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The Salt Lake City Incident
A nuclear device was detonated on or near the ground on July 7, 11,
14 and on 17, 1962, at the Nevada Test Site.

A cratering shot also was

fired on July 6, 1962 at the Site.
With increased alertness to possible environmental contamination and
with monitoring methods that had been perfected in recent years which permitted rapid measurements of a large number of samples, the rise of
iodine-131 levels in milk in the Salt Lake City environs was followed

closely.

As the levels rose from nondetectable amounts in early July to

peak amounts on July 25, apprehension increased among the officials and
residents of Salt Lake City, locatéd about 350 miles northeast of theNevada
Test Site.

It was understood by them that the (U.S.) Federal Radiation

Council's Radiation Protection Guide was 36,500 picocuries of iodine-131
that might be ingested in any one year.8- By the end of July the total
ingested (based on usual assumptions and calculations) had risen to 27,000

picocuries,

Although the amounts of iodine-131 per liter of milk were

decreasing by then, the accumulated intake continued to increase, of course,

toward the assumed "end point" of 36,500 picocuries.
37,040 picocuries).?°

(The final tally was

DOE ARCHIVES

The press and others brought strong pressures to bear on the public
officials to take action for they had come to understand the "Limit" to
be the 36,500 picocuries.

The state and city health authorities met with

representatives of the milk industry; as a consequence several actions

Is

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