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This is a nuclear reactor, a machine of the atomic age. Inside of it, a controlled chain

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reaction of splitting atoms can take place. It is a strange machine, for it makes no noise

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and you see no moving parts. All around the heavily shielded pile are scientific instruments,

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for this reactor is primarily for research. But one thing is true of all reactors. They can

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liberate atomic energy for man's good. When, for example, certain chemical elements are inserted

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into a reactor, they can be changed into radioactive atoms called radioisotopes. These isotopes are

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useful in every branch of science. They have profoundly benefited medicine in the treatment

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and diagnosis of disease. Radioisotopes behave the same as other atoms inside the body, but they also

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send out radioactive signals that can easily be traced to show hidden disorders.

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Just as dramatic is the contribution of radioisotopes to industry. They are being

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used more and more to improve manufacturers and to lessen their cost. They are utilized

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in almost every kind of plant, from blast furnaces to oil refineries.

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One of the greatest benefits of the atom will be power, power for light and power for industry,

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especially in areas that lack coal, oil or hydroelectric dams. Reactors like this one

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are already producing electricity and they are producing it from relatively small amounts of

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But there is at present an acute shortage in the world, a shortage of specially trained men and

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women to work with the atom and develop its peaceful uses. Without skilled people to operate

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and use reactors, to improve and perfect their design, they are meaningless pieces of machinery.

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They are complicated structures and in untrained hands they are potentially dangerous. This lack

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of trained specialists faces every country on earth without a single exception. Training men

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for the atomic age is therefore an international challenge and it is being faced as it must be

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through international cooperation. The United States is sharing that challenge. It offers

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nuclear engineering training to foreign students in 30 different colleges and universities. In

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addition, the United States Atomic Energy Commission sponsors further training at a

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number of atomic installations. In March 1955, at the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago,

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it opened the International School of Nuclear Science and Engineering. Since then it has

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expanded its program. Today over 40 different nations have sent a total of over 200 students

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of nuclear science to Argonne. This is a story of the class that began its training in the autumn

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of 1956. Before the students came to Argonne, they spent four months of preliminary work at

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two American state universities. Half the class came here to North Carolina State. They came from

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Chile, from Egypt, from France, India, Israel, Yugoslavia, Italy, Japan, Turkey, Holland,

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Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, and Thailand. Meanwhile at Pennsylvania State University,

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600 kilometers to the north, the other half of the class assembled. This half of the class

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would do their preliminary studies here. Their group included young men from Austria, Korea,

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Brazil, Germany, Greece, Iran, and Uruguay. In addition, 14 students from the United States

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were present to study alongside them. Most of these men were in their twenties, all of them

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already well educated in the lands from which they came. Each of them was here to broaden and

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deepen his knowledge in nuclear science. They were mature and intelligent and able rapidly to

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information. Let's meet a few of them. Bergois of Spain is a chemical engineer.

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Srinivasan is a chemical engineer from India. Asad of Iran is a skilled physicist.

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Chemistry is a specialty of Ishihara of Japan. Saffiotti earned his doctorate of chemistry in

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Brazil. Chang of China is an electrical engineer. So is Akçasu of Turkey. Dietrichs of Germany is a

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specialist in physics and electronics. But in the four months that followed, they studied in

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many fields in addition to the one that was their specialty. There were chemistry labs and physics

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courses. There were special sessions in chemical and nuclear engineering, in simply learning to

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use the tools of the atomic age. There were hours too in the metallurgical laboratory. The diversity

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of their training ranged over a broad field. It went from theorizing on the structure of atoms

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to mastering a thousand-year-old craft like casting iron. The director of student affairs

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had told them when they came that the work might be hard and the study hours long, and they

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discovered he had not exaggerated. Black coffee became one of their indispensables. It was prepared

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at all hours of the night right in the study center. Though hours were long, new friendships

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were deep. Even during coffee breaks, studies continued. If one student was not clear about

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something, it was easy enough to find another who was a specialist in that particular field. There

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was a constant interflow of information. They helped each other all the time. Near the end of

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their period of training at the university, the students gathered together for a farewell party.

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They were joined by members of the faculty who'd come to know them and to like them very much.

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Who says scientists are serious? Certainly not Professor Neely, who played the piano while a

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Four days later, the men flew south to Tennessee to tour the famed Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear

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Studies. Here they were joined by the other group of students. The other half of the class,

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who had done their preparatory work at North Carolina State College. Dr. Overman, the director

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of this special training division, welcomed them with real pleasure. For the graduates of his

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school, like our students, come from all over the world and throughout the United States. The Oak

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Ridge Institute is an association of 35 American universities, operated in cooperation with the

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U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. It offers highly important courses in the techniques of using

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radioisotopes. These courses have for years been open to students from the United States

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and abroad. Over 2,700 persons from universities, hospitals, industries, and research institutions

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have taken training here. At Oak Ridge, the medical division of the Institute of Nuclear

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Studies operates a special facility, including a hospital, for research on cancer and allied

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diseases. Many American and foreign physicians come here every year, both to acquire new techniques

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and to share the knowledge they themselves have gained while working on medical projects of their

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own. To acquire and to share atomic knowledge. At Shipping Port, Pennsylvania, two days later,

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our students came to observe the actual construction of a full-scale nuclear power

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reactor in the United States. Because their chief concern with the atom is the design and

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operation of reactors, this visit is one of the most important of the many they will make to atomic

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installations in America. There are, of course, several kinds of power reactors. The United States

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is building large ones of different types. The men spent a full day looking, listening, and asking

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questions, for nuclear engineering is an extremely new and complex field. At last,

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near Chicago, the students arrived at their final destination. During their period of study at the

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International School, most of them would live at the YMCA in LaGrange, Illinois. Some of them,

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who brought their wives and children with them, would take apartments in nearby towns. For most,

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however, this hotel was their home and study center for the remainder of their stay in America.

