showed that the slope of the line is not significantly different from
zero.
For a few low-yield airbursts, data have been obtained for single or
grouped particles as small as 0.3 um.
These submicrometer particles had
been located on slide preparations of the debris by photoreversal of the
autoradiographic image, transferred to an appropriate substrate, and
Measured in an electron microscope.
Activity measurements were made on
groups of particles of approximately the same size.
Size separation of
debris by sequential centrifugation extended the size range downward
even further, but also magnified the uncertainties of the measurements.
Examples of gross activity behavior are shown in Figures 2 and 3.
In
Figure 2, the specific activity is essentially constant above about
2 um,

then increases

towards smaller particles sizes.

The data from the

size fractions appear to fit the single-particle data rather well, but
our experience has shown that such data may have uncertainties as large
as an order of magnitude or even more.
This is evident, for example,
from Figure 3, where the size-fraction data are a factor of about 6
lower than the single-particle data.
In general, plots like these
indicate that below a few micrometers, the specific activity curve
begins to rise, and that this rise may become very dramatic below a few
tenths of a micrometer.

A word of caution is in order.
The curves should not be blindly extrapolated below 0.04 or 0.05 um.
Doing so would result in more radioactivity
than was actually generated by the shot.
In reality, there is a minimum
particle size, probably of the order of 0.01 um, but the presence of a
maximum in the specific activity-size curve also cannot be discounted.
Evidence not adduced here suggests that the transition between constancy
and increase of specific activity occurs at smaller particle sizes as
the explosion yield increases.
Individual radionuclides for which data have been obtained behave similar
to the gross activities, as expected.
However, the behavior above about
3 um is dictated by the relative volatilities and, therefore, the specific abundance of a particular radionuclide is not necessarily constant
in this size range.
Uranium and plutonium data are few and far between,
but these elements may also be expected to behave in accordance with our
general observations.
Balloon and Low-Altitude Airbursts

Data for this type of shot are rather scarce.
We have analyzed data
from King (Ivy series, high-yield device detonated at a scaled height of
burst under 200 feet over coral, soil, and seawater) and from Lassen,

Priscilla, and Wilson (Plumbbob series, devices with yields under 100 kt

suspended from tethered balloons over alluvium with scaled heights of
burst above 200 feet).

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