some extent.”
All packages, persons, and letters returning from the area
were probably contaminated in excess of background radiation.
For this
reason, the sale to the general public of shipping containers from the PPG
was restricted.
Interstate Commerce Commission regulations required that all shipments
of radioactive isotopes in commercial carriers be packaged so that no significant alpha or beta radiation would be emitted from the exterior of the
package, and the gamma radiation emission at any surface of the package was
required to be less than the equivalent of 0.010 R of radium gamma radia~-
tion (filtered through 0.5 inch (1.27 em] of lead) for 24 hours.
meant,
This
in many cases, a holding period in excess of 4 months from the re-
lease from contaminated storage to the acceptable shipment of items by common carrier in the United States.
Because agencies often could not wait
out this decay period, courier service was utilized.
Courier service was
not subject to ICC regulations unless a common carrier was used.
These
shipments had to comply to CJTF regulations on transport of radioactive
materials.
Charts and maps were displayed at the Radsafe Office on the Estes and
on Parry Island to keep CJTP 7 staff apprised of the radiological situation.
This display included (Reference 17, Tab C):
@
Hodographs and surface radex
@
Airborne particle trajectory forecast
Long-range fallout forecast chart
Danger area and search area chart
Transient shipping chart
Native population chart (i.e., number of people on
each populated atoll)
Air radex chart
Cloud-tracking chart (records of inflight reports)
Onsite radsafe situation charts
Offsite radsafe situation chart
Radiation intensities of task force ships
Status of recovery of scientific experiments.
131