Operation UPSHOT-KNOTHOLE, Nevada Proving Grounds, March - June 1953. Project 27.2. Environmental and Biological Fate of Fallout from Nuclear Detonations in Areas Adjacent to the Nevada Proving Grounds. Report to the Test Director,
Abstract
A radio-ecological survey of the area adjacent to Nevada Proving Grounds has been in progress intermittently from September 1951 to July 1953. Samples have been taken periodically of native soils, plants, and animals before, during, and after various test series at distances up to 30 miles from respective Ground Zeros. Data suggest that microcurie levels of radioactive fall-out are potentially available for absorption and/or metabolism by grazing animals at distances at least 15 miles from Ground Zero during the 24 hr following a detonation. The persistence of absorbed radioactive materials in rodent populations, as compared to the radioactive content of their isolated tissues, suggests that absorption is primarily a result of physical diffusion of available ions rather than actual metabolic selection and retention of the mixed fission products ingested or inhaled. Absorbed radioactive materials, therefore, appear to be in equilibrium with certain components of residual environmental contamination during the 90 days following a detonation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 1954
- Accession Number
- ADA078560
Entities
People
- James C. Watson
- James T. Scanlan
- Kermit H. Larson
- Robert G. Lindberg
- William A. Rhoads
Organizations
- UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine