320
FEELY AND BAZAN
OTHER COMPONENTS OF NUCLEAR DEBRIS
Nuclear debris contains many components besides *"Sr, including
other fission products and products of neutron activation. Results of
measurements of a number of fission products and activation products
in balloon and WU-2 samples have been discussed elsewhere?” and
will not be discussed here. We will mention, however, that many of
these nuclides should be useful as tracers of atmospheric motions.
Among those which have been so used are ‘Sb, “Mn,and other activa-
tion products that were produced inunusually large quantities by certain
events in the 1961 and 1962 U.S.S.R. test series. Similarly, ‘Cd, produced by the Starfish Prime rocket shot, should serve, as did }"*Rh,
produced by the 1958 Orange rocket shot (Operation Hardtack I), asa
tracer for high-altitude injections.
The nuclides ®*Y and ?*Na may
also serve as tracers for debris from the 1961 and 1962 test series or
from particular events in those series.
In Figs. 17 to T9 we have reproduced data froma report on Star
Dust® which show some vertical profiles of Sr and of several activa-
tion products at 65°N to illustrate the information obtainable from
measurements of tracer nuclides. During most of 1962 (Figs. 17 and
18), the highest concentrations of *‘Mn, Fe, and '4Sb were found in
the layer between 60,000 and 70,000 ft. There were fairly constant
ratios between activities of these nuclides in all samples in which they
were abundant. This suggests that they had a commonorigin, perhaps
in a single event during the 1961 U.S.S.R. test series. Since the maximum in the vertical profile of the activation products occurred at
significantly higher altitudes than did the maximum in the "Sr profile,
T
65°N as,
!
Ming
pFe aise
+
4
r
|
be
—
_
=
4
_
uw
oS
oOo
2
/
a
a
>
—
F
<
JAN. 25, 1962
30
|
10?
_t
10°
l
104
[
10°
MAR. 23, 1963
L
10°
_{
10°
!
104
NUCLIDE ACTIVITIES, DIS/ MIN PER 1000 SCF
(CORRECTED TO OCT. 15, 1961)
Fig. 17~—Vertical distribution of activation products and *Sr,
L
10°