An advisory panel of the Test Organization has the responsibility of weighing carefully all factors related to the safety of the
public. A series of meetings is held before the firing of each shot,
with the principal function to evaluate off-site fallout.
To assist in these deliberations, a complete weather unit is in
operation at the Nevada Test Site, drawing upon all the data available from the U. S. Weather Bureau and the Air Weather Service, plus
‘six additional weather stations ringing the test site. These data
are evaluated for the current and predicted trends up to one hour
before shot time. A shot can be cancelled at any time up to a few
seconds before the scheduled detonation,
Reduction of Fallout
Controls and procedures for the test series were designed to
assure that exposure of the public in the Test Site region for the
entire series will be below the Commission's basic guide of 3.9
roentgens of whole-body exposure to gamma rays. In its day-to-day
operations, the Test Organization tries to hold public exposure to
fallout as near zero-as possible,
Procedures for keeping fallout at a minimum include the follow-
ing:
(1)
The Test Organization has established criteria
defining the maximum permissible yield for devices exploded
at specified altitudes. If the fireball produced by any detonation is expected to reach the surface of the Test Site,
drawing up dust and debris into the atomic cloud and thereby
increasing local fallout, there are severe restrictions on
the weather conditions considered acceptable for the test.
Such tests are conducted only when predicted weather conditions will not produce significant fallout on any inhabited
locality. Improved weather forecasting techniques and highspeed electronic methods of predicting fallout paths and
intensity are utilized.
(2)
There has been a continuing effort in the weapons
(3)
Improved techniques such as balloons are being
- laboratories to design devices of the lowest possible yield
which will provide the desired scientific data. Decreasing
the yield of a device has the effect of decreasing the amount
of radioactive fission products which can descend as fallout.
utilized to keep the fireballs of the detonations away from
the surface of the testing area, Relatively little local
fallout results from detonations in which the fireball does
not approach close to the surface.
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