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23
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Series
A
SB-CL
ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION
HARDTACK FALLOUT PROGRAM
Report to the General Manager by the
Director of Military Application
THE PROBLEM
1. To present to the Commission possible and recommended
plans for fallout study in Operation HARDTACK,
BACKGROUND
2.
In the REDWING series an extensive program of fallout
study was carried out,
designed primarily to establish gross
intensity and dosage contours rather than to determine the
distribution locally and world-wide of a particular isotope
(such as Strontium 90 and Cesium 137).
To accomplish this,
arrangements were made to study five important shots.
a. For each of five shots:
A forecast was made
of the pattern and hot lines to be expected; on the
Atoli, readings and some samples were taken from
land stations and readings were taken from
helicopters; up to 17 sampling skiffs were anchored
in the vicinity and generally within 80 miles of
the Atoll; 2 YAGS and one LST with extensive reading
and sampling capability were placed upon the
estimated hot line at some 40 to 150 miles from the
Atoll; some other ships passing through the pattern
took intensity readings and samples; four Navy
aircraft flew missions for NYOO to delineate the
surface pattern as far out as it could be followed
(130 to some 180 miles from zero point); and a
Scripps vessel, the "Horizon", operated throughout
the pattern area taking water samples.
The cost of
this effort (exclusive of the normal cost of operating
the military vessels and aircraft concerned) was
roughly five million dollars,
Department of Defense.
paid entirely by the
—_FESPREGEEDDAPA—
This document contains restricted data as
defined in the Atomic Energy Act of 1954.
Its transmittal or the disclosure of its
contents in any manner to an unauthorized
person is prohibited.