1970

• Concern about the environment coupled with a new emphasis on pollution control results in the development of a method for detecting minute amounts of organic compounds found in water. More than 50 compounds are identified through mass spectrometry. The unique method becomes widely used within the Environmental Protection Agency and waterworks laboratories.
• The Lab develops a new, more accurate temperature scale for the region from 1 to 20 Kelvin. The measurements are highly precise and eliminate the systematic errors that
occur with gas-thermometer and acoustic measurements.
• In October, a technique is developed in which a “white” neutron beam from the Research Reactor core is used in neutron diffraction work. Compared to conventional techniques, the new process is a tenfold improvement in data rates and precision.

1971-72

• Velmer Fassel, deputy director; Richard Kniseley, chemist; and Robert Slack, former graduate assistant, develop a method for determining aluminum, cobalt, chromium, copper, manganese, nickel and vanadium in low- and high-alloy steels by flame emission spectrometry. Using this method, the materials need no prior chemical separation.
• Lab researchers develop a method for preparing pure molybdenum metal in massive form.
• Harley Wilhelm retires from Iowa State after 43 years. He was associate director of Ames Laboratory from 1947-1966.
• Research on tungsten-bronze crystals results in a new application in electrochemistry. When used as electrodes, the crystals are sensitive to oxygen and are potentially useful as simple, inexpensive analyzers of river and lake water.
• Researchers at Ames Lab develop a technique for direct ultratrace analysis of mercury in air, water, fish and soils.
• Under joint sponsorship of the AEC and the Environmental Protection Agency, the Lab develops a one-step induction melting process for removing copper, tin and chromium from automotive scrap, thereby yielding reclaimed steel pure enough for direct reuse.

Art D’Silva, assistant chemist, shows the phosphor image intensifer screen that he and Velmer Fassel, deputy director, developed.

1973-74

• In February, Iowa State’s Institute for Atomic Research becomes the Energy and Mineral Resources Research Institute, EMRRI.
• The Ultra Carbon Corp. devotes an entire issue of Arcs and Sparks to the accomplishments of Ames Laboratory in the field of analytical chemistry.
• Lab scientists develop a method for tracing the source of explosives used in bombings. The process involves adding “chemical fingerprints” to explosives. After an explosion, these fingerprints, or tags, can then be detected from the debris and traced to the manufacturer.
• In May, the Research Building is officially renamed Spedding Hall in honor of Frank Spedding, the Lab’s founder and director for 26 years.

1975

• In January, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission becomes the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration, ERDA.
• In April, the Iowa Academy of Sciences honors Frank Spedding and Robert Hansen for their accomplishments.
• Ames Laboratory Deputy Director Velmer Fassel and his research group develop a new, highly sensitive analytical system known as inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy, ICP-AES. The new technique can rapidly and simultaneously detect up to 40 different trace metals in a small sample.
• In conjunction with NASA’s Langley Research Center, Ames Lab scientists continue working on a project aimed at producing high-purity metals in earth orbit. The Vacuum Assisted Metal Purification in Space, or VAMPS, project will test the effects of zero gravity and low pressures on metal purification efforts. The experiment will be flown on one of NASA’s space shuttles.
• Karl Gschneidner, Dale McMasters and Jim Holl use the floating zone crystal preparation technique to produce rare-earth iron single crystals for the Naval Surface Weapons Center, NSWC. These highly purified alloys have applications as high-power transducers, permanent magnets, acoustic delay lines, micropositioning devices and ultrasonic devices. NSWC reports that one single crystal alloy prepared by Ames Lab was found to exhibit the largest magnetomechanical coupling factor ever measured.
• During dedication ceremonies, Governor Robert Ray shovels the first coal to open Ames Laboratory’s Iowa Coal Project Demonstration Mine No. 1.
• Mechanical coal-washing equipment is being assembled for the three-quarter-million-dollar experimental coal-cleaning plant to be constructed on the ISU campus. The facility is part of the $3 million Iowa Coal Research Project, which is administered by EMRRI and funded by the state. The project leader is Ray Fisher. The finished plant will process about 70 tons of clean coal per hour.

Velmer Fassel, deputy director, examines an analytical data printout from an inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometer.

Gov. Robert Ray shovels the first coal to open the Iowa Coal Project Demonstration Mine No. 1.

(Below) In 1975, work begins on the coal refining plant located near the Physical Plant on the ISU campus.

(left) Doug Finnemore, senior physicist, and Cary Spencer, research assistant, work with a temperature-controlling apparatus to measure critical currents in laminar lead- cadmium composite superconductors

Personnel prepare for the May 6 dedication of the coal-cleaning plant.

1976

•Lab engineers develop and install a plant-protection monitoring system throughout Ames Lab facilities. It is the first state-of-the-art, electronic system to be installed in an ERDA laboratory that combines fire surveillance with physical security and environmental monitoring.
• Lab scientists develop a method for removing carbon monoxide from gases using a terbium oxide catalyst to turn carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide.
• Lab researchers Doug Finnemore, John Verhoeven and Ed Gibson develop a new method for preparing materials that can improve the performance of superconducting cable by making the filament size at least ten times smaller than the present commercial thickness.
• Dedication of the Iowa Coal Project’s $75,000 coal-cleaning plant is scheduled for May 6, coinciding with the beginning of ISU’s VEISHEA weekend activities.
• Researchers at the Ames Lab develop a wet oxidation method for removing sulfur from coal.
• Ames Lab scientists develop a technique for recovering alumina from coal fly ash.
• Researchers begin producing ductile superconducting composites.

1977-79

• Explosions rock 22 Iowa grain elevators from 1958 to 1975, killing 13 people. The increased frequency and severity of grain dust catastrophes prompt the Iowa Legislature to authorize an investigation into the causes of the explosions through Ames Lab’s Energy and Mineral Resources Research Institute.
• In October, the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration becomes the U.S. Department of Energy, USDOE.
• At 11 p.m. on Dec. 31, 1977 the Research Reactor is shut down because of realignments made by DOE in program support. The dismantling of the reactor will take three years.
• A new analytical technique developed at Ames Lab will enable scientists to quickly detect many potential carcinogens associated with coal combustion processes. The new technique uses X-ray excited optical luminescence and is used to characterize polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, many of which are suspected of causing cancer in humans.
• TRISTRAN, an on-line isotope separator developed at Ames Laboratory in 1966, moves to Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, where it will become the focus of a national user facility for researchers studying a wide range of fission products.