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Next day, the students began their final and most intensive period of study, a period for

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which their previous four months of training was a preparation. Understandably, there was a mood

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of excitement and anticipation on this first day. The International School of Nuclear Science

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and Engineering is a part of the Argonne National Laboratory, which is one of America's prime

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centers for the design and development of nuclear reactors. International friendships

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develop rapidly when a man of one country learns truly to know a man from another.

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The morning of their arrival at Argonne, the sixty students were formally welcomed by Dr.

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Roland Tacker, director of the International School. No one shares more fully than he the

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aspirations of these young engineers and scientists. No one was more eager to see that they should be

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at the fullest benefit from their subsequent study. So began another four and a half months

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of doing and learning. In the metallurgical laboratory, the instructor explained that the

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students would themselves manufacture uranium fuel plates. This was an important part of their lab

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work, and they worked together in teams to accomplish the task. A nuclear reactor's performance

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ultimately depends on the selection and quality of its fuel materials.

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Reactor engineering has demanded new ideas, new designs, and new uses of heretofore little-used

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metals. By use of a laboratory rolling mill, each group made its own fuel plates. It was

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job. It required patience, skill, and teamwork. Another problem the students were asked to think

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about is the high cost of nuclear fuel. One way in which this cost can be lowered is by

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reprocessing the spent fuel, salvaging the unburned portion for later use. Therefore,

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one of the experiments the students do is concerned with methods of reprocessing.

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During their stay at Argonne, each of the students visited the gamma irradiation room. Here at the

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bottom of a tank of water that acts as a radiation shield, experiments are going on in irradiating

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food. Inside the metal cylinders are food stuffs that are exposed to varying intensities of gamma

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rays. These rays can destroy the bacteria that spoil food. This happens to be one process that

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shows great promise in using beneficially the byproducts of nuclear reactors. Other uses are

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still being discovered. Another facet of nuclear engineering is thermodynamics. How do you best

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transfer heat from a radioactive reactor core to an electric generator? Water loops are one

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means of doing this. Still another is the use of liquid metals like sodium. Here again, the

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students carry out in teams experiments involving much thought and precise instrumentation. In

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another special physics lab, the students get acquainted with the Argonaut, a pioneer reactor

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designed exclusively for educational purposes. For our students who will teach others when they

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return to their native countries, it is an extremely valuable instrument. They use the Argonaut reactor

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in many ways. They conduct their own experiments and test their own theories. With the research

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aids of the modern nuclear scientists, they spend many hours at calculations. Many of them have

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already established specific projects which they want to pursue, projects that might someday

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benefit the world. It was not far from Argon, years ago, that another historic goal was achieved. In

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nearby Chicago, Enrico Fermi and his associates built the world's first self-sustaining atomic

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pile and thus ushered in the atomic age. Part of that pile's original graphite and uranium is now

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at Argon National Laboratory and the entire assembly is now an important training tool.

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The great advantage of the Argon school to the student of nuclear science and engineering is

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that here he actually uses and works with atomic machines at the same time he studies them

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theoretically. This using, working, and theorizing also takes place around Argon's biggest research

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reactor. This scientific instrument, known as the CP5, is used to solve complex problems in the field

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of theoretical physics. But the period of study for our students was now coming to a close and

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they would return to the countries from which they came, to Europe, to Asia, to South America,

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to all over the world. For nearly a year they had shared a unique educational experience. They had,

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by learning, helped to fill a worldwide need for atomic scientists and engineers. What is more,

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they will spread their knowledge to others in ever-widening circles. This is already being done

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by previous students of the International School. In Tokyo, Japan, Mr. Susumu Suguri is at work in

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the Electrotechnical Laboratory teaching other students and researchers. At Santiago, Dario

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Moreno is teaching at the University of Chile's School of Engineering. His subject, the practical

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application of atomic studies in the field of nuclear power. At a laboratory near Oslo,

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where Norwegian and Dutch scientists are working together, Corin Lund, another former student of

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the International School, explains a pilot plant for reprocessing uranium. In Milan, Italy, is

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nuclear engineer Lorenzo Rossio. He too returned recently from the Argonne Laboratory and is

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leading a new project at the Italian Center for Nuclear Research. In Buenos Aires, engineer and

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physicist Ernesto Schoenfeld is teaching men and women of Argentina, teaching both the theory and

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uses of nuclear science. In Cairo, Egypt, Mikhail Saad and Efat Kamal are two more graduates of the

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International School. They too carry on the same tradition of disseminating knowledge in the field

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of atomic energy. But our story has been that of the class that finished its training in the summer

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of 1957. Wherever they go, to whatever part of the world, they will take with them knowledge that

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will result in the betterment of human life. When they first came to America, they were already

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well-trained specialists in their respective fields. Now they are on their way to becoming

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leaders in nuclear science. Soon, they in turn will undertake the training of others and thus

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help to cut down the shortage that exists in the field of atomic energy. The shortage of

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specially trained men and women. But the machines and the bright promises of the atomic age are

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nothing without people. These young men are to a degree atomic specialists, but they are much more.

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They are human beings bound together in a kind of United Nations of Science. They are the engineers

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of a future dedicated to the cause of peace.