"The Institute is proud to receive this acknowledgement of its contributions to nuclear science and technology," said AFRRl Director COL Patricia K. Lillis-Hearne. "As it happens, we will celebrate our 50th anniversary during 2010 to recall five decades as the primary source of medical nuclear/radiological research, preparedness, and training services to the United States."

Recognition of the Institute's place in nuclear history was approved by the ANS Board of Directors and announced in a letter from its Honors and Awards Committee Chair Robert C. Little. From 1985 through 2008, the Society awarded more than 70 such designations. Other recipients have included the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Oak Ridge electron linear accelerator (ORELA) in Tennessee, the Department of Energy's Fast Flux Test Facility in Washington, and the Penn State Breazeale Reactor Facility in Pennsylvania.

The AFRRl nomination described the Institute's ever-evolving mission beginning with the groundbreaking in 1960 as a research facility focused on understanding and counteracting the acute effects of ionizing radiation; continuing through the 1990s with expansion into nuclear weapon biological effects, trauma, and toxicology as well as nonionizing radiation effects and cancer markers; and following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that generated interest in radiation protectants and treatments as well as biodosimetry standards and tools.

AFRRl shares its research findings with the scientific community through peer-reviewed journals, provides medical training for emergency responders and medical professionals through its Medical Effects of Ionizing Radiation Course, and activates its Medical Radiobiology Advisory Tearn to provide advice in radiological crises. Its Mark-F TRIGA research reactor, cobalt-60 facility, and cobalt-60 low-level irradiation facility are licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The Institute, on the grounds of the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, is part of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences under the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs.