Abstract
Schooner was a 31-kt nuclear cratering experiment done as part of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's Plowshare Program. Detonation was at 0800 PST on December 8, 1968 at the Nevada Test Site. The resulting cloud had ceased its dynamic growth by about H+4 min. Two distinct parts, a base surge and a main cloud, were evident. Thereafter, further cloud growth was by diffusion and fallout as the cloud moved downwind. Aircraft sampling of the cloud at H+12.5 min revealed that the main cloud part contained about 10 times as much radioactivity as the base surge part. Later aircraft data, local fallout field measurements, and airborne particle size data indicate that the H+12.5-min cloud burdens, primarily the tungsten isotopes, were depleted by a factor of about 2, due to fallout, over the next few hours. The remaining airborne cloud burdens for each cloud were used as input to diffusion calculations. Calculated main cloud center concentrations using observed cloud sizes, cloud burdens, and meteorology agree with measurements to better than a factor of 2 over 1 1/2 days. These postshot calculations and data are about a factor of 3 higher than calculations done preshot. Base surge calculations are consistent with available data
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Crawford, Todd V
[1]
- Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, University of California, Livermore, CA (United States)
Citation Formats
Crawford, Todd V.
Diffusion and deposition of the Schooner clouds.
IAEA: N. p.,
1970.
Web.
Crawford, Todd V.
Diffusion and deposition of the Schooner clouds.
IAEA.
Crawford, Todd V.
1970.
"Diffusion and deposition of the Schooner clouds."
IAEA.
@misc{etde_20555823,
title = {Diffusion and deposition of the Schooner clouds}
author = {Crawford, Todd V}
abstractNote = {Schooner was a 31-kt nuclear cratering experiment done as part of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's Plowshare Program. Detonation was at 0800 PST on December 8, 1968 at the Nevada Test Site. The resulting cloud had ceased its dynamic growth by about H+4 min. Two distinct parts, a base surge and a main cloud, were evident. Thereafter, further cloud growth was by diffusion and fallout as the cloud moved downwind. Aircraft sampling of the cloud at H+12.5 min revealed that the main cloud part contained about 10 times as much radioactivity as the base surge part. Later aircraft data, local fallout field measurements, and airborne particle size data indicate that the H+12.5-min cloud burdens, primarily the tungsten isotopes, were depleted by a factor of about 2, due to fallout, over the next few hours. The remaining airborne cloud burdens for each cloud were used as input to diffusion calculations. Calculated main cloud center concentrations using observed cloud sizes, cloud burdens, and meteorology agree with measurements to better than a factor of 2 over 1 1/2 days. These postshot calculations and data are about a factor of 3 higher than calculations done preshot. Base surge calculations are consistent with available data to within about a factor of 4, but the data needed to perform as complete an analysis as was done for the main cloud do not exist. Fallout, as distinguished from deposition of nonfalling debris, was important to a distance of about 500 km for the main cloud and to a distance of about 100 km for the base surge. At distances closer to ground zero, diffusion calculations under-predicted ground level concentration and deposition, but an isotopically scaled external gross gamma fallout calculation was within about a factor of 3 of the data. At larger distances downwind for the base surge, ground level exposure rate calculations and deposition for a variety of nuclides agree to within about a factor of 3 of measurements. (author)}
place = {IAEA}
year = {1970}
month = {May}
}
title = {Diffusion and deposition of the Schooner clouds}
author = {Crawford, Todd V}
abstractNote = {Schooner was a 31-kt nuclear cratering experiment done as part of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's Plowshare Program. Detonation was at 0800 PST on December 8, 1968 at the Nevada Test Site. The resulting cloud had ceased its dynamic growth by about H+4 min. Two distinct parts, a base surge and a main cloud, were evident. Thereafter, further cloud growth was by diffusion and fallout as the cloud moved downwind. Aircraft sampling of the cloud at H+12.5 min revealed that the main cloud part contained about 10 times as much radioactivity as the base surge part. Later aircraft data, local fallout field measurements, and airborne particle size data indicate that the H+12.5-min cloud burdens, primarily the tungsten isotopes, were depleted by a factor of about 2, due to fallout, over the next few hours. The remaining airborne cloud burdens for each cloud were used as input to diffusion calculations. Calculated main cloud center concentrations using observed cloud sizes, cloud burdens, and meteorology agree with measurements to better than a factor of 2 over 1 1/2 days. These postshot calculations and data are about a factor of 3 higher than calculations done preshot. Base surge calculations are consistent with available data to within about a factor of 4, but the data needed to perform as complete an analysis as was done for the main cloud do not exist. Fallout, as distinguished from deposition of nonfalling debris, was important to a distance of about 500 km for the main cloud and to a distance of about 100 km for the base surge. At distances closer to ground zero, diffusion calculations under-predicted ground level concentration and deposition, but an isotopically scaled external gross gamma fallout calculation was within about a factor of 3 of the data. At larger distances downwind for the base surge, ground level exposure rate calculations and deposition for a variety of nuclides agree to within about a factor of 3 of measurements. (author)}
place = {IAEA}
year = {1970}
month = {May}
}