Felice Ippolito, the National Committee for Nuclear Research and the research of radioactive minerals in the crystalline basement of the Alps

The National Committee for Nuclear Research (CNRN) was established in 1952 and mainly supported by Felice Ippolito, to promote and develop Italian research in nuclear science and technology. The institution was later incorporated into CNEN (1960) and ENEA (1982). CNRN created the Frascati synchrotron and the nuclear research centers of Ispra in northern Italy and Casaccia near Rome. One of its tasks was the survey for U-Th-bearing ores in Italy, run by the Geology and Mining Division chaired by Felice Ippolito. As regards the Alps, systematic field survey was carried out since 1954 by three geological teams, led by Paolo Baggio, Sergio Lorenzoni and Mario Mittempergher, whereas the scientific assistence and guidelines were entrusted to Angelo Bianchi and Giambattista Dal Piaz, with a view to providing an updated study of the pre-Triassic crystalline basement. This work was synthesized in a typed memoir titled "Il Cristallino Antico delle Alpi, con particolare riguardo al versante italiano. Relazione preliminare riservata, Padova 1958", including a synthetic map at 1: 1,000,000 scale. From its appearance to the beginning of the eighties, this memoir was the reference work for people addressing such issues as igneous and metamorphic features, as well as structure and overall lithology of the main basement units, all along the inner side of the Alps from Verampio dome - the core of the collisional belt - to the capping Dent Blanche nappe, from the Tauern window to the eastern Austroalpine nappes, and the Southalpine basement.