The Pacific Incident

On March 1, 1954 a 15 megaton! *

thermonuclear shot designated as

BRAVO, was fired on a reef extending from the Island of Namu located on
the northwest part of Bikini Atoll,
Figure 2 shows the estimate that I made of the pattern of fallout
from BRAVO - expressed as the doses that persons who were out-of-doors,
without shielding, could have received over a two day period following the
initial appearance of the fallout.
The doses shown over land areas were estimated from dose-rate readings
by survey meters held at three feet above the ground,

Doses over sea areas

were extrapolations of land survey data and thus are much less certain.
However, after constructing the "best fit"' isodose lines, I calculated from
these data that the total quantity of radioactivity that was deposited within
400 miles downwind represented about 2/3 of the total amount produced by the
detonation.

This estimate is not in conflict with those made in subsequent

years by others who were able to incorporate more data from later surface

detonations,

In addition to the "absolute" values shown in Figure 2, the

relatively sharp gradients of the isodose lines, especially those across
the main line of the fallout, are of interest to those concerned with the
subject of this symposium,

Of course, patterns of fallout will be strongly

a function of the wind structure,

DOE ARCHIVES

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