DOMINION X-RAY LABORATORY

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27669, 27 May 1955, Page 7

DOMINION X-RAY LABORATORY

Shell Of Building Almost Finished

COMPLETION SCHEDULED FOR AUGUST

The completion of the outer shell of the new Dominion X-ray and Radium Laboratory in Christchurch, between Victoria and Montreal streets adjoining H.M.N.Z.S. Pegasus, shows the large size of the building. It emphasises the handicap under which the laboratory has been working throughout its existence —from about 1936 in a cramped basement of the physics department at Canterbury University College, and for the last three years on upper floors of the Waldorf Building in Cashel street.

The contract is scheduled for completion in August and, with the shell finished, good progress should be possible with interior work during the winter.

The wing fronting Victoria street alone has more space than the laboratory’s original quarters. Executive and clerical offices, staff rooms, and a library will be Situated each side of the entrance, and immediately behind there will be a darkroom for the protective services the laboratory supervises as a check against harmful radiations, and two other darkrooms for general purposes.

■ The long courtyard running down beside H.M.N.Z.S. Pegasus is not wasted space. The long low-intensity beam of 300,000-volt X-ray plant will be projected in this area for the calibration of medical dosage meters used in hospitals and other meters used to check accidental radiation. There is no danger to the public.

Equally long is the rear wing, runling back toward Montreal street,

which will house the associated X-ray standardisation laboratory, isotopes laboratory, industrial X-ray plant to check machines used in non-destruc-tive testing, diagnostic laboratory, electronics laboratory, workshops, heating, and ventilating services which are of prime importance in such an undertaking. The “high-activity” rooms have concrete walls a foot thick, and nearby there is a decontamination room.