only after hundreds of rep wers accumulated and tumors only after

1500 or more,"

The permissible level referred to is that recom

mended by the NCRP for industrial workers, The Committee noted
that although "some children have accumulated a measurable amount

of radioactive strontium in their bodies, the amount is quite
small-~a thousandth of what is considered a permissible dose, The
Committee concluded, "then, that Strontium-90 is not a current
threat, but if there were any substantial increase in the rate of

contamination in the atmosphere, it could become one,”

Committes on Metecrologizs] Aspects3 of Atomic Radiation
Chairman - Harry Wexler = U. S, Weather Bureau

In this part of the report there is the fullest discus-

Sicn of fallout from nuciear weapons, They distinguish between
kilcton bursts when the cloud does not penetrate to the stratosphere and megaton bursts where the cloud does, They estimate

that with surface bursts, i,e,, where the fireball touches the

ground 70-80% of the residual radisastivity falls out nearby, i.e.,
with small weapons a few miles, with larger cnes up to 300 miles
or more, They emphasize the ease of predicting this "nearby" fallout pattern after the fact and the problem of predicting its pre-

cise pattern prior to detsnation.,

They speak of intermediate fallout, i.e., material of
small particle size released below the stratosphere and some 80%

of which falls cut within three weeks in the same hemisphere in
which it originated and tending to uneven distribution associated
with rainfall and wind patterns along a broad band in the same
general latitude as that cf its origin, Finally, they refer to
delayed fallout of materiel which has gained entry into the strato-~
sphere, It is slow with an average storage time in the stratosphere

of 10 years, plus or minus five years,

AEC believes the latter

figure - five years - is the more likely, This delayed fallout
tends to distribute itself more or less uniformly over the surface

of the earth over the years,

\

NAS

They state that "at present, the amcunt of Sr 90 in the

stratosphere from nuclear weepans tests is far too small to approach

maximum permissible concentration even if it were all deposited now."
They urged a continuing program to check on the amount of radioactivity in the stratosphere as necessary so that if there were to
be a greatly increased rate cf thermonuclear weapons testing activi-

ties we would know at the earliest moment when it was time to slow
down in terms of potential hazard from Sr 90 to man,

There is also a discussion of the radioactivity from fallout of the intermediate and delayed varisty, They point out that it

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