74

CROCKER, KAWAHARA, AND FREILING

Sedan was the well-known 100-kt cratering shot for the Plowshare
program. The device was buried 635 ft below the surface in alluvial
material in Area 10. NRDL collected samples at stations within 1 to
3.6 miles of ground zero. Analyses were performed on about 50 samples for the short list of nuclides previously given, and about one-third

of these were analyzed for the longlist.

TREATMENT OF THE DATA
The radiochemical analytical work was contracted out to three
commercial laboratories since NRDL does not have facilities for

handling a large volume of samples for routine analysis. The contractors were
also intended
quired nearly
the analyses.

selected on
to serve for
a year for
The results

the basis of qualification tests, which were
interlaboratory calibration purposes. It reall the contractors to complete and report
were reported to NRDL as disintegrations

per minute or equivalent ?U thermal-neutron fissions at shot time.

NRDL then converted the values to equivalent fissions of the device

at shot time, using mass-chain yield values supplied by the weapons
laboratories. At the same time the calibration factors derived from
the qualification-test analyses were applied.
As a reference nuclide *Zr was chosen for fractionation studies.
Some such choice seems unavoidable if fractionation is to be discussed. Zirconium-95 belongs to a class of nuclides (other members

are °°Mo, ‘“4Ce, and ‘4"Nd) that are generally present in debris in equal

quantities when expressed as equivalent fissions. Strontium-89, on the
other hand, shows wide variation when compared with any of these.

The ratio of equivalent fissions of ™Sr to equivalent fissions of Zr

is, in fact, a fairly good indicator of the degree to which a sample is

fractionated. The ratio will be 1 for an unfractionated sample, less

than 1 for a sample depleted in Sr, and greater than 1 for a sample
enriched in ®sr.

The behavior of other fractionating nuclides can be correlated

with that of "Sr by log—log plotting. The logof the ratio, r; 9., of
equivalent fissions of nuclide i to equivalent fissions of *°Zr is plotted

against the log of the similar ratio for “Sr and *Zr. The data so

treated can be fitted more or less satisfactorily to a straight line.
The slope of the line is then an indication of the extent of fractionation
of nuclidei.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
For the Johnie Boy and Small Boyshots, the local-fallout collections were sufficient to define the geographical extent of the close-in

Select target paragraph3