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Ono of the principal strategic uses of fissica
produots will probably be against the civilian population of large cities,
It oan be well imagined the degree of consternation, as well as fear ond
apprehonsion, that such an agent would produce upon ea large urben populotion
after its initial usc. Apart from the effect upon the morale of the populese,
there is of course, the possibility of rendering large areas within the city
uninhabitable due to the prolonged gamma radiation of such contaminated
areas, while it is entirely likely that the souroe of fear induced by such
& weapon would be diminished as the population became bettor informed as to
the naturo ond degree of hazard to bo expected, the fact that large seotions
of oitios would be rendered wtenable would seriously dislocate the normal
fimotioning of the nation as a whole were many cities to bo involved sinultencously. Contamination of rosevoirs does not appeer to be a vory effective
use of fission. produots duo to the fact that the majority of them would very quickly attush themselves to the conorete or earth containing the water
and ‘those that did not remain behind would tend to bo caught in the water
system with the result. that little if ony active material would_actually
reach the individuals dependent upon the water supply.
It is possible,
of course, that contamination of a very small resevoir by a large emount
of eotive matorial might conosivably produce some effective contamination
of the water, but even here, I do not believe it likely that the effective-
ness of such & procedure would warrant the use of the large amoimt of mate
erial required. It would appear that fission products might bs very effeot~
ive for the denial of occess to small koy areas,notably railroads, shipyards,
docks, hishly conoentrated large industrial establishments, as for example
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_ steel mills, power plants, factories procuoing essential commodities, set.
cetera. The advantage, of course, of this typo of interruption of function
is that the regions so treatod are not physioally destroyed end if the
appropriate fission produot mixture is employed, the interval during whiosh
sugh areas are rendered ineooessible oan be pretty muoh solsoted at will.
.Possible taotioal epplications that are fairly obvious sre the
denial of certain areas to troops, notably beach heads, narrow mountain
passes, canals, et cetera. The direct use of fission products either against
massed troops or against personnel in trench fortifications, not readily
noutralized by more conventional agents, might be quite effective.
The
possibility also presents itself of the contamination of military nateriel
of various types, as for examole, airoraft, quartermaster stores, amounition
dumps, et oetera. It is entirely possible that the use of fissionproducts
might be effectively extended against naval vessols sither by shellinz, using
missiles containing fission products, or by spraying the material over the
entire ship.
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It is extromoly difficult for me to mako intellizent ovaluations
of the rolative importanoo of different stratopio and tactical uses of radio-=
Botive agents sinoe I am quite unfamiliar with military science, Sefore
leaving this phase of the application of radioactivity to warfare, it is
pertinent to point out thet the amount of fission produsts produced in
creation of sufficient plutmium for a bonb would be adequate to render un-
inhabiteble for a period of weeks to months en area that is comparable to
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