The 1960s – Reorganization

The 1960s was a period of reorganization that brought the operation of the Lab more in line with university standards. Near the close of this decade, Frank Spedding reaches the then mandatory retirement age of 65 and is forced to step down from his position as director of Ames Laboratory and the Institute for Atomic Research. Robert S. Hansen becomes the new director for both organizations.

• ISU President James H. Hilton brings the Ames Laboratory further under university control by requiring that the Lab conform to university standards. He insists that the Lab adopt the university’s salary scale, although this costs the Laboratory promising talent.
• Ironically, the requirement that the Lab conform to university standards does more to limit Spedding’s power than anything else. The Iowa State retirement policy requires mandatory retirement at age 65. Accordingly, the university demands that Spedding retire from administrative duties in 1968. A few short years later Wilhelm is forced to step down for the same reason.

1961

• Construction begins on the Ames Laboratory Research Reactor Facility, a $4.3-million building funded through the AEC.
• Frank Spedding receives Iowa’s Distinguished Citizen’s Award from Governor Norman Erbe at a ceremony in Des Moines, Iowa.
• A 9-kilowatt electron-beam melting furnace is constructed and operational in Metals Development. The furnace is able to melt samples of refractory metals such as tantalum, columbium, thorium, vanadium, tungsten and yttrium into button or small ingot forms.
• The final installation of the 700-ton extrusion press in Metals Development is completed with the successful extrusion of several copper billets. The installation opens a new area of investigation for Ames Lab and will help researchers learn more about how to fabricate new metals and alloys of interest.
• Sixty-seven rare and common metals valued at $10,000 go on display in Spedding Hall. The periodic chart of metals will be a permanent exhibit.
• Ames Lab installs an IBM 66-card transceiver that will make it possible to use the powerful Midwest Universities Research Association’s, MURA’s, IBM 704 computer in Madison, Wisc. The IBM 66-card transceiver uses regular telephone lines on a per-message basis through the Bell system data phone service. IBM cards punched with alphanumeric information can be transmitted to and from the MURA computer.
A reactive typewriter (tied to a computer system) allows more flexibility in the control of reactor experiments in the early 1960s. The device made it possible for a researcher to make changes in an experiment without halting the operations of the computer system and all the experiments controlled by the system.

1963-64

• Ames Lab begins using ISU’s new IBM 7074 computer. The 7074 is a very modern, high-speed transistorized computer. The 7074 is magnetic-tape-oriented and includes 20,000 words of core memory, 99 indexing registers, built-in floating point instructions, two buffered input-output tape channels, six 729 II magnetic tape units, and six 729 IV magnetic tape units.
• Ames Laboratory employees win the Atomic Energy Commission Award of Merit for operating 2,096,630 man-hours without a disabling injury during the 22-month period from August 1961 to June 1962.
• Twenty-three employees gather at the site of Little Ankeny and reminisce about the days when a uranium production plant stood there. A boulder now marks the spot between the Dairy and Food Industries building and the ISU Press building where the secret program was carried out during World War II. The plaque on the boulder is inscribed: “On this site between 1942 and 1946, over 2,000,000 pounds of uranium metal were produced for the Manhattan District Associates.”
• Ames Lab scientists develop a process to produce thorium with a purity of 99.985 percent.
• The Research Reactor Facility is dedicated in May 1963 in ceremonies featuring Atomic Energy Commission chairman Glenn Seaborg.
• Iowa Governor Harold Hughes visits Ames Laboratory on Sept. 16 and takes a tour of the research reactor with Director Frank Spedding and ISU President James Hilton.
Frank Spedding (right) examines a demonstration column showing the separation of the rare earths with senior chemist Jack Powell (standing) and summer student trainee Tom Erskine. This photo was featured in color in a 1963 Sunday edition of the Des Moines Register

Twenty-three employees gather at the site of Little Ankeny in July 1963 to reminisce about the days when a uranium production plant stood there

1965-66

• The Research Reactor reaches initial criticalilty on Feb. 17, 1965, when, with a fuel-loading of about four pounds of uranium-235, a controlled, self-sustaining chain reaction is achieved. The reactor reaches its authorized power level of 5,000 kilowatts on July 12.
• The search for pure materials for nuclear applications results in a process for producing high-purity vanadium metal.
• The Atomic Energy Commission’s Division of Technical Information establishes the Rare-earth Information Center at Ames Laboratory with Karl Gschneidner in charge.
• Ames Lab’s Reactor Division staff observe the first anniversary of initial criticality of the research reactor on Feb. 17, 1966.
• The Research Reactor produces the first successful operation of an isotope separator connected to a reactor for the purpose of studying short-lived radioactivity produced by fission of uranium-235.
• Ames Lab researchers discover a new isotope, copper-69, that is produced by bombarding an enriched sample of zinc-70 with X-rays from the ISU synchrotron.
• Robert W. Parks is inaugurated as Iowa State’s 11th president on March 22, 1966.
Frank Spedding (right) meets with Karl Gschneidner, director of the Lab’s Rare-earth Information Center, which was established in 1966.

Commissioner Gerald Tape (left) presents Frank Spedding with the Atomic Energy Commission Citation Award, Sept. 13, 1967.

1967

• Refueling of the Ames Lab Research Reactor takes place the week of January 9. A total of 21 fuel elements are replaced during refueling, the first since the reactor went into operation in February of 1965.
• Workers transfer the liquid nitrogen storage tank from the warehouse to the northwest corner of the Physics Building addition.
• Glenn Seaborg, chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, announces the selection of Frank Spedding as one of three distinguished Americans to receive the Atomic Energy Commission Citation for outstanding service in the nation’s atomic energy program.

1968

• Frank Spedding lights the 1968 VEISHEA torch and gives the torch-lighting address.
• At the age of 65, Frank Spedding steps down as director of both the Ames Laboatory and the Institute for Atomic Research, but continues at the Lab as a senior scientist.
• On July 1, 1968, Robert S. Hansen, chief of the Lab’s chemistry division and an ISU chemistry professor, becomes the director of the Ames Laboratory and the Institute for Atomic Research.
• The use of identification badges is discontinued at Ames Laboratory, and badge racks are removed from the entrances to Research (Spedding), Metallurgy (Wilhelm) and Metals Development on Aug. 26, 1968.
• In September 1968, construction begins on the $100,000 laboratory wing addition to the Ames Laboratory Research Reactor.
• Ames Lab physicists succeed in growing the first large crystal of solid helium.
Robert S. Hansen

• A display of three sets of 24 metals produced by processes developed at Ames Laboratory are sealed in three time columns at Amarillo, Texas, during the centennial observance of the discovery of helium gas. One column will be opened in 25 years, another in 100 years, and the final column at the end of 1,000 years. The display sets each contain a brief description of the processes developed at the Lab and an overview of the Lab and its history.
• As the 1960s draw to a close, so, too, do Ames Laboratory’s post Manhattan Project glory days. The mandatory retirement of Spedding and Wilhelm mark the end of an era in which Ames Laboratory, the IAR and Frank Spedding basically dominate the distribution of power at Iowa State.