EE a TTRT re ete ee gee ee oF
Free segetna 8 fe epntgnenpinmag te gees iit
.
31 Dacembor 1946
°
Subj:
.
.
.
Pile ee tr
yt er ee dee og retin
te
fee wee eT me
PE NTR emerwatemC
Redioective Varfoare
-
owe
Prtern ee
ae ere
~
Paseo
F
Four
.
presents a most ominous complication. Assuming a relatively uniform and
widespread doposition of fission products over areas of many square miles,
thero will arise varying and wprediotable concentrations of this activity
O12 O result of rain or melting snows.
It must ba realized that initially
a large fraction of the deposited fission products will be on ths surface
of the soil, plants, buildings, roads, et oetera, as a thin film of dust.
Rain or melting snows will wash a signifioent fraction of these materials
away end they will ba accumulated in the run-off water and may be carried
cousidsrable distances to anothor location.
It is quite logical that a
redistributio in a concentrated form would prove most disturbing, part~
feularly from the point of view of, gamna radiation if such removal and .
.
The possible methods of distribution of fission produots that
are of military significance have bosninvestigated only to_averylimited
OoeR Oe oe ee es oe se
_ redistribution should oocur in a thickly populated area.
decree end on an extremely small soales
Such methods were developed prin
arily at Berkeley for the purposes of studying the behavior of:fission
product aerosols following their inhalation by animals. Stable aerosols
may be produced by depositing fission products upon a smoke produoing
tf
eseant, as for example, the zinc hexachloretrane-ammonium perchlorate mix:
ture which hss been used for many years for the purpose of obsouration.
Such a type of preparation would appear well adapted for producing fission ;
product asrosols to subject urban populations ty fission produot poisming |
by inhelation. Other possibilities prosent themselves such as dispersal
of a fine powder by memsof a bursting oharge, the reduotion of the prin-
cipal fission products to a metallio state and their subsequent combustion
to form finely divided oxide smokes, the produotion of fine spraya of sol- .
utions of fission products, and the dispersion of a fission product mixture ||
in the form of small particles of the size of the order of 0.1 millimeter
in diameter. These are problems about which there are meny individuals
better qualified than I to present intelligent suggestions. It should be
pointed out that in meny instances, it is to be presumed that where aerosol
concentrations of fission products om be created at sufficient levels to
produce serious biological damage as a result of inhalatior, there will
occur the deposition of such suspensions upon the ground in sufficient
quentities that £41 approach, if not exceed the radietion flux, that will
result 4n sevef®
&xternal gamma ray demaze to individuals so exposed.
There are knovm at pressnt vory fev and relatively inadequate
measures that can bo employed to oombat the problems srising from radio~
aotive warfare.
In the first place, the removal of long-lived fission products,
once they have become oither deposited within the lungs or ebsorbed in the
body, has been wsuccessful.e Absorption from the digestive tract following
oral ingestion om be reduced significently by inoreasing the oaloium content
of diet for several weeks before administration of the fission products.
The administration of caloiun or strontium at the time of absorption or
subsequently, is not of significant value.
The administration of strong
cathartios at the time of oral ingestion would be of value to reduce the
eneee
Pte hespares: