137293
US DOE ARCHIVES ==.
RG 326 U.S ‘ATOMIC ENERGY
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Collection
C ATMOSPHERIC RADIOACTIVITY STUDIES
J. Z. Holland
U. S. Atomic Energy Commission
fin Wctenciopieal Scout, Nor Yk waits, fox. 27, 1959)
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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.
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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
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