FISSION PRODUCT RADIOACTIVITY IN THE AIR ALONG THE 80TH MERIDIAN (WEST) DURING 1960

Technical Report · Tue Oct 24 04:00:00 EDT 1961

OSTI ID:4811504

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

Results are presented in a continuing study of radioactivity in air along the 80th meridian (West). The year 1960 brought progressive decreases in airborne fission product radioactivlty though the rate of decrease with time was significantly less than during 1959. During l960 the activity levels in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres gave indications of approaching equilibrium which suggested that transequatorial mixing in the stratosphere does occur but wtth a mean lifetime of several years for the process. However, two years after the cessation of the major nuclear test programs, differences in the fission product compositions of the two hemispheres still existed. The relatively small amounts of radioactivty generated by the French nuclear tests in the Sahara produced only transient effects at a few sites along the 80th meridian. The interpretation of atmospheric mixing patterns from measurements of the concentrations of the longer-lived fission products in the air was not significantiy affected by these fresher debris. Fission product ratios involving some of the shorter-lived fission products did document the presence of debris from the February l960 test in a band extending from Miami, Florida, to Grayaquil, Ecuador, with the suggestion that small amounts of debris did appear in other areas. (auth)

• Research Organization: Naval Research Lab., Washington, D.C.
• NSA Number: NSA-16-004369
• OSTI ID: 4811504
• Report Number(s): NRL-5692
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ATMOSPHERE
DISTRIBUTION
FISSION PRODUCTS
GEOLOGY, MINERALOGY, AND METEOROLOGY
LIFETIME
MEASURED VALUES
MIXING
MONITORING
NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS
QUANTITY RATIO
STRATOSPHERE
TRANSIENTS