Radioactive fallout

Lntts, R. H. (1985). Chemical Fallout Rachel Carson s Silent Spring, Radioactive Fallout and the Environmental Movement. Environmental Histoiy Review 9 210—225. 

Nuclear reactors, however, do generate highly radioactive waste. This waste, which consists primarily of the fission fragments and their radioactive-decay products, must be stored for many years before its radioactivity decays to a reasonable level, and the safe long-term storage of this waste is a matter of great concern and debate. Fortunately, the volume of waste that is created is only about 20 cubic meters annually from a reactor, compared with 200,000 cubic meters of waste ash from a coal-fired plant. When nuclear weapions were tested in the atmosphere, the radioactive products from the nuclear explosions were released into the air and fell to Earth as radioactive fallout. 

At the same time, the public s faith in science and technology was eroding. Radioactive fallout from atomic bomb tests was poisoning cows milk, and the thalidomide antinausea medicine prescribed to pregnant women in Europe had caused severe birth defects in 8000 children. Above all, the enormous growth of the chemical industry and pollution after World War II put public pressure on Congress to clean up the nation s air and water. 

DDT Scientists, Citizens, and Public Policy. Princeton, NJ Princeton University Press, 1981. Source for undamaged potatoes AM A for more studies Wartime Production Board postwar growth of pesticide sales and industry WHO campaign how DDT strays from spraying site 1950s uses Beech-Nut radioactive fallout and thalidomide. 

Pavlotskaya, F. I., Surotkevichiene, R. and Levina, G. P. (1974). State of strontium-90, cesium-137 and cerium-144 in radioactive fallout, page 111 in Nuclear Meteorology, Report No. TT-74-50011, also Report No. CONF-690670, Makhon ko, K. P. and Malakhov, S. G., Eds. (National Technical Information Service, Springfield, Virginia). 

Romney, E.M., W.A. Rhoads, A. Wallace, and R.A. Wood. 1971. Persistence of radionuclides in soil, plants, and small mammals in areas contaminated with radioactive fallout. Pages 170-176 in D.J. Nelson (ed.). Radionuclides in Ecosystems. Proceedings of the Third National Symposium on Radioecology. May 10-12, 1971, Oak Ridge, TN. Vol. 1. Available from The Natl. Tech. Infor. Serv., Springfield, VA 22151. 

Strontium ion, Sr 2, can replace calcium ion in bone. If a product of radioactive fallout, strontium-90, 90sr+2, js placed in bone, however, its radioactive decay will destroy both bone and surrounding tissue. 

Touring the formation of radioactive fallout particles, one of the most important processes is the uptake, in the cooling nuclear fireball, of the vaporized radioactive fission products by particles of molten soil or other environmental materials. Owing to the differences in the chemical nature of the various radioactive elements, their rates of uptake vary, depending upon temperature, pressure, and substrate and vapor-phase composition. These varying rates of uptake, combined with different residence times of the substrate particles in the fireball, result in radiochemical fractionation of the fallout. This fractionation has a considerable effect on the final partition of radioactivity, exposure rate, and radionuclides between the ground surface and the atmosphere. 

This paper presents the more important data and conclusions from three reports which describe the uptake behavior of the vaporized oxides of molybdenum, tellurium, and rubidium by molten and solid substrates at high temperatures (I, 2, 3). These oxides were used as the vapor species because of their relatively high volatility and because of their importance as radioactive constituents, or the precursors of important constituents, of radioactive fallout particles. 

Table II summarizes some of the features of the radioactive fallout processes in geophysical and astronomical settings. It seems that similarities do exist between the processes of formation of single particles from nuclear explosions and formation of the solar system from the debris of supernova explosion. We may be able to learn much more about the origin of the earth, by further investigating the process of radioactive fallout from the nuclear weapons tests.

Mechanisms and rates of transport of nuclear test debris in the upper and lower atmosphere are considered. For the lower thermosphere vertical eddy diffusion coefficients of 3-6 X 106 cm.2 sec. 1 are estimated from twilight lithium enhancement observations. Radiochemical evidence for samples from 23 to 37 km. altitude at 31° N indicate pole-ward mean motion in this layer. Large increases in stratospheric debris in the southern hemisphere in 1963 and 1964 are attributed to debris from Soviet tests, transported via the mesosphere and the Antarctic stratosphere. Most of the carbon-14 remains behind in the Arctic stratosphere. 210Bi/ 210Pb ratios indicate aerosol residence times of only a few days at tropospheric levels and only several weeks in the lower stratosphere. Implications for the inventory and distribution of radioactive fallout are discussed. 

It is concluded tentatively from these preliminary 210Bi/210Pb ratio data that tropospheric aerosols have a much shorter atmospheric residence time than is generally appreciated. If so, both natural aerosols and radioactive fallout observed at tropospheric levels will not be well mixed zonally but for the most part will be deposited within a few... 

Freiling, E. C., Paper in Radioactive Fallout from Nuclear Weapons... 

Benson, P., Gleit, C. E., Leventhal, L., Proc. Conf., Radioactive Fallout... 

Radioactive Fallout, Soils, Plants, Foods, Man, E. B. Fowler, Ed., Elsevier, New York, 1965. 

Symp. Radioactive Fallout Nucl. Weapons Tests, 2nd CONF-765, CF STI (1965). 

If a fusion reaction produces no appreciable radioactive isotopes, why does a hydrogen bomb produce significant radioactive fallout ... 

Background. The background radioactivity in food arises from natural causes and radioactive fallout. The magnitude of this activity is indicated in Table V (5,15,21). 

The significance of radioactivity in water, food, and air has been under particular scrutiny since the advent of nuclear bomb tests and their accompanying radioactive fallout. This scrutiny has resulted in much documented data gathered over the past few decades on the health characteristics of man under various environmental conditions, such as the Denver populace who are subjected to more intense cosmic ray irradiations than the New York City populace the radium dial workers of the 1920,s who have provided data on life spans, general health, and causes of death population s drinking water with varying radium contents persons living... 

These factors have been used to develop the tables of maximum permissible concentrations (16) in air and in water for various conditions (40-hour week or 168-hour week) and for various organs (skin, bone, kidney, liver, brain, GI tract, and total body), but all assuming an occupational exposure and an exposure period of 50 years. MPC values have been developed for 234 radionuclides found in nature, in radioactive fallout, and in neutron activation studies. 

Larsen PR, Conard RA, Knudsen K. Thyroid hypofunction appearing as a delayed manifestation of accidental exposure to radioactive fallout in a Marshallese population. In Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation 1. Vienna International Atomic Energy Agency, 1978 101. 

The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima the morning on August 6, 1945. by a bomber plane named Enola Gay . The first effect of the explosion occurred in one tenth of a second. It was a very bright light which caused blindness and 300,000°C heat. It burnt everything within about a three kilometer diameter area. An 1,800 km/h shock wave from the explosion destroyed everything. The major and permanent effect was the radioactive fallout which started several minutes later. This terrifying bomb, which ruined Hiroshima in a few seconds, caused approximately 80,000 deaths and 100,000 wounded. 

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