137293 US DOE ARCHIVES ==. RG 326 U.S ‘ATOMIC ENERGY —_——6MMISSION j Collection C ATMOSPHERIC RADIOACTIVITY STUDIES J. Z. Holland U. S. Atomic Energy Commission fin Wctenciopieal Scout, Nor Yk waits, fox. 27, 1959) 1S —~ Box Washington 25, D. C. Studies of radioactivity in the atmosphere are conducted by the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission primarily for the purpose of evaluating hazards to man arising from the uses of atomic energy. For this reason the major part of this work is under the supervision of the Division of Biology and Medicine. In its simplest terms, the problem is to determine the dosages to which people are likely to be exposed as the result of various uses of atomic energy, and to compare such dosages with either maximum permissible or natural "‘back- ground" levels. The atmospheric monitoring activities of the AEC range from local programs associated with industrial operations to world-wide monitoring projects associated with the testing of nuclear weapons. Although these studies have been motivated by practical necessity, their findings hold considerable interest for meteorologists. In turn, assistance of meteorologists is required in the design of the sampling networks, the interpretation and generalization of the results, and the development of models for predicting the distribution of radioactivity due to hypothetical sources. BEST AVAILABLE COPY The biomedically motivated studies are not the only studies of atmospheric radioactivity sponsored by the AEC. The Division of Research, for example, supports work on the geochemistry of uranium and on high energy physics including cosmic rays. Both of these physical science programs are generating information on the origins and distributions of naturally occurring radioactive nuclides in the atmosphere. The remainder of this discussion, however, will be limited to 5