Chinese nuclear explosion

Figure 1 shows some of the single fallout particles collected after the Chinese nuclear explosion on May 14, 1965 (14). Figure 2 shows the mass-yield distribution of the fission products in some of the single fallout particles (5). The values of H calculated in this manner range from 30-50 sec., as shown in Table 1(4). 

Figure 1. Autoradiograph of single fallout particles collected after the Chinese nuclear explosion, May 14, 1965 (14)...

Figure 2. Mass-yield distribution of the fission products in single fallout particles collected at Osaka, Japan and Fayetteville, Ark. after the May 9, 1966 Chinese nuclear explosion (4)...

During the winters of 1966-1967 and 1967-1968, cyclonic storms occurred over the California coast on three occasions shortly after the detonation of a nuclear weapon on the China mainland such that measurable concentrations of 12.8-day 140Ba were present in 6-hour rainfall samples. The deposition radioactivity ratios of 140Ba, 89Sr, and 90Sr were examined in the rainfall along the California coast for each of these three storms and used to examine the fractional contribution of the longer lived strontium radionuclides from the various known Chinese nuclear explosions. 

Cerral, E. and Trlulzl, C. Fallout Radioactivity Near Milan After the 7th Chinese Nuclear Explosion. Energ. Nucl. (Milan) 15 204 (1968). 22 27922... 

Storm of Nov. 15-17, 1966. The fission product ratio data by nuclear event for this storm are given in Table VII. The storm occurred 18 days after the reported Chinese fourth nuclear weapon test of about 20 lalotons on Oct. 28, 1966 and 190 days after the Chinese third nuclear explosion of about 200 kilotons on May 9, 1966. Also listed is the series of tests conducted by the French in the Southern Hemisphere (near Tahiti) in the time period between these two Chinese tests. A further possible source of fission products was the vented U.S.S.R. underground nuclear explosion of Oct. 27, 1966 (14). The extent of venting is not reported, and contributions to the storm deposition, if any, would appear as part of the fission products from the China-3 explosion. However, the venting process may result in significant fractionation of the fission products. 

Seismologists have incorrectly classified nuclear explosive tests as earthquakes before. See S. Arora and T. Basu, A Source Discrimination Study of a Chinese Seismic Event of May 4,1983, Tectonophysics, no. 109,1984, pp. 241-251. 

---