In clouds fron detonations in
of the total yield, the
percent
100
factor proportional t+ the ratio of
The accurlated radiation dose

which the fission yield is less than
radiation dose rate is reduced by a
the fission yield to the total yield.
that one receives in transit through

(1) the radiation dose

the cloud is a function of two primary factors:

:

rate in the cloud (related to time after detonation, to the ratio of the
fission yield to the total yield, and to the portion of the cloud through

which transit is made, i.e., stem or mshroom);and (2) the length of tim

.

spent within the cloud as

determined by the speed of the aircraft and

the horizontal dimension of the cloud at the altitude of penetration.
The diameters of the stem and mushroom increase somewhat with creater

vie

lds.
Considering all these factors, two generalizations, substantiated

by the penetrations actually flow, may be made:

(1) with the tropo-

pause at 55,000 feet, ons zay fly through the cloud from any yield for

a l00-percent-fission weapon in a high~performance aircraft at an alti-

tude of 45,000 feet at 20 minutes after detonation for an expected ra~

diation dose of 25 r; (2) with the same height tropopause, one may fly
through the cloud (stem) from any 100-parcent-fission weapon at 30,000
sa

feat as early as 10 minutes after detonation for a radiation dose of
the same magnitude.

*

Moderate to severe bumpy turbulence was encountered in one of the
clouds penetrated at times of 22 to 40 minutes after detonation. Slight
to no turbulence was encountered in the othsr clouds penetrated during
a Similar time range, Turbulence was not a problem in any of these penetrations, and it was considered not likely to be a serious problem in
a penetration as early as 10 minutes after detonation.
Icing was encountered in soms of the penstrations, but caused no
difficulty, except in the case of two aircraft penetrating a cloud from
a water-surface detonation at the maximum altitude of 50,000 feet. This
icing forced the pilots of these aircraft to reduce power on the jet

.

engines in order to avoid overheating.

The contamination factor on the B-57B aircraft, as defined herein,
averaged 0.6 & 0.2 percent per minute in penetrations of clouds from
air, land-surface, and water-surface detonations, This factor enables
one to estimate that portion of the total dose received which is accrued
during the flight back to base after exit from the radioactive cloud.
.In the penetrations made for this project, the return flight took about

50 minutes, and the come~home dose averaged about 15 percent of the

total, On return flights of 2 to 3 hours duration in this aircraft the
coms-homs dose would be no more than 25 percent of the total dose for

early penetrations of the cloud.
4e2
.

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