the addltlon of a phosphate anion to form ' blsmuth phosphate which carrled the plutonlum in the reverse strike »" | o the phosphate. was added to a. uranlum solutlon contalnlng plutonlum, | | after which the. blsmuth carrler was added. The plutonlum concentrafehv tion was de51gnated x-level and w-level dependlng on the plant or site, while the difficulty arlslng from handllng plutonlum was called the atha problem. ' o ’ ' ' There were a number of extractlve separatlon processes with names ending 1n Vex” €.8., Thorex EZex, Purex, etc,,‘otherw1se, the chemists and chemical engineers used mostly the terme’of theirjown'field | Handling radioactive materials brought 1nto the language the term hot and, as ~with "honest-to-God" 51lver occa51ona11y care had ‘to be taken to empha- size that the solution was thermally hot. Today hot means "highly radio- actlve”' but hot atom 1nd1cates "'an atom 1n an-exc1ted state or having ) kinetic energy above the thermal level of the surroundings, usually as Ag,‘ ? " a result of nuclear processes” ’V7, fu_ "”"f o o - u " Let us-1ook at the nuclear language from another v1ewp01nt Earlier | I p01nted to the emot10na1 1mpact of certaln words It is surprlsing i . ~23- - how many such "loaded” words are used in: the nuclear field. People ‘were afraid of anythlng atomic to start with' because of the awesome or1g1n of the f1e1d and the. termlnology developed by the- practltloners ' did not alleviate this feellng Noflwonder:that the public becomes ‘suspicious and confused when reading about mean life, dead time, ex- cited state, burnup, burfiout, even though'these‘termé are used to designate "innocent" teéhnical concepts. ‘Furthef'unpleasant4imagery is conJured up by expre551ons such as neutron . capture and master- slave manipulators. | - | A W1111am E. Shoupp, a former president of the Amerlcan Nuclear SOC1ety, feels that ‘the nuclear industry -bears a great ‘portion of the respon51b111ty for the fact that the pub11c mlsunderstands its true B nature, its promlse of a brighter future; he squarely attributes thlS to the unfortunate choice of terms used by'practitibners of nuclear engineering and science?l, In his widely—acelaimed speech as}outgoing president, he eloquently described the misinformation, ignorance and confusion of the public. He cited a public-opinion survey of teenagers who, even though they have not been‘born‘when»the atomic ‘bomb-was - dropped, associated atomlc energy w1th war and not peace. In'épite of the excellent safety record at the natlonal laboratorles and major research centers, people are afraid of reactors, as shown by citizens' protests whenever new projects are'planned ' This reaction’is.re— inforced by words’ conveylng an unpleasant connotatlon He decried the - use of terms such as maximum credtble acctdent and asked why should reactor engineers talk about a hazards report instead of a saféguards repert; He pointed. out, as did others before him, that the nuclear jargonAis filled with gloomy, funereal terms: fuel-elements'are trans- ported in coffins and reactors are poisoned to control them. It ‘is 'indeed‘unfortunate that we . use expressions'as a reactor going critical _and~carrying‘out eritical experiments in a critical facility. To the 'laymafi the word '"'critical" means that the patient is about to die, but- for some reason, it is associated with the "birth" of reactors. - Con- taminated items are disposed by taking them to cemeteries or burial 'grounds° The»previously‘mentioned~scram does,notLhelp,either,_aSHit \1mp11es "Run like hell!', , . _24- A more pleasing exfiréssion‘is hot garden, an underground storage for radioactive materials, consisting of a series of wells; the ma- - terial is "planted" in the garden.