Th Question 16 Nuclear explosives are being developed for peaceful excavation purposes. Apparently, cleaner new explosives have been developed--the SCHOONER experiment in December, 1968 was the first developmental model--which make it possible to conduct a megaton excavation blast from which the fission products released to the environment would be equivalent only to a 0.02 kiloton nuclear explosion. Part A Question 16 Approximately how many curies are created by a 0.02 kiloton nuclear explosive? Would that be pure fission? Answer Part A Question 16 A 0.02 kiloton all fission nuclear explosive would produce about 10! een curies of gamma activity as measured one hour after detonation. Part B Question 16 Is it correct to presume that a Plowshare explosive would produce additional fission products which might not be released to the environment, but which would te "contained" somewhere in the lip or pit of the crater? Answer Part B Question 16 Only a small portion of total amount of radioactivity produced by an excavation explosive is released to the atmosphere. The amount of radio- activity released is minimized by scavenging during the venting process, by special emplacement techniques, by utilizing minimum fission explosives, and by employing extensive neutron shielding to reduce neutron activation Of surrounding materials. For each individual explosive detonated, the sum of fission products airborne in the fallout can be expected to be as low as the equivalent of 20 tons fission yield. This amount excludes the radioactivity which is scavenged during the venting process and remains buricd in the broken rock in the ernter and in the crater lip. A small