Corlette said Kennedy's staff contacted Harvardabout the hearings and that Harvard elected tosent Adelstein because of his expertise inradiology. She also stressed that Harvard stilldoes not have a full sense of its participation inthe experiments.

Fernald residents who participated in the testsfour decades ago were told by Harvard and MITscientists that they were members of the school's"Science Club." They were not told of theradiation and were rewarded for theirparticipation with candy, according to experts whohave reviewed the studies.

Harvard spokesperson Joseph Wrinn, who attendedthe hearing, said Adelstein addressed the panelfor about five minutes.

"He addressed the people there, expressedsympathy for students and families and he said hecould imagine how upsetting the past couple ofweeks must have been," Wrinn said.

Adelstein spoke of Harvard's investigation ofits participation in the experiments, discussingits ongoing probe of University records, accordingto Wrinn. Adelstein also spoke of Benda and hisaffiliation with Harvard, Wrinn said.

"We intend to get answers," Kennedy said. "Wewant to know what was done in Massachusetts and inevery other state where these experiments wereconducted. We want to know what records exist, howgreat the dangers were, how much consent, if any,was obtained from the research, and how much harmwas done."

"Once we have this information, we can enactlegislation to help the victims and prevent anyrepetition of these abominable practices," Kennedysaid.

George J. Annas, director of the law, medicineand ethics program at the Boston University Schoolof Medicine and Public Health, said the hearings"went well. They produced a lot a valid,interesting and useful information."

Annas said Adelstein testified that theexperiments at Fernald should not have happenedand, under present research standards, could nothappen today.

Annas also said he was encouraged by Kennedy'sproposal to establish a national commission toinvestigate nuclear tests of the Cold War era.

Corlette said Harvard is continuing its"enormous record-seeking operation" to determinethe extent of its involvement in the Fernaldexperiments and other radiation experiments of the1940s and 1950s.

"Adelstein said we were taking it seriously andwe were concerned and we wanted to describe whatprocess we've put into place to get to the bottomof this," Corlette said.

Echoing other University officials, Corlettesaid Harvard's record search has been slowedbecause the files--most of which date back fourdecades--are scattered throughout Harvard, itsaffiliated teaching hospitals and otherinstitutions.

"It's a very huge operation," Corlette said.

MIT is conducting a similar internalinvestigation but has also been slowed by poorrecord-keeping, Ken Campbell, the director of theMIT news office, said yesterday.