( | There are;beauty.énd history in these names and coined words; --*' - . - they deserve the samé attention 6f scholars as inscriptions.dn old tomb- stones and parchments. Some such scholarly studies have.already been started in the field of nuclear terminology. Dr. H. Kowalski, a nuclear scientistAtho is currently devoting his atténtion to problems of terminology examined the problem of creation of new words at a con- ference on linguistics; he listed several factors which influence the devélopment of scientific and'engineering jargohzg. | . The lingdiSt, the psychoiogist or the information specialist fiight find in the nuclear language a rich field for investigation. Geographers and historians try to reconstitute the way of life and sociai organiza- tion of early-inhabifants of a region by studying the toponymy of his- torical and geographic designations; in the same manner, editors and indexers of'nuclearApublications.should scrutinize the habits of authors; they should examine, for example, whether their systematic and techni- cally correct terms are actually used by authors, speakers and working engineers. . The atomic age is still with us; many of us still remember its birth, but it is fast becoming history. We should not lose this- opportunity to examine carefully the linguistic residue of a giant national and international effort while many persons who can shed light on certain facets of the;problem are still alive. Such an effort . could usefully complemeht the work of the Historical Ad&isory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commissionso. | | | Specialized terms should be coordinated and defined,but I want to repeatAthat committee reports'énd authority lists. are ex post facto | products; the living language does not wait for definitions. The language, as it is spoken, often does not follow the rules of grammar and logic. The fast breeder reéctor has a blanket and a fértiie zone but it does not breed fast; it uses fast neutrons for breeding. Even the fundamental concepts are often misused: we should talk about nuclear and not atomic energy, but the term is used: in the names of A ' (e~ ~ § -25- off1c1al bod1es (Atom1c Energy Comm1551on Comm1ssar1at 4 l'Energle Atom1que*) and 1t cannot be eradlcated ea31ly There are excellent linguistic arguments why we should not use the term nuclear saféty . .for problems of contamlnatlon by a- act1ve partlcles ~that term should be reserved to the f1eld descr1bed by the adJectlve crtttcal,.as we 'd1scussed above Old or quaint expre551ons have a certa1n charm and add a spec1al feellng to the cold ‘businesslike language of sc1ent1st and engl- | neer, they should be carefully con51dered 1nstead of automatlcally re- Jectlng them in favor of- systematlc terms. The old names of European streets and alleys retaln the flavor of the hlstory of the area, -- as for 1nstance the Parlslan names of ''Rue du Chat qu1 Peche” or "Rue des 'Mauva1s Garcons” - the Street of the Flshlng Cat or the Street of Bad Boys These names are not- as preC1se as ”Flfth Avenue and 42nd Street" to help f1nd your place in a C1ty but are more colorful and add character to the. c1ty People get attached to names to which they are accustomed and even the cold, numer1cal system may acquire ~a sentlmental value. Hardly any New Yorker talks about "Avenue of- the ‘Americas'; it remalns Slxth