STUDIES OF NUCLEAR DEBRIS IN PRECIPITATION. Progress Report No. 8, July 1960-June 1961

Technical Report · Mon Jan 15 04:00:00 EST 1962

OSTI ID:4828665

Walton, A; Fisher, E L; Krey, P W

The concentrations of Ce/sup 144/ in ground-level air and precipitation at Westwood, New Jersey during the period July 1960 to June 1961 were studied. On a daily basis the air concentrations changed quite frequently by factors of two and three but the concentrations of Ce/sup 144/ in rainfall exhibited much greater variability. Ground-level air did not reflect changes in Ce/sup 144/ concentration in the upper troposphere as rapidly as the precipitation. For approximately 75% of the rains occurring in the latter haif of 1960 only about 10% of the Ce/sup 144/ present within the air column abeve the collector to 20,000 feet needs to be removed by precipitation to produce the observed deposition. In a meteorological examination of the factors influencing the concentrations of Sr/sup 90/ and Ce/sup 144/ in precipitation during a single rainstorm in April 1961 three facts emerged. At the beginning of the storm there was a pronounced decrease in the concentrations of both nuclides. Following a period of rather constant concentrations there was an increase by a factor of two at a time which coincided with the minimum in tropopause height. Toward the end of the storm a new uncleansed continental air mass appeared over the area and the concentrations of radioactivity in the precipitation increased. (auth)

• Research Organization: Isotopes, Inc., Westwood, N.J.
• NSA Number: NSA-16-020816
• OSTI ID: 4828665
• Report Number(s): NYO-9531
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

AIR
ATMOSPHERE
CERIUM 144
FISSION PRODUCTS
GEOLOGY, MINERALOGY, AND METEOROLOGY
METEOROLOGY
MONITORING
QUANTITY RATIO
RADIOACTIVITY
RAIN
STRONTIUM 90
TROPOPAUSE
TROPOSPHERE
VARIATIONS
WATER