7{
REPOSITORY PN fp Aecords
|
Medical Re:
The e Medical
nte
Research Center
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Upton, L. 1, New York
COLLECTION
BOX No. MEM /\ Lop.
Mice (154)
FOLDER
401868
Reprinted from
RADIOACTIVITY IN MAN
Edited by George R. Meneely, M.D.
CHARLES C THOMAS + PUBLISHER e Springfield « Illinois - U.S. A.
THE BIOLOGICAL HAZARDS OF A FALLOUT
FIELD °
RoBERT A. CONARD
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Upton, Long Island, New York
BACKGROUND
Te paper deals with the radioactive hazards associated with
an acute fallout situation; that is, the type of fallout that may
occur ina limited area down wind of a large nuclear detonation.
Such fallout is likely when the fireball touches the ground drawing
up large amounts of incinerated matter which, due to the rela-
tively large particle size, is deposited in an area which may cover
thousands of square miles and cause lethal radiation over a wide
area. This is in contrast to the so-called world-wide fallout when,
following a nuclear detonation at high altitude, radioactive debris
of small particle size escapes into the trophosphere or stratusphere
to be slowly filtered down over large areas of the globe. Due to
diffusion and the time element allowing radioactive decay, the
resulting contaminating situation is chronic in nature, imparting
very low doses of radiation.
Acute fallout may resemble snow, powder or mist while it is
falling. It seems likely that enough fallout to result in lethal accumulation would be visible; but this is not certain. The distribution is fairly uniform and contaminatestrees, houses and human
betngs with a thin. powdery tenacious material which is highly
radioactive. Human beings at distances from the detonation will
not be exposed to flash burn or immediate radiation. However,
1’This work was supported by the United States Atomic Energy Commission.
249