Avenue for them although the name was changed two decades ago , Therefore, in sp1te of the above ”cr1t1cal"- remarks about ”scram" and "cr1t1cal", we obta1n a certa1n emot1onal | satlsfactlon from the1r use they recall the "her01c” days of the. nuclear f1eld when the researcher started his workday W1th the- thought that he m1ght have to "scram” when the sc1ent15t armed with only a screwdriver pushed ”subcr1t1cal" masses. of flss1onable mater1als in an experiment called thstzng the dragon's tatZ 1nstead of watching from the outs1de as ‘they are. driven together in shielded cells by remote machlnery C11n1cally ster1le, logically correct terms are needed but ‘let us. not get rid of our. emot10nal herltage'. I cannot c1a1m that I have done Just1ce to the language of nuclear . science; it is 1mposs1b1e4to cover all facets ‘and’ ramlflcatlons of the trade Jargon of ‘this highly spec1allzed f1eld ! haVe tried to;point ‘out the 1mpact of the vocabulary on our feellngs, -- the same - words * But‘mbrevcorrectly, Junta de Energia Nuclear in Spain. ! -26- be1ng able to arouse fear and susp1c1on among the pub11c -- pride and nostalgla among the practltloners. : | | Wartime secrecy, gave birth to cover names but perhaps as a result of . some feel1ng of "fair play” there was: always some connection between the object and the verbal cloak.. Ordinary words assumed new.meanings | wh1m51ca1 acronyms were created, while the time- honored Greek and Latin roots were neglected - T | | ' ‘ A new "language” has been developed in the relatlvely short t1me' of a quarter of-a century The f1eld is not ‘the youngest any more; the space and computer sc1ences now have that d1$t1nct1on . But 1t still dominates 1nternat1onal pol1t1cs and people who plan the future of mank1nd count on its resources. What the pol1t1c1ans the planners and, espeC1ally, the scientists and englneers “have to say. must be ~ clearly understood by everybody ' . | In the portlon of his book quoted at the start of this paper Isaac A51mov, the well known sc1ent1st SC1ence writer and author of science-fiction stories, underl1nes the obllgatlon of scientists to society and to the1r colleagues to make themselves understood They must make sure that they will not lose touch with non- SC1ent1sts that SC1ence Wlll not appear as "1ncomprehen51ble maglc” - They owe it to the1r fellow sc1entlsts not to use terms wh1ch are all-defined or cannot be understood by ‘a maJorlty of their aud1ence or readers, otherW1se only words are transmltted 1nstead of knowl- . edge. They must resist the. temptatlon to coin fancy words to cover up hazy and unclear concepts. - | 1 would like to close by c1t1ng the now famous telephone message ~given by Arthur Compton from Chlcago after thlelrst self-sustaining chain reaction was achieved, to James B. Conant at Harvard. It heralded the beg1nn1ng of a new age for manklnd and it was 1nstantly understood although the code was not prearranged31 | ”The Ital1an naV1gator has. 1anded in the new world" said Compton. - "T' ) | | "How- were the natives?"; asked Conant. - ""Very friendly'. (1-*~ o> - —— \ 4 A"L - -27- . . ‘Acknowledgements - In add1t10n to sources llsted 1n the b1b110graphy, I relied on material Supplled by colleagues - oldtlmers at- ORNL and at the other local plants. Whlle I cannot p0551b1y Iist every person who kindly ' supplled terms to’ me, I would 11ke to express. my thanks for the assist- ance of H. S. Pomerance, G M Banlc Jr., J. H. Junklns, D. B. Wood- -bridge, W. H. Jordan 'S. J leshaw RiW. Stoughton F T Howard, C.-E. Larson, A.,H.