om

vegetation is unkmown.

it roins

or snows.

Precipitacion ccevenging is effective whenever

It is believed tnat tnis removal process was particularly

effective Tor the Palenouin cloud which was snowed out while moving over
Tdaho and Momtana.

Finally, the ry miixsheds cover only small areas of

the United States.

Could a cloud of radioiodine have passed through the

country missing every PMN milxshed?
nishly unlikely.

Such a passage is possible but is

Eowever, the first PMY milkshed that the debris will

se!

ass through outside the State of Nevada lies from 300 to 600 miles from

ct

he NUS, depending on direction o> cloud travel.

Tae answer to the

52
fo

esvion neading this paragraph therefore is that the concentration of

radioiodine in most cases is probesiy too low to cause an elevated milk
concentration by the time the radioiodine cloud reaches the PMN.
summery and Conclusion

PMN milk in the United States from April 1963 to December 1968.

wee ee oe

Six atmospheric tests conducted in Western China provided the source of
gene ae
.
Ss
a
.
131
radioiodine for the majority of cases of elevated concentrations of I 3 in

Atmospheric

tests in the South Pacific probably acccunted for only one elevated value, in
the Canal Zone.

During periods without zist

fallout from atmospheric tests, 132 contained ~~

undexzround and 5 crate
ering tests were reported in the U. S. almost all at
the NES.

In addition, underground tests were reported to have vented.

During the same period no PMN miik samples contained zist greater than 30
pei/1 except Por the period following the Palanquin cratering event and
the unexplained episode in the southeastern U. S.

The evidence since 1963

scronzly suggests that nuclear cratering events conducted in the cold season

with wind biowing toward the north did not contribute significantly to
elevated radioiodine in the PMY milk.
The limited data from state networks
conTirm the presence or absence or qtst

measuring radioiodine in milk
in PMY milk with minor exceptions.

However, a local Public Health Service network surrounding the NTIS showed
radiotodine in|milk following 13 of 25 rocket tests, four of five cratering

our

SYpto—

tests, and Sour of “trtcen unscheduled ventings from underground tests.
Only after one cratering test, Palencuin, did the PMN also contain zisi
in milx.

it is suggested that avmosphneric mixing and removal processes

diluve the radioactive clouds.

Teese as well as non-meteorological factors

account for the absence of PMY contexnination when the local PES network
reveaiec elevated radioiodine.

—.

Select target paragraph3