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