-Snell, J. Lew1n, M. G. Gerrard and D. D. Davis et (USAEC). . X-10 REACTOR OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY HAS BEEN DESIGNATED A REGISTERED NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK UNDER THE PROVISIONS OF THE ;[ : HISTORIC SITES ACT OF AUGUST 21, 1935 THIS SITE POSSESSES EXCEPTIONAL VALUE [N COMMEMORATING OR ILLUSTRATING THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES U.s. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 1966 s R R Figure 1. The bronze plaque marklng the X 10 Reactor as a Reglstered National Historic Landmark S Flgure 2. The "alphabet soup"r.-gn whlch seems'to confuse the bus driver, points.to the following facilities? “NSPP:= Nuclear Safety Pilot Plant; DOSAR/HRPP - Dosimetry Appllcatlons and Research/Health Physics Research Reactor; MSRE - Molten Salt Réactor Experlment ‘HFIR - High Flux Isotope Reactor; TUFCDF - Thorlum-Uranlum Fuel Cycle Development Facility; TRU - Transuranium Proce551ng Plant.: ~: . - .o000s e i’ iz.iBib1io"g‘;rafE""~fi3{ L Mario Pe1 (Edltor), Language of the Spec1allst -- A Communl— cations Guide to Twenty leferent Flelds Funck G Wagnalls 1966. A few examples of off1c1al glossarles of var1ous countries are given below - USA Standard Glossary of Terms 1in Nuclear SC1ence and Technology, USAS N 1. 1 1967, Lawrence Dresner Subcommlttee Cha1rman . Glossary~of Terms used in Nuclear Sc1ence,vBr1t15h Standards Institution, 1962. D1ctlonna1re des Sciences et Techn1ques Nuclealres CEA, ‘Presses Un1vers1ta1res de France, 1966. Karnteknisk ord Lista (Glossary of Terms in Nuclear SC1ence ‘and Technology, Swed1sh Centre of Techn1ca1 Term1n010gy Publ1- cations, No. 36. ' - B Begrippenlist Kernwetenschappen (Glossary of. Nuclear‘Science and Technology) Nederlands Normal1sat1e Instltuut NEN 3297 ,October 1967 Nuclear Terms, a Brief‘Gloseary, "Understanding the Atom" series; USAEC, 'Division of'Technical Information. L f' ~fGlossary of Terms Frequently Used in Nuclear Phys1cs Plasma Phy51cs High- Energy Phys1cs Amer1can Inst1tute of Phy51cs -New York h A sampllng of spec1a1 nuclear encyclopedlas of the world V. S _Emelyanov, Ed1tor Atomnaya Energiya, Kratkaya . Ent51kloped1ya, Bol'shaya, Sovetskaya Ents1kloped1ya 1950 EnC1cloped1a della C1v1lta}Atom1ca (10 Vols.),‘ . L. Sagglatore, Milano;_1959._ | | | Concise Encyclopedia'vof'Nuclear Energy, Newnes; London 1962, Lajos Jé4nossy, (edltor), Atommag Lex1kon Akadema1 K1ad6 Budapest 1963. , . ' R Lex1kon der Kern und Reaktorentechn1k K. H Glockner and K. Weimer, Franck'sche Verlaghandlung, Stuttgart 1959 iAtomlc~Energy, Glossary of Technical Terms, Unlted Nat1ons 1955 and' 1958. -30- W. E. Clason, Elsevier's Dictionary of Nuclear Science and _ Technoldgy in Six Languages, Elsevier Publishing Company, 1958. " I. Voskoboinik, Sem1yazychny1 Yadernyi Slovar', Flzmatglz Moscow, 1961 (extending the above to Ru551an) a Lotte Lettenmeyer D1ct10nary of Atomic Termlnology (1n four - 1967, p. 66. B languages), Philosophical Library, N. Y. _ '~Russko-Angliiskii'Yadernyi Slovar, D. I. Voskoboinik and M. G. Zimmerman, Fizmatgiz, 1960. Ralph'Sube Technik Worterbuch' Nuclear Science and Engineering, VEB Verlag Technik, Berlin, 1960. o o - J. Tewlls, UK delegate ‘to the Paris 1962 meeting of ISO Work Group 85 on nuclear term1nology (also editor of Encyclopedia of Phy51cs), cited in Forelgn Travel Tr1p Report ORNL-CF- 62-7-71 by Franc01s Kertesz, July 17 1962. David McNeill, "Speaking of Space', Science, May 13, 1966, ‘Vol. 152, pp. 875-80. - New Peak for Newspeak, Newsweek May 6 