responsibility over to others who may seek it." The NRC study of plutonium pro duction reactors was requested by DOE Secretary John S. Herrington in the wake of the Chernobyl nu clear plant accident in the U.S.S.R. It points out that many of the age-related problems with the reac tors are inevitable and unavoidable. For instance, swelling of the graph ite core and irradiation-induced embrittlement of process tubes could shut .down the Ν reactor in the 1990s. And the remaining Savannah River production reactors eventual ly may have to be retired because of cracking problems. The report maintains that plan ning for new production facilities has been lacking. It warns that, "within the next decade, that fail ure could result in the nation's hav ing to rely upon a small number of aged production reactors that dem onstrate serious safety problems." The Savannah River reactors first operated in the mid-1950s, the Ν reactor in 1963. The report acknowledges that no plutonium production reactor has ever suffered a major accident. How ever, it criticizes as being too im precise DOE's objective of making these reactors as safe as commercial reactors. It recommends develop ment of more specific safety objec tives that are operationally mean ingful and more understandable to the public. NRC also expresses concern that safety programs for the reactors have become too ingrown and too re mote. It comments that DOE relies almost totally on the contractors on safety matters. Major recommenda tions of the report include estab lishment of an external oversight committee for nulear safety and a strengthening of DOE's own over sight capabilities on site. Initial reaction to the NRC report by Savannah River technical per sonnel has been positive. They gen erally find it to be balanced and well-founded. Secretary Herrington has received it with some enthusi asm. He describes it as "impressive and constructive" and is already moving to establish an independent oversight panel. Michael Heylin, Washington
National Chemistry Day parade in Washington The American Chemical Society kicked off a week of National Chemistry Day events last week by staging a parade in the nation's capital. The parade, originating at ACS's headquarters build ing, consisted of an 80-piece band and drill team from Bishop O'Connell High School in Arlington, Va., a float supporting the National Chemistry Day logo, and about 250 ACS employees carrying helium-filled balloons. Official ly designated to be last Friday, Nation al Chemistry Day was celebrated
across the country in a wide variety of events planned by ACS local sections to increase the public's awareness of the central role that chemistry plays in everyday life.
Genentech receives key biotechnology patent A broad patent on techniques basic to commercial biotechnology has been issued to Genentech Inc. Inter preted broadly, the patent could cov er most systems used to manufac ture the products of biotechnology. Genentech thus stands to collect roy alties on many products sold by its competitors. In a statement released by the South San Francisco-based compa ny, chief executive officer Robert A. Swanson said that Genentech will not use the patent to block other companies from using the tech niques, but rather will offer nonex clusive licenses to other biotechnol ogy companies "at reasonable rates on a case-by-case basis." The patent was filed in 1979. The research leading to the patent was conducted at Genentech and, under the company's sponsorship, at the University of California, San Fran cisco, and City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, Calif. The patent names as coinventors Keichi
Itakura and Arthur Riggs of City of Hope. U.S. Patent 4,704,362, which has already issued in 20 other countries, is being described as the industrial equivalent of the Cohen-Boyer pat ent held by Stanford University and University of California. The CohenBoyer patent covers the production and use of plasmids as carriers for moving genes between organisms, one of the basic techniques of ge netic engineering. The new Genen tech patent covers techniques for actually transplanting a plasmid con taining a heterologous gene into a microbial host and getting that host to express the protein encoded by the new gene. Such transformed mi crobes are then cloned and grown in fermentation tanks where they act as factories for producing the desired protein. Because of litigation over the pat ent in other countries and because licensing agreements need to be worked out with competitors, GenNovember 9, 1987 C&EN 5
