But even Warren, the nation's leader inunderstanding how to use radiation to cure humanills, proposed studies that would expose humantest subjects to dangerously high doses ofradioactive isotopes.

Even while well aware of the dangers posed byexcessive exposure to radiation, Warren remained aproponent of high-dose radiation experimentationon humans.

In the 1950s, Warren, as part of a proposal todevelop an atomic-powered plane, considered anexperiment which would determine the radiationthreshold of humans. To develop the craft, heconsidered the possibility of using prisoners astest subjects. The Atomic Energy Commissionultimately denied the proposal on ethical grounds.

Dr. Francis X. Masse, the director ofradiation protection programs at MIT, recentlyreviewed the Fernald studies and called them "muchado about nothing."

"If the study were proposed today I have nodoubt that it would be approved," Masse said. "Theradiation was well within today's standards. Theinformed consent process would be the only thingdifferent. It wasn't in place then."

But Dr. Gilbert F. Whittemore, a formerinstructor at both Harvard and MIT, vehementlydisagrees with Masse. In an interview this week,Whittemore said scientists conducting radiationexperiments in the 1940s and 1950s were well awareof the ethical importance of a test subject'sconsent because of the publicity following theNuremberg trials after World War II.

The Nuremberg code stresses that the "voluntaryconsent of the human subject is absolutelyessential."

Masse maintained the lack of the subjects'consent would have had no effect on participationin the study.

"It would have made no difference in theparticipation in the study because in 1945 therewas a great...cry over the use of radioactivematerial. It was a great thing," Masse said.

We wouldn't think of buying a pair of shoeswithout X-raying our feet. If [the radiationlevel] was fully disclosed they would have gottenthe same participation," he said.

Masse said the studies were prompted byconcerns over the nutrition of the boys at theschool. "It was for the boy's benefit. Theirhealth was the reason for the study," he said.

The second experiment was conducted undersimilar circumstances, Masse said. "That time theywere worried about calcium. The boys were still onheavy cereal diets, which is why Quaker Oatsfunded both of the studies."

"The 1950s study was much more directly at theFernald school...They got a license to do thatstudy from the Atomic Energy Commission. The AECreviewed that proposal and that population, andapproved of that study at that time. And MIT'Sinvolvement was to assist with the measurements atthat time, and Harvard's involvement was Benda,once again."

On Warren's proposal for the atomic-poweredairplane and the radiation threshold tests onhumans, Masse said: "It wasn't approved. Iwouldn't condemn people for thinking. If youdidn't open your mind and have thoughts, wewouldn't be anywhere."

Wilson, who has been consulted by thegovernment on radiation hazard matters after theChernobyl and Three Mile Island accidents, saidthe experiments must be viewed in the context ofthe ethics of the time.