major stations constitutes an adjustment for relative platform bias, the question remains as to

what percent of the total number of fissions per unit area, which would have been deposited in
the absence of the collector, were actually collected by it. This question is considered in detail
in Section 4.3.2.
3.3.4 Chemical Composition and Surface Density. The total mass of the fallout collected per
unit area at each of the major stations is summarized for all four shots in Table 3.16. Results
are further divided into the amounts of coral and sea water making up the totals, on the assump-~
tion that all other components in the device complex contributed negligible mass. These values
were obtained by conventional quantitative chemical analysis of one or more of the OCC tray

collections from each station for calcium, sodium, chlorine, potassium, and magnesium (References 35 through 38); in addition analyses were madefor iron, copper and uranium (private
communication from C.M. Callahan and J.R. Lai, NRDL). The basic ¢hemical results are pre~

sented in Tables B.16 and B.18. (Analyses were also attempted for aluminum and lead; possibly
because of background screening, however, they were quite erratic and have not been included.)

The chemical analysis was somewhat complicated by the presence in the collections of a relatively large amount of debris from the fiberglass honeycomb(or hexcell) inserts, which had to
be cut to collector depth and continued to spall even after several removals of the excess material, It was necessary, therefore, to subtract the weight of the fiberglass present in the samples
in order to arrive at their gross weights (Table B.181). The weight of the fiberglass was determined in each case by dissolving the sample in hydrochloric acid to release the carbonate, filtering the resultant solution, and weighing the insoluble residue, In addition, the soluble portion
of the resin binder was analyzed for the elements listed above and subtracted out as hexcell contribution to arrive at the gross amounts shown (References 39 and 40).
were then used for the subsequent analyses.

Aliquots of the solution

It was also necessary to subtract the amount of mass accumulated as normal background.

These values were obtained by weighing and analyzing samples from a number of OCC trays
which were known to have collected no fallout, although exposed during the fallout period. Many
of the trays from Shot Cherokee, as well as a numberof inactive trays from other shots, were

used; and separate mean weights with standard deviations were computed for each of the elements
under ocean and land collection conditions (Tables B.16 and B.18).
After the net amount of each element due to fallout was determined, the amounts of original
coral and sea water given in Table 3.16 could be readily computed with the aid of the source
compositions shown in Table B.16. In most cases, coral was determined by calcium; however,
where the sea water/coral ratio was high, as for the barge shots, the sea water contribution to
the observed calcium was accounted for by successive approximation. Departure from cere
the residual weights of the coral and sea water components shown in Table B.18 reflect combined
errors in analyses and compositions. It should be noted that all + values given in these data

represent only the standard deviation of the background collections, as propagated through the
successive subtractions. In the case of Shot Zuni, two OCC trays from each platform were

analyzed several months apart, with considerable variation resulting. It is not known whether
collection bias, aging, or inherent analytical variability is chiefly responsible for these discrepancies:

The principal components of the device and its immediate surroundings, exclusive of the
naturally occurring coral and sea water, are listed in Table B.17. The quantities of iron, copper

and uranium in the net fallout are shown in Table B.181 to have come almost entirely from this
source. Certain aliquots from the OCC trays used for radiochemical analysis were also analyzed independently for these three elements (Table B.18I). These data, when combined with
the tabulated device complex information, allow computation of fraction of device; the calcula-

tions have been carried out in Section 4.3.4 for uranium and iron and compared with those based
on Mo’.

3.4

RADIONUCLIDE COMPOSITION AND RADIATION CHARACTERISTICS
3.4.1 Approach.

If the identity, decay scheme, and disintegration rate of every nuclide in
56

Select target paragraph3