World-Wide Fallout from Operation Castle
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-. coNTlarrs ACKNM~EMENTS . .................... .- . ILLIGIRATIONS.. .................... ABSTRACT. ...... .,o ............ CHAPTER1 INTRODIX=TION.................... cH@!TER2 CASTLETESTS .................... 2.1 Bravo . a................... 2.2 Romeo . .................... .2.3 KOOIL . ...................... 2.& Union . .................... 2.5 Yankee. .................... 2.6 Nectar. ...* . cHApTEp.3 WB,LD-WIDEFALLOUT. 3.1 Castle Total. ohils for IndividualTests . ::: F oqarispn.'&ith Total Beta Yield. 3.11 l?ZEGGZogical Interpretation. 3.5 ~imum Activityat . IndividualStations l .,.-.z_,~__,_ PC. ._. mm& SPECIALClBSElRVATIONS .... , ........... 38 APPENDIXA MAPS OF DAILY FALLOUT,................... 39 ............................ l 220. ..... __ ............ ” ACKNWLEDGEMENTS The work reportedon here was performedunder the directionof Dr. Lester Machta,C.hief, Special Projects Section, Scientific ServicesDivision, U. S. xeatherBureau. The monitoringprogram was establishd by the Healthand Safety Laboratory, New York Operations Office, Atotic EnergyCommission, Merril Eisenbud, Director, arx? that office provided tIx radiological-data. Mr. Daniel E. Lynch of the Health and Safety Laboratoryserved as coordinatorof the program. Msv helpfulsuggestions were rece!i.&dfrom colleaguesin the SpecialProjects Section, D. Lee Harri.6,Kenneth M. Nagler,Francis Pooler,Jr., and Leo B. Quenneville. The staffof .tbissection performedthe laboriousand pemstax3ng plottingof data and prepara- tion of the finishedmanuscript. - iv.- .. ILLIETRATIONS Page * 1.1. Fallout Monitoring Network, Pacific Hemisphere . 2 1.2 Fallout Monitoring Netuork, Atlantic Hemisphere. 3 2.1 Winds Aloft for Castle Events. 7 2.2' Meteorological Trajectories for Burst No. 1, Bravo . 8 2.3 FESteoroIogicalTrajectories for Burst No. 2, Romeo . lo; 2.L Meteorological Trajectories for Burst No. 3, Koon. 13 2.5 Meteorological Trajectories for Burst No. 4, Union . lb 2.6 Meteorological Trajectories for Burst No. 5, Yankee. 16 2.7 i%teoz?ologicalTrajectories for Burst No. 6, Nectar. 17 3.1 Total Fallout From Castle Series as of July 1, 19511, PacificHemisphere . 20 3.2 Total Fallout From Castle Series as of July 1, Gl, Atlantic Hemisphere. 21 Total Fallout From Bravo, Pacific Hemisnhere . 2J.4 Total Fallout From Bravo, Atlantic Hemisphere. 25 Tot,& Fallout From RomeiS.Pacific Hemisphere . l . 26 3.6 Total Fallout From Romep,.AtlgnMc Hemispher_et 3.7 Total Fallout From Union, Pacific Hemisphere . 28 3.8 Total Fallout From Union, Atlantic Hemisphere. 29 3.9 Total Fallout From Yankee, Pacific Hemisphere. , . 30 3.10 Total Fallout From Yankee, Atlantic Hemisphere . 31 3.11 Total FaJ_out From Nectar. .'-.. * . 32 3.12 &ximm Activity on Sampling Day at Individual Stations, Pacific He.misphere. ,. 34 3.13 ~aximm Activity on Sampling Day at Individual Stations, l Atlantic Hemisphere. i . - . 37 A.1 + A.186 Radioactive FaQout i& the 24-hour Periods Begin- ning February 28 - May 31,:'11954.. ._. .40-225 & j A.l@ - A.188 Average Daily Fallout During Month of June, 19~..__._...,.......-- - wb-227 s- . ABSTRACT A world-wide netvworkof gumned film stations xas established to monitor fallout followiq Operation Castle. Xlthoqh meteorologi- cal data were poor, a general connection of troyos?heric flow patterns with observed fallout was evident. There ws a tendency for debris to re.win in tro?ical latitudes, with incursions into tk teverate regions associated with mtecrological disturbances of t.he predo.tinantlyzonal flou. As tha season advanced, such incursions becam more evident. Outside of the tropics, tLhesouthwestern United States received the greatest-_ total fallout, about five t_imest-hat -received in Japan. ._^_...... _~. .._ T.he.mximuin fallout-on any day at an individual station in the &G.t.edStates, corrected to [email protected] day, was 200,000 d/m/ft2. It is concluded that the probability of early fallout in inhabited regiok would be reduced bp holding Pacific test series in the wkter months. c -vi- . I < i k- -___. SitISJ _Jl-l .----“yc.,,G’R-.- ---- 1-11 ._.) ..-- l w,*o SAO LO .__._._ .__... __ ‘WA -.---._._.*m 1l---1- ------ FA MONITC ING NI ‘WORK, 37E _.- -- M .-:u44 . 8 b __-rcT-“’ _I i_--, __- - _,’ /--_ .I . * . 4 : _ _- -~ .-. _._ ;3 E c .. .- _..-.__ _ ‘.Lindicaticns that the arbitrapJsystem ';lgs in error,the activitywas (’ In L reassignedto the appropriateburst. the case of observationsin the Pacificand adjoiningregions, it was usually possible to determine the burst respocsible for the activityfrom an exarcdnation ; .I of the trajectoriesof the debris in conjunctionwith observed c- increasesin radioactivity.Elsewhere in the world,it was ordinarily necessaryto use the arbitrarilyassigned burst. 