1968 PP 104—5. Report No. CC-111, Conference on Chemlstry, Chicago. Glenn T. Seaborg: Plutonlum - Its Beglnnlng, Nuclear News, September 1967, p.. 34. - Glenn T. Seaborg, Man Made Transuranlum Elements Prentice-Hall, " Inc., New Jersey, 1963, p. 21 | Charles B. Yulish (Editor), A-Handbook of Abbreviations and " Nicknamés Concerned with- AtomiC»Energy, May 1964, TID-7031. Robert E. Upchurch (Edltor), SubJect Headlngs used by the USAEC, D1v131on of Techn1ca1 ‘Information, TID-5001. R. C. Thomas, J. M. Ethrldge and F. G. “Ruffner, Jr., Acronyms and In1t1a115ms D1ct10nary, Gale Research Company, Detr01t Michigan, 1965. L | _ Kent H. Bulloch, Code Names}and Nicknames of the Nuclear Age, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, August 1968. | How Scientists Play Games w1th Names , Bus1ness Week December 30, Directory of Nuclear Reactors, Internatlonal Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, First Volume publlshed 1959. | ! \ w0 et , \':"r-. 17. - 18. 19, 20. 21, 22, 23. 24, 25.. 26. 27, 28. 29, 30. 31, h.—31— "Chemlcal .and. Eng1neer1ng News. : . | YA-He1nr1ch Kowalskl, Nuclear Slang and Nuclear Termlnology, ~ EUBU-4-16. o - ) ‘Francois Kertesz ?The:Storyiof Project'Aquarium”;‘Oak Ridge . National Laboratory Review,iWinter 1968,_pp.'24~33. Proceedings of the International Conferenceron the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, Geneva, 1955, Vol. 3, p. 35. - Atomnaya:Energiya' Vol. 1, No. 1 (1956), p. 3. The Oak Rldger August 23, 1968, p 1. b_AIV1n M. We1nberg,."State of the Laboratory Address" December 1955. e , o , F. T. Howard;'High-Energy_Accelerators,_ORNL-AIC-l. "Phimsy', Physics Today, December 1967, p. 15. - -D. M. Davis, Health PhysicsvDivision Instrument‘Manual; ORNL-332, Samuel Glasstone Sourcebook'on Atomic'Energy, Third Edition, 1967, D Van Nostrand Co., p 371 (C1t1ng LAMS 523).. "Webster s Third New International D1ct10nary (Unabr1dged) William E. Shoupp The Atom, The Publlc and You, Nuclear News, August 1965, pp. 13-17. o | “H. Kowalsk1 Der . Ubersetzer im Dschungel Techn1sch W1ssen— ' schaftllcher Wortschopfungen (The Translator 1n the Jungle of Techn1ca1 and Sc1ent1f1c Neologlsms) EUR/C/1466/68 Appendix _to BTB/30. (Lecture presented at the Internat1ona1 Conference on General and Appl1ed L1ngu15t1cs Antwerpen,AAprll 22-24, ©1968). o o A well- known and valuable result of the act1V1ty of thls commission is. the authoritative book by R1chard G. ‘Hewlett and Oscar E. ~ Anderson, Jr » The New World 1939/1946 the Pennsylvanla Uni- ver51ty Press, 1962. Laura Ferml, Atoms in the Famlly, Un1vers1ty of Chlcago Press 1954, p. 19 yCorbln Allardice and Edward Trapnell The First Reactor Under- standlng the Atom Ser1es, p. 24. | { INDEX OF TERMS | Term ~ Page - Term - . ' Page Aardvark -~ 12 - A2R2 e 12 ;- ~Cubtele. = .- - 18 Abort 7 .-, Cutie pte 19 Alpha problem' 22 | = Cyclotron 17 Alpha separation e D C Aquarium - 15 o -pcx | Arbus - B 156 .t . Dead man's button 2 Argonaut - 15 | . Deadtime . | 23. Argonne National . | - Decladding - 22 Laboratory . ~ . 11 . ‘Décontamination 1 S B i 'Cfésé section - 21 . ) Astron 16 - - factor . 4 Atomic | 24 i - Dejacketing 1 22 Atomie fisston 8 . 'l Deliriwum = 9. Atom smasher - 17 . I Derby - 18 - | ' - Desy - - 17 Bandicbsf S 12 o Dide 14 .- Barn . . - .. 200 - -|. - Direct strike .. = - 22 - Barn Book o 20 - - Dollar. _ 21 Berkelium " 9,10 1 - D-38 . 187 Beta separation 18 . . -.% Dysprostum.: = . . 10 Bev - 17 | o Bevatron . 