RADIOACTIVE FALL-OUT IN AIR AND RAIN RESULTS TO THE MIDDLE OF 1963
Samples of atmospheric dust and rainwater were collected from the United Kingdom and overseas. Results are presented of the analyses of samples collected between April and August, 1963 for various fission products. As a consequence of continued weapons testing in 1962 the concentrations of the long-lived fission products Cs/sup 137/ and Sr/sup 90/ in air and rain over the United Kingdom increased in 1963 to levels that are twice those of 1962. Gwing to greater rainfall in the late spring and summer months, the deposition of Cs /sup 137/ and Sr/sup 90/ at Milford Haven for the first six months of 1963 was almost three times that for the corresponding periods of 1959 and 1962. About 75% of the longlived radioactivity in samples collected during 1963 is estimated to have originated from the weapons series of 1962. The new debris is mainly restricted to the northern hemisphere and is shown to be well mixed from the equator to 70 deg N. Integration over the world of the deposition of Sr/sup 90/ in rain provides an estimate of the total global deposition to the end of 1962. The mean effective particle diameter of fallout debris in the lower atmosphere increased from 0.5 mu in the period before the autumn of 1961 to about 1 mu in January 1963 and has since, in the summer of 1963, approached its former value. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. Research Group. Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, Berks, England and United Kingdom Atomic Energy Aruthority. Research Group. Chemistry Div., Woolwich Outstation, England
- NSA Number:
- NSA-18-005478
- OSTI ID:
- 4136427
- Report Number(s):
- AERE-R-4392
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Language:
- English
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