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H. A. Wilhelm (right) of Iowa State receives the Iowa Award Medal from Robert S. Casey, W. A. Sheaffer Pen Co. and chairman of the award committee. The Iowa Section presents the award annually to an outstanding chemist or chemical engineer from Iowa
M o r e Α-Talk A-Coming? Secrecy in atomic energy has been around for a while, but Iowa Medalist thinks things might be looking up IOWA CITY.-While often viewed as severely restrictive, especially in an academic atmosphere, secrecy in re search and development in the atomic energy field was well established long before the Atomic Energy Act was passed, H. A. Wilhelm, associate di rector of the Institute for Atomic Re search at Iowa State College, said in his address following presentation of the Iowa Medal here. Much information has been released since World War II, but a high degree of secrecy still exists in the over-all program. Suggestions as to actual in formation to b e classified come from the technical people working in the field, so the secrecy restrictions are something of a self-imposed handicap. This must be accepted since no satis factory substitute has yet appeared. The present world situation is largely responsible for the secrecy problem. However, Wilhelm believes it is pos sible that in the near future changes will evolve and permit much more in formation not closely related to weap ons to be given wider distribution. Contamination Problems. Some of the problems confronting chemists and metallurgists preparing special materials for reactors are enormous. Minute quantities of impurities with poor nuclear properties can often cause great difficulties. Wilhelm told of the effort made to 4654
prevent contamination of uranium metal with boron and cadmium in the uranium production plant. Both of these contaminants have high neutron absorption cross sections which would limit uranium's effectiveness in a reac tor. Since boron is an ingredient in some soaps and cleaning compounds, it was necessary to analyze all such materials brought into the plant. Even chemicals for the foot bath had to be specified to contain no boron com pounds. Cadmium-plated tools, bolts, nuts and parts were ruled out of the building. Designers of nuclear reactors are drastically restricted in materials from which to choose. Chemists are con stantly challenged to produce new materials with suitable properties for reactor use. With industry getting into the atomic power program and with the resulting emphasis on low cost power production, need for new and better nuclear reactor materials will be an even greater challenge to the chemist, Wilhelm concludes. Metals f o r Atomic Energy P r o g r a m Bring I o w a M e d a l
Harley A. Wilhelm, i Λ Iowa Award Medalist, is best known as a coinventor of the process adopted by the Manhattan Project during World War II for large scale production of uranium metal and for his later work
on developing large scale production of thorium. The medal is presented each year by the Iowa Section of the A C S t o an outstanding chemist or chemical engineer of the state "in recognition of meritorious achievement in research, teaching or industry." While AEC declassifies a great deal of information when it is considered to be more helpful to science generally than it is to a potential enemy i n mak ing atomic weapons, much of Wilhelm's work has found such immediate prac tical applications that it must neces sarily remain secret. The medalist has been instrumental in research leading to more than 60 inventions connected with the atomic energy program. Frank H. Spedding, director of the institute and himself recipient of the first Iowa Award in 1948, gives an indication of Wilhelm's place in the program: "Wilhelm is recognized throughout the A E C as an expert on the metallurgy of uranium and thorium and he is often called in as a trouble shooter in this capacity at other AEC installations." Like a great many metallurgists, Wil* helm was educated as a physical chem ist. H e received his Ph.D. in that subject from Iowa State in 1 9 3 1 . Most of his prewar publications w e r e in the field of spectrochemistry. One of the important needs of the Manhattan Project was pure uranium metal, practically nonexistent at the time. Wilhelm, w h o had been at Iowa State as a graduate student and faculty member since 1928, joined the Ames project as a group leader w h e n it was first organized in 1942 to work on the uranium problem. His group expanded and h e is now in direct charge of the metallurgical division in the permanent A E C lab set up at Ames after the war. H e is also research professor of chem istry at the college. The uranium process developed at Ames was so successful that the pilot plant constructed on the campus in an old frame building already slated for demolition produced considerably more metal than industrial installations using more laborious processes. About 2 mil lion pounds of metal were prepared be fore commercial plants were completed. Uranium from the campus installation was used in the early operations at Oak Ridge and Hanford. Wilhelm was born near Ellston, Iowa, in 1900 and grew u p o n a farm. H e received his bachelor's degree from Drake in 1923. While there h e played football, baseball, and piled u p an im pressive scoring record in basketball, captaining the team his senior year. Apparently studying and athletics did not take up all of his time at college
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