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FREILING, CROCKER, AND ADAMS

PREDICTION OF FRACTIONATION EFFECTS
Clarification of Concepts
If thereader will permit a heterodox interpretation of the title of
this subproject, it is appropriate to begin this discussion with the effect of fractionation on thought and communication—the semantic

effect, if you will. With a realization of the existence and significance
of fractionation, many terms previously used to describe and discuss
fallout have become undefined and meaningless. Thus phrases like
“bomb fraction,” “fissions in the sample,” and “kilotons per square

mile” are no longer “OK terms.” Moreover, as our understanding of
fractionation has increased, deviation of fission-product abundances
from those expected in instantaneous thermal-neutron fission of *°U
and of decay rates from the Way—Wigner t7!? rule are no longer conSidered significant criteria or acceptable measures of fractionation
effects. We have considered it an important part of our effort to suggest new definitions and, where possible, operational definitions for
many of these terms. These are listed in the appendix to this paper.

The essential features of some ofthese definitions are soundly grounded

in the fundamental properties of the debris. Accidental features (e.g.,
the choice of standards for measuring fractionation) can be varied if
sufficient justification appears for doing so. Other terms and definitions are merely matters of convenience, and these are appropriately
indicated in the appendix. The adoption of these or similar definitions
will be of great assistance, not only in promoting clear thinking and
improving the signal-to-noise ratio when fractionation is discussed but

also in planning analyses of those properties of nuclear debris affected by this phenomenon. Further background and justification for
these definitions can be found in our set of reports with the series title

‘Fractionation.”!—4

First Phase of Predicting Fractionation Effects
Early in the program we came to the conclusion that the prediction
of fractionation effects could best be carried out in two concurrent

phases.° The first of these phases consisted of rapidly assembling a
prediction system that would give answers to urgent questions in as

reasonable a manner as time allowed. The second phase consisted of a

more fundamental long-range approach. The effects of interest are

gross radiological effects (exposure-dose rate, exposure dose, decay
rate, gamma Spectra); radiochemical-composition effects (radionuclide
partition between local and worldwide fallout, radionuclide ratios in
particles of different size, type, and location, and relative biological
availability); effects related to mass deposit (specific activity, mass—

dose ratio); and various combinations of these (e.g., '*'I—dose ratio).

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