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half-life of about 24,000 years and if it reaches the bones will be eli
inated only very slowly.
On the other hand, any insoluble plutonium
oxide inhaled into the lungs will be eliminated with a half time of
about one year, i.e., one-half of any plutonium remaining in the lungs
will be removed by natural body processes in the following year.
The {
tonium will be moved up from the lung, swallowed, and then it will pas:
quickly through the body - in a day or so - and be eliminated.
This
leaves one principal worry - what will be the radiation dose to the lur
before the plutonium is eliminated from that organ?
But first, let us take a look at what happened in Spain.
One bomb landed near the village of Palomares - in fact so close1
one man was knocked backwards through the doorway of his home by the b!
wave from the high explosive.
He was uninjured.
The other bomb fell ;
an uninhabited place and at a sufficient distance from the first so the
was very little overlapping of the patterns of contamination,
The potential sources of inhalation of plutonium under these cond:
tions are one, the cloud of radioactive material as it rolls by immediately after the event and, two, resuspension of the plutonium from t!
ground into the air afterwards.
Available data indicate that the firs!
source will probably result in a higher amount of plutonium being deposited in the Lungs.t-
Obviously there were no personnel monitorser
equipment present at Palomares at the time of the accident, so what as:
ances can be given as to the degree of risk to the inhabitants?