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DASA 2019-2
ROOT:
A high burst,
DONALDSON: I assusned a high burst, not in contact,
‘DUNHAM: I would like Dr. Wolfe to commen: on this question
because { think I know what Lauren is driving at, and that ie that the
earth is so different on the atoll than in the State of Washington, in
terms of radiosensitivity, with the tremendous amount of pine forests,
that maybe there would be a difference.
WOLFE: I would think that in the coniferous forests of the Northwest there would be widespread damage in the areas of heavy fallout,
damage to the extent that the forests might be totally killed in areas.
I don't know whether ['m talking to your question or not. This is one
important thing that we know of differential sensitivity, that conifers
are more sensitive and it would take a lot less radiation to kill the
forests in the Northwest than it would to take them out in the Appalachians.
In the Appalachians [ think maybe fire would be the sole
killer except in the pine regions to the southeast and along the coast.
In the Northwest both radiation and fire in the coniferous forests can
be rather disastrous, I know that there have been those who speak
lightly of fire as a factor in nuclea: war, but I noticed in the last
fires, the fires in the Northwest, that there was available manpower
and they couldn't do anything about them until they had run their
course, Ina time of nuclear war you won't have any manpower and
you won't have any equipment. So I think fire and raciation would
cause considerable damage in the Northwest over the land.
Fire is a striking example of a subject about which participants
are all speaking truthful things but are not speaking to the same subject. The effects of fire will vary widely if we only consider geography
and phenology as the variables, There are at least a dozen others,
We can discuss fire storms in cities, but what we should be discussing
is what cities are susceptible to fire starms.
DONALDSON: The problems are so different in the two environments. May we again use an example from Rongelap. When wefirst
visited the northern islets, the area of heaviest fallout, we hurried
to finish our essential tasks there and then waded out into tue lagoon
to wait for the boat to transport us back to the ship. On the islands
we would have been ina high radiation field, but in the adjacent lagoon
we were perfectly safe, except for possible shark attacks.
we ne