The 1950s – Defining Limits
Ames Laboratory and Iowa State become increasingly integrated, and Iowa State’s science departments develop strengths that complement the programs at the Laboratory, but conflicts of interest become apparent – there are issues to be addressed.
How does the federal government ensure that the Laboratory does not get caught up in funding university commitments? How does Iowa State keep from being controlled by outside agencies?
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1950 • Danish physicist Niels Bohr, who has been called the father of modern physics, arrives in Ames to visit Frank Spedding. |
1953-54 • “Little Ankeny,” the uranium-production plant on the Iowa State campus, is dismantled. It was named after the Ordnance Plant in Ankeny, Iowa, which was also involved in war-production work.
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• James Hilton becomes president of Iowa State and begins to closely scrutinize Spedding’s influence over campus-wide research. His mission is to recreate balance at the college – a task that includes incorporating the Ames Laboratory under the university’s umbrella. • The struggle for ownership of intellectual property heats up between the federal government and Iowa State as the two entities disagree over how scientists should give out their research findings. The AEC says that nonclassified information coming from federally funded research should be made freely accessible to the public. Iowa State, on the other hand, supports the traditional practice of paying academics for technical assistance to the private sector. • Spedding supports Iowa State’s position on intellectual property, challenging the government’s claim of ownership over the research of Ames Laboratory scientists. The government compromises on the issue, deciding that with full disclosure to the AEC and the assurance that a specific consulting arrangement did not challenge government interests, the scientists would be allowed compensation. |
• In addition to intellectual property, struggles over the ownership of physical property extend to the physical parameters of the Ames Laboratory as questions arise concerning which facilities are federally owned and which are the property of Iowa State. Spedding’s many roles as professor of chemistry, physics and material science, director of the IAR and director of the Ames Laboratory complicate the effort to distinguish the Lab from Iowa State as well as make that task all the more important to accomplish. Although the multiple appointments strengthen Spedding’s authority, they upset traditional university protocol.
• The thorium production plant closes in 1954 after operating a successful project that produced more than 65 tons of the metal. The production process developed at Ames Laboratory reduced the price of thorium to less than a tenth of previous costs
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Daniel Zaffarano, former physics division chief at the Ames Laboratory and ISU vice president for research, works at the ISU synchrotron. Zaffarano and his collaborator, L. J. Laslett, were responsible, in large part, for the construction of the 70 MeV electronic synchrotron at ISU. |
1955 • Hilton supersedes the authority of the Institute for Atomic Research and Frank Spedding, insisting that the IAR be made directly accountable to Iowa State. In so doing he curbs Spedding’s role in both the IAR and the Laboratory and reaffirms the independence of the other academic departments, centers, stations and institutes on campus. • With the goal of making the IAR directly accountable to Iowa State, Hilton creates the Radiation Health Committee and authorizes it to establish policy and monitor atomic research throughout the college, much to Spedding’s fervent opposition. However, Iowa State maintains that inasmuch as radioactive research is underway throughout the college community, it is essential to have a Radiation Health Committee composed of representatives from all colleges and the Ames Laboratory. • Outside of struggles over intellectual and physical property, Ames Laboratory’s reputation for its work with rare-earth metals continues to grow and increase its workload. Lab scientists begin to study nuclear fuels and structural materials for reactors as the U.S. explores the uses of nuclear power • Processes developed at the Ames Laboratory result in the production of the purest rare-earth metals in the world while at the same time reducing the price of the metals as much as 1,000 percent. In most cases, Lab facilities serve as models for large-scale production of rare-earth metals. • Lab scientists take advantage of Iowa State’s synchrotron to pursue medium-energy physics research. Analytical chemistry efforts expand to keep up with the need to analyze new materials. |
 Technician Harold Austrheim (left) adjusts the automatic flow regulator for filling the liquid nitrogen cold tap at the synchrotron. Alfred Bureau, associate physicist, directs the operation. |
 Frank Spedding (far right) becomes a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1956. In 1967, Iowa State proudly claimed three out of the four Iowa scientists who at that time were National Academy of Sciences members: Henry Gilman (left), 1945; Jay Lush (center), 1967; and Frank Spedding, 1956. |
1956 • Pilot plant production starts at the Ames Laboratory to furnish larger-than-pound quantities of yttrium to meet Atomic Energy Commission demands. The Lab will produce 18,000 pounds of yttrium by the time pilot plant operations cease in July 1958. • Ames Lab scientists separate high-purity niobium from tantalum and other impurities through a solvent-extraction process following a hydrofluoric acid treatment of columbite-tantalite ore. • The Lab develops a method of separating plutonium and fission products from spent uranium fuel. |
• Ames Laboratory receives the Chemical Engineering Achievement Award for the research, development and efficient application of chemical engineering principles and processes in the recovery of rare earth metals.
1959 • The Lab’s Research Reactor Committee holds meetings to determine the type of reactor to be constructed and the size of its various work areas. The main reactor containment vessel will be 80 feet in diameter and approximately 35 feet high. • Members of Nikita Khrushchev’s party visit Ames Laboratory during Khrushchev’s visit to Iowa State. • Iowa State College becomes Iowa State University of Science and Technology. • The Iowa State University Teaching Reactor goes critical on Monday, Oct. 19, 1959, at 4:42 p.m. It is the first nuclear reactor in the state of Iowa. |
• Ames Laboratory adds a third building, Metals Development, to the Lab’s complex. John A. McCone, Chairman of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission, dedicates the Metals Development Building in October 1960. At a press conference following the dedication, McCone is asked why the AEC chose Iowa State University to operate Ames Laboratory’s contract. He responds, “ They chose this University for the reason that laboratories of this type are the lengthening shadow of the individual who has the unique and unusual capacity to search into the mysteries of the problems and also to attract as a magnet, men of dedication and skill to work with him. Many years ago, long before I had anything to do with this, the Office of Scientific Research found in Professor Spedding that man. That is why this laboratory is in Ames.” |
