xT
problem of attaining cleaner surfaces on sampling aircraft be investigated,
His ideas proposed that having the surfaces of the anticipated sampling
B.57 aircraft painted or permeated with a protective substance at the
factory might be an answer to the contamination problem,
So he wrote to
the Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations, !
re « « A rough dirty surface allows a large mild-up
of contamination material with a proportional increase in
the background radiation to which the pilot is subjected on
the return flight,
We have attempted to work this problem
in the past by use of acid brightener and hand polishing
of aircraft.
A prodigious number of man hours of labor
have gone into the F-8)G aircraft which this center has
utilized for sampling.
The amount of personnel exposure collected in the
cloud was roughly proportional to the sample collected
on the filter wit, Any exposure which the pilot absorbs
on the return flight due to aircraft background is wasted
radiation (absorbed by pilot),
Because of the large
samples currently being required by Eos Alamos, and the
restrictions placed upon the total dose allowed each pilot,
it is necessary to use any and all means of economizing on
radiation absorption.
Then he suggested having the sampling B-57 aircraft treated at the factory,
But Colonel Houghton's suggestion apparently did not prove feasible, as
the decontamination of aircraft continued to be a problem,
The detailed instructions for decontaminating an aircraft revealed
to some extent the many attempts to reduce the work involved,
(a)
Retdrming aircraft (air sampling, cloud tracking, and ground
survey) taxied by flight crew to the end
runway and spotted as directed
by designated member of decontamination crew, adjacent to aircraft
decontamination area,
(bo)
Flight crews made
de thei
their exitit according
ding to to "SOP" es established
e by
233
SWEH -2-0034,
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