17 1 U FE | 18 Bin ' 19 .. FEemy - 13 g Birdcage . = 18 - . Elex 22 . Blanket. . - 24 = Emergency shutdown 21 Bobaec - - - 12 - . Enrichment 5 BR-1 =~ . - S 14 ' Enyichment ‘factor 5 - Bulk Shielding - . Ezcited state 23 Reactor - .. 16 Burial ground 23 Burnout =~ .28 ; Burnup o 23 - Fertile zone - 24 BWR = 4 138 V- Fifth Avenue and . | e |« 42nd Street = 18 Californium. 8,10 - |.. . First Atomic Power ' . Calutrom . 18 .. .. . Reactor . . - 16 Castle-on-the-Hill 11 - .Fissiom - - 8 Cent . 21 - (Element) 4 ' 9. 9 9 : Fusf breeder 24 Chang and Eng 19 - (Element) 40 ) Chirper ' 20 . (Element) 49 8, Clementine o140 - T Clinton Engineering = . . ‘Gev' - . .. 17 Felt-hat incident 6 Works | 117 U Giga - 17 Coffin 28 -~ . .. _Gnome . . : 16" Copper | g - .. Godiva A A 14 Cosmotron - 1z - . Green Salt 18 Countdown 7 . . Guest House 11 CP-1 13 R - CP meter . 19 - . Harmonie .. = 15 Critical experiments . o Hazards. report - 23 . facility =~ 23,256 Hex. . . . 18 - .‘..\. . i e [ Ao~ - Term HFIR Honest-to-God- Copper Honest-to-God- Silver Hot Hot atom Hot garden H-24 - Jason Jemima Jpzabel Juggernant Juno Kegs of eggs - KIWI K-256 LAMPF Linac Lower Slobovia Lower Slobovian Dzstzllery Lusy L-28 M Mae West Manhattan Dzstrtct‘ Masurca Master- -glave Manipulator Maximum credible . accident Mean life Meat Meeny Mélusine 17 17 13 13 17 18 18 19 10 15 23 23 28 22 13 - 14 Metallurgical Zabora- tory . Mighty Mouse Migration area. Miney | MSRE MTR Multiplication factor Myrnalloy Neptunium Neutron capture 11. 12 13 13 18 | v | *\\\\, Term Newium Nimyod Nina Nuclear ' Nuclear safety Oak Ridge Ofium. OMRE ORACLFE Oralloy ‘Orange oxide ORELA ORIC ORR Pad Pandemonium Perhapsatron. Pile Plowshare Plutonium . - Poison Pornderosa Pool-type reactor _ PRM ,Proserpfine. Purex PWR Q . R Rabbit Rabbit hole Rapsodie Réacteur piscine Reactor - Reactor on the rocks Reverse strike Romashka ' - SAFART Safeguards report SAM Sandwich Saturne Sehwimmbad reaktor Seram « Seylla Separation factor Seven gables [ 15 18 18 22 22 15 20 16 22 15 14 23 11 22 17 15 22 16 11 X Y 8 . Texrm . ~ Page Shed 20 Sherwood 16 Shangri-La .- 12 Sitlver 29 Slug 19 Square fermt . 20 Stellarator 16 Sump - 19 Swimming pool 15 Thermally hot 22 (Element) 39 9 Thorex 22 - Topsy 14 Track 18 TRIUMF 17 TNX 12 TSR 13 (Element) 20 9 (Element) 25 8,9 (Element) 28 9 (Element) 24 - 9 (Element) 2 9 Twice enriched 5 Twisting the dragon's . tail - 15 - Umbilical . Universitium 10 Walkie Poppy 20 Walkie Squawkie 20 Walkie Talkie 20 W level - - . 22 12 X level 22 X-10 . 12 X-10 Reactor 13 - 12 Y-12 12 Yorkzum 10 Z Zephir 14 Zeus 20 ZOE . 14 0 -~ o Vo DISTRIBUTION: N 1. P. S. Baker B 93-94, 2.- G. M. Banic, Jr. - - 95, ( 3. -S. R. Bernard 96, . 4, N, T.Bray . . - 97. 5. W. H. Bridges I _ 6. M. A. Broders . 7. F. R. Bruce - 8. 'E. J. Brunenkant, DTI, Wash 9. 'C. A. Burchsted 10. C. F. Barnett 11. Dixon Callihan 12, T. E. Cole. 13, T. F. Connolly 14.. W. B. Cottrell _ 15. D. D. Davis, DTIE '16. L. Dresner 17. J. L. English 18. W. B. .Ewbank 19 20. Martha Gerrard. . 21. J._D.'Hoeschele S S 22. F. T. Howard S 23. F. €. Hutton o 24, K. 0. Johnsson. o 25. W. H. Jordan L 26. J. H. Junkins o 27-77. F. Kertesz b 78. C. E. Larson. ' v79.'_Joanne Levey -80. Barbara Lyons 81. . H. F. McDuffie 82. F. K. McGowan 83. Jerry Olson 84. H. S. Pomerance - 85. S. J. Rimshaw . - 86. - R. ‘L. Shannon, DTIE 87. A. H. Snell - . 88. R..W. Stoughton 89. D. A. Sundberg 90. :D. K. Trubey ~91. A. M. Weinberg ' 92. D. B. Woodbridge " ALaboratory‘Records Laboratory Records-RC Central Research Library ~ Document. Reference Section - - LR n, Centra} Research Library Dot Collection NoV § - 1968 i | 3