Chapter 5 SUMMARY 5.1 CONCLUSIONS It is concluded that a rocket-borne radiation detection unit with a telemetering transmitter for relaying information to a groundstation constitutes a practical system for exploring the Spatial distribution of radioactivity in the cloud resulting from a large-yield nuclear detonation. Performance of the system developed for this project may be characterized as generally satisfactory, particularly with respect to the rocket itself and the radiation transducer. Instability of the transmitter-receiver combination resulted in some telemetering failures and consequent loss of data. Radioactive fields of intensities as high as 3.4 x 10‘ r/hr were encountered with no apparent attenuation of the telemetering signal. Information from a salvo of rockets fired through the Shot Navajo stem at 25,000 feet indicate the peak activity at that level to be about 10 percent of the peak activity inthe cloud. Since the volume of the cloud is about two orders of magnitude larger than that of the stem, it is estimated that the order of 0.1 percent of the total activity is in the stem. Contamination of the rocket surfaces was not serious. In terms of peak readings, the maximum contamination encountered was higher than 6 percent on only four rockets, In these cases the peak activity encountered by the rockets was relatively low. Values derived from rocket data, for the number of photons per secondin the clouds agreed with theoretical estimates in order of magnitude. 9.2 RECOMMENDATIONS It is recommended that further development and refinement be made in orderthat the system may be available for making early time radiological surveys of nuclear clouds. It is further recommended that the feasibility of using similar systems for measuring energy spectra and decay and for obtaining early-time cloud samples be investigated. 36