Isotopes at Work

Radioactive isotopes are taking jobs in peacetime industry. Last week the California Research Corp. (a subsidiary of Standard Oil Co. of California) and the Atomic Energy Commission told now radioactive piston rings are being used to test the performance of lubricating oil.

Ordinary steel rings are put in the AEC's atomic pile at Oak Ridge and "cooked" for a month in neutrons. The process changes part of their normal iron into radioactive iron 59. Packed in 300-lb. lead cases, the "hot" rings are shipped to Richmond, Calif, and stored in a thick-walled closet (called "the cave") in the Research Corp.'s basement.

When a labman wants one of the dangerous rings, he takes it out of the cave on the end of a three-foot stick. Working carefully, with special tools, skilled mechanics fit the ring onto the piston of a test engine. After the engine has run for a few hours, its lubricating oil becomes radioactive because of "hot" iron rubbed off the ring.

As little as one-millionth of an ounce of metal can be detected in the oil. The scientists can tell by measuring the oil's radioactivity just how much the ring has worn--and therefore how efficient the oil is.

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