RADIOCHEMICAL ANALYSES OF AIR-FILTER SAMPLES COLLECTED DURING 1958

Technical Report · Fri Aug 14 04:00:00 EDT 1959

OSTI ID:4148492

Lockhart, Jr, L B; Baus, R A; Patterson, Jr, R L; Saunders, Jr, A W

A number of radioisotopes formed in high-yield by nuclear explosions were determined quantitatively in the gross fission product conglomerate collected by air filters at sites along the 80th meridian during 1958. This period of measurement is of particular interest since, during this time, the Soviet Union carried out two intensive test programs with high-yield weapons, primarily in the Arctic, and the Unitnd States carried out one such program at the Pacific Proving Grounds. Some of the debris from tests of the latter series were tagged with W/sup 185/, produced through the reaction W/sup 184/(n, gamma )W/ sup 185/. The presence of W/sup 185/ in one case, and its absence in another, proved that debris from two nuclear tests of the Hardtack Series crossed the Equator. Save for the period of gross contamination in the troposphere by these debris, the average age of the fissionproduct conglomerate in the air was consistently older in the Southern than in the Northern Hemisphere. Furthermore, the Sr/sup 90/ content of the air has shown a general pattern of maxima in the region between 20 and 40 deg N and 20 and 40 deg S latitudes and a minimum in the equatorial region. The maximum in the north, during early 1958, averaged about 7 times that in the south. The rapid spread of radioactivity from the Hardtack and Soviet nuclear tests emphasizes that debris are not restricted to a narrow zone near the latitude of introduction. (auth)

• Research Organization: Naval Research Lab., Washington, D.C.
• NSA Number: NSA-14-011787
• OSTI ID: 4148492
• Report Number(s): NRL-5390
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

Related Subjects

AGE ESTIMATION
AIR
ATMOSPHERE
CONTAMINATION
DISPERSIONS
DISTRIBUTION
FALLOUT
FILTERS
FISSION PRODUCTS
GEOLOGY, MINERALOGY, AND METEOROLOGY
NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
QUANTITY RATIO
RADIOACTIVITY
RADIOCHEMISTRY
SAMPLING
STRONTIUM 90
TROPOSPHERE
TUNGSTEN 184
TUNGSTEN 185