FISSION PRODUCT RADIOACTIVITY IN THE AIR ALONG THE 80th MERIDIAN, JANUARY- JUNE 1957

Technical Report · Tue Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1957

OSTI ID:4258377

Lockhart, Jr, L B; Baus, R A; Bilifford, Jr, I H

Measurements of gross fission product radioactivity in the air at a number of sites along the 8Oth meridian (west) are reported for the period January to June 1957. The concentration of long-lived radioactive products (primarily fission products) in the air continues to reiqain considerably higher in the Northern than in the Southern Hemisphere. Nowhere has it approached the maximum permissible level for continuous exposure to external radiation established by the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission. Among the more interesting developments, there has been obtained a definite inverse relation between the air concentration of radioactivity and rainfall during the dry and rainy seasons at Panama. The use of radioactivity profiles (plots of latitude vs. fission product concentration) to represent a cross section of the average air concentrations of fission products along the 80th meridian for any given period offers a ready means to obtain the total burden of such activity in the atmosphere for such a period and to follow its increase or decrease with time. (auth)

• Research Organization: Naval Research Lab., Washington, D.C.
• NSA Number: NSA-13-014424
• OSTI ID: 4258377
• Report Number(s): NRL-5041; AD-150740
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

Related Subjects

AIR
FISSION PRODUCTS
HALF-LIFE
HEALTH AND SAFETY
MEASURED VALUES
RADIOACTIVITY
RAIN
VARIATIONS