In 1947, the first U.S. shipment of radioactive isotopes to a foreign country was scheduled to leave the Clinton Laboratories, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. A package of 20 millicuries of the radioisotope, phosphorus-32, was prepared for Australia’s Commonwealth X-ray and Radium Laboratory (CXRL), Melbourne, to treat an urgent case of polycythemia, a blood disorder. Arrangements were made in the U.S. by the Australian Embassy’s scientific liason officer. The isotopes were produced using the uranium pile at Oak Ridge, and sold approximately at cost. They were transported by airplane out of necessity, since the radioisotope had a half-life of only 14.3 days.«[According to an evening announcement, made by the U.S. Atomic Energy on 4 Sep 1947 that the shipment would leave “tomorrow afternoon”, as reported in the New York Times (5 Sep 1947).]