LBNL Image Library -- Collection BERKELEY-LAB/PEOPLE/INDIVIDUALS

Image File: 96602534
Title: Dr. Milton G. White beside the 60-in. cyclotron
Description: Dr. Milton G. White beside the 60-inch cyclotron with which Alvarez showed the stability of helium- 3. The stability of helium-3 implied the radioactivity of tritium. Alvarez tested this inference with the help of Robert Cornog, a graduate student who worked on the oil vapor vacuum pumps for the 60-inch machine. They routed the issue of heavy water irradiated with deuterons into an ionization chamber attached to an amplifier and found a long-term activity whose carrier behaved like hydrogen The number of active atoms agreed roughly with the number of neutrons produced in the bombardment, confirming the formation of tritium and a proton from two deuterons. The new isotope was long-lived. No appreciable decay could be detected in a sample imprisoned for five months. (The preceding information was excerpted from the text of the Fall 1981 issue of LBL Newsmagazine.)
Citation Caption: LBL NEWS Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 3, Fall 1981, p. 23 | Milt White beside the 60-inch cyclotron with which Alvarez showed the stability of helium-3.
People: Milton G. White
TEID Doc ID: XBD 9606-02534.TIF