4.1 maps of daily falloutvalues indicate the burst assignmentused in computingthe decay correction, Unlessotherwise indicated, all radioactivityis reportedin units of disintegrationsper rrdnuteper squarefoot of greed film, decayed_-- to 100 days after the dev ---of the burst. The twTo2 law for the decay of fission prodscmty has been used throughout. The maps of.daily falloutinclude only the data from the land stations,since there is considerableuncertainty in the ship data. The locationsof the shipswere Imperfectlyknown and the procedures for avoidingcross-contatination of samolesin handlingand mailing, particularly on ships exposed to heavy fallout at soT?etime d$.ng . their voyage, were not adequate. The SND data were utilized in the drawire of isol,ines of activity on the failout m~s and in the intepretatior! of theI land staticn data. _ - --._ - -.-..--_ _-_ ..__^.._----_------ - -. -____-__ll____ll i The bursta of the Castle series are given in Table 2.1. Table 2.1. Castle Test Series 'Burst Yield & Ho GCT Total -0 Bravo Feb.28 18U 15 Rome9 Mar.26 1830 Koon Apr. 6 1820 L&on Apr. 25 1810 Yankee P'bY 4 1810 Nectar by 13 lE20 , . The first burst was detonatedon .B-&bi Atoll,-%fi succW%ng~~four from barges in the Bikini lagoon and the las; on Enik-etokAtoll. 4. most of the radioactiveclouis created in tk Castle seriesextended to very great heights, and the greaterpart of the cloud in levelsbeyond tk reach of routine meteorological observations. For this reason, it tis been Possible to prepare adequatemteorological ';rajectoriesto dete&e tte cath of the debrisat variouslevels. T&network of uper air obserm stationsin the tropicsis etireir.elysparse at best, and wind reports at levelsabove &O,OOG feet-are'virtually nonexistent, with the exceptionof a few-fromstations in the l&shall Islandsand adjacentareas established-especially for this test series; hen at these stations,the highestotiservations rarely extend above I 100,000it. 4 ..x : c The meteorologic81 trajectories for the variousbursts C8nnot, therefore,be computedet levelsabove &J,CQO ft. and are doubtful even e&lower lemls, 811 trajectoriesgiven in this report were computedby personnel of the Air WeatherService- @uPA Branch)and ri-eprepared for the 8SO-mb.r(s,OCCLft), 70041. (lO,GOO-ft.), SOCI-mb.(18,0O&ft.), 3004nb. ~3O,CKX+.~, and 2OO-nb ~40,00M3.1, lemls only. b The tenperaturesottndings for all of the Castlebursts were very similarin their major feetures. There were no pronounced invwrsionsin the lowerlayers (exceptfor an inversionat about 7,000feet duringRomeo). The air w8s quite moist up to ebout 5,ooOfeet, end somewhetdrier shove,with fairly SteeD 18pSeretes in the upper troposphere.The tropopausew8s between&8,ooO erxi 9t,oo0feet with very stablel8DSe r8fXS in the lOwi3rStr8tOsphere ebove, The winds obtainedfrom observationsmade at or near esch of the shotsare shownin Figure 2.1. ?’ F ,‘” - _L : .- 2.1 BRAVO , _L(. The first burst of the Castle series,Bravo, MS detonatedfrom 8 coralreef in BikiniAtoll on 181r5GCT, February28,_1991. The resultingcloud of radioactivedebris reachedto feet Tha tropopause at this time ~8s at about s&,ooO feet, The low-leveleasterly tredes extendedto about 6,000 feet, with light westerlywinds incre8sing with 8ltit7Xie to 8 maXimUm Of aboqt ho knOtS at 35-b0,000 feet, Satiily xinds extendingto the kiss2 cf 2-z strah,~hzre. preFaiied . throughoutthe stratosphereto the highesteltitude reached by the meteorologic81observations, about 100,000feet. Winds 8tthislevel were eesterlyat about 50 knots. Trajectoriesof the lower parts bf tf-ecloud are shown in Figure2.2, but unfortunately,no trajectoriescan be constructed Tozbtb high3rlevels. Availableevidence to about lCG,OGCfeet o servationsin the .hrstillsand at Guam) indicatesgeneral essterly winds in the lower stratosphere,so that this portionof the cloud moved toward the Phillipines.ho observationsto indicate the mov8- ment of the cloud above lOO,OoO feet 8re availeble. However, it is likely thet essterly winds prewiled et these levels. The daily f8=0& maps for the period following th&Bram> test 8re particulerly interesting in that t%e background of fission product activity from previous tests Was negligible and the succeeding burst d%d not occur until 26 d8yS leter, so that the progressionof areas of falloutfrom dsy to day is more easily seen. 5 KNOTS too - + + + +-?a. 4 + 90 w 80 70 . W cl g 3 30 a 20 IO . I + i/- P P 0 .... .2 BRAVO. K&i UNION YANKEE NECTAR ENIWETOK lO”7’N 16S06’E ENIWETOK ENIWETOK ENIWETOK 4 WIIP) 1000 GCT 2100 GCT 2100 GCT IS00 GCT I500 ect 20 FEB. -6 -*m, 25 APR. 4 NAY 13 NAY FIGURE 2.1 WINDS ALOFT FOR CASTLE EVENTS 7 ~_~~~_~~~~~ _ __ .___ ------__-J- . \ i : s3 - .--_ _.___-__o’- %.. 2 w I _-_--- - . ‘N ti w 8 The eiastuard mow debris reached the Americason March 9 and 8, indicatingan average westi wind of -about40 knots,