d. Blast and displacement.
The 15 dogs placed
in two
communal shelters I400 feetfrom ground zero all survived
the detonation and recovered within a few hours.
Radiation
and thermal effects on the dogs were found to be negligible.
Although some degree of local hemorrhage was found in
heart valves and lungs, the most severe of these lesions
would not have been lethal.
Tests with dummies simulating
the human body suggested that the tossing about of occupants
and objects would have been the greatest hazard in these
shelters.
e. Biomedical studies.
Results of genetic studies
using fly populations,plant materials, and a small number
of mice will be determined after a
amination.
longer period
of ex-
ProjectGABRIEL
12. The Commission has on several occasions examined the
general question of how many atomic weapons
can be detonated
without hazardous long-range and short-range radiation effects
upon man,
animals, and
crops.
When the expansion
program was
considered in 1951 it was tentatively concluded that the proposed
stockpile would not
danger
limit.
contain a
number of weapons approaching this
The Rand Corporation was
examine this conclusion more thoroughly.
calculated a
preliminary sample estimate
selected
in
1952 to
To date Rand has
of
the range
of dis-
tribution of radioactive fall-out which would occur from a 1- to
10- kiloton detonation.
One important consideration
is the
relatively large amount of radioactive debris which may be
brought down by rain from low-level bomb clouds.
In some cases
amore serious radiation hazard may be created by weapons of low
yield then by those of higher yield, because the radtoactive
bomb cloud produced by the latter is carried to higher altitudes
13.
After the basic principles
been established,
the
problem will be
for one
we:
than are normally reached by weather disturbances.
detonation have
to determine
possible
statistical distributions of rain-out resulting from a number
of bombs detonated
in patterns which vary in time and
- 02 -
space.
Part VI
A