radiation, exposures to the aircrews as they returned to base,
to decontamination ground crews.
as Well as
The samples collected were radid logi-
cally "hot" and required special handling as they were taken from the aircraft and prepared for shipment to the laboratory for analysis.
DIAGNOSTIC MEASUREMENTS.
The explosion of a nuclear device is a pro-
gressive release of increasing amounts of nuclear radiation, some OF which
directly escapes the device.
The rest of the radiant energy inte
cts
with the associated material of the device itself and is converte
into
differing forms of radiation and into the kinetic energy of the r
aining
materials in a small fraction of a second.
then
The intensely hot coré
reradiates, heating the surrounding air and creating a shock wave that
propagates outward from the burst point.
The weapon diagnosticians used sophisticated techniques to fo] low the
processes that occur during the device explosion.
ollec-
Detectors and
tors were run up to, and sometimes inside, the device case so tha
the ra-
diation being sampled could be directly channeled some distance a ay and
there be recorded by instrumentation designed to survive the ensu ng blast.
To enhance its transport, radiation was conducted through pipes
evacuated or filled with special gases)
( ften
from the device to statio s where
recording instrumentation was located or where the information co ld be
retransmitted to a survivable recording station.
Radiation measurements are based upon the effects that result from the
interaction of the radiation with matter.
Fluorescence is one su h effect.
Materials that fluoresce with radiation exposure were placed in v ew of
cameras or light detectors to provide a record of the variation o
fluor-
escent intensity with time, thereby providing an indirect measure ent of
the
radiation environment.
Other methods of detecting radiation involve the shielding
tion)
(a
trenua-
properties of earth materials, water, and other substances.
These
materials are also used to baffle or collimate radiation to ensure that
radiation is directed toward the detecting instrument.
33