ATOMIC ENERGY — JOHNS 189 



coal. Dr. Tliode then rose to say that conditions were not the same. 

 The atomic age had arrived. Power plants can as well be built in 

 Saskatchewan as in Hamilton. Who can predict the industrial future 

 of our Canadian West in this new age? 



ATOMIC ENERGY IN MEDICINE 



It was recognized at once that the wealth of radioactive fission 

 products made available in quantity by atomic-energy plants had 

 opened up great new possibilities in medicine. The half-life of 

 some of these is long enough to make them useful. Phosphorus, 

 P ^^, has a half-life of 14.3 days. Iodine, I ^^^, has a half-life of 8 days. 

 Treatment by radium may be completely superseded by the use of 

 such new products as these. 



They can be used as tracers. Radioactive sodium, Na"*, injected 

 into the blood stream in one hand reaches the other hand in 20 seconds. 

 If taken internally it reaches the finger tips in 2 or 3 minutes. Radio- 

 active carbon, C ^*, may help us to understand the whole process of 

 metabolism. Some scientists claim that its production may well be 

 worth all the money spent on atomic fission. Its half-life is about 

 10,000 years. 



Iodine, I ^^^, if taken into the human system heads for the thyroid 

 gland, as does ordinary iodine. Can cancer of the thyroid be cured 

 by letting iodine, I ^'% seek out its prey ? Radioactive phosphorus, 

 P^2, concentrates in the spleen and liver, so that large doses can be 

 given these organs. Already this isotope has given spectacular re- 

 sults in the treatment of polythemia vera, a sort of cancer of the red 

 corpuscles. But here, as always, must follow an immense amount 

 of investigation of just how each fission product acts on human tissue, 

 what human enemy does it attack, and what is the proper dose that 

 will kill this enemy and not unduly injure healthy tissue. We are 

 just entering the Promised Land — the Atomic Energy Age. 



CHALK RIVER 



I had hoped to speak briefly on our Canadian atomic-energy plant 

 at Chalk River, which I visited last summer. However, this lecture 

 is already too long so that my remarks on this topic must be very 

 sketchy. 



This site, halfway between North Bay and Ottawa, on the Ottawa 

 River, was chosen because it had three main qualifications. It had 

 an ample supply of pure water, it was accessible for bringing in 

 heavy machinery, and it was not near large centers of population in 

 case of accident. In less than 3 years huge buildings have been 

 erected and these are carefully guarded. In order to gain entrance, 



