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CENTRAL RESEARCH LIBRAP™
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ORNL- TM - 2367

 

LOCKHEED MARTIN ENERG

KA

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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 .
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) 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.

 

 
 

 

 

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"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|

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but 20th Century man lives in aisociety which produces and uses tools.

of ever-increasing complexity; therefore, new terms must be. invented.

v
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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

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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

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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

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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