Weapon test site

The state of Nevada is home to a number of nuclear weapons test sites as well as Yucca Mountain, a potential national long-term storage facility for nuclear wastes. This web address will bring you to the State of Nevada, Office of the Governor, Agency for Nuclear Projects, Nuclear Waste Project Office. 

Oliver, I.W., Graham, M.C., MacKenzie, A.B., Ellam, R.M., Farmer, J.G. (2007). Assessing depleted uranium (DU) contamination of soil, plants and earthworms at UK weapons testing sites. J. Environ. Monit. 9 740-8. 

Somewhat different results were found in studies from the British Atomic Weapons Test Site at Maralinga, South Australia, where specific activities were noted to be greater in the soil size fractions >90 pm (Ellis and Wall, 1982). Presumably there are numerous factors that might influence the relationship of plutonium activity with soil particle size including the nature of the contaminating event, the degree of weathering since the contamination event, the chemical nature of the soil, and the particle size distribution of the soil. 

In all, 193 experiences nucleaires (nuclear tests and safety trials) were conducted at the French nuclear weapon test site at Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls. Of these, 178 were nuclear tests , in which a nuclear device was exploded with a large release of fission and, in some cases, fusion energy and 15 were safety trials in which more or less fully developed nuclear devices were subjected to simulated accident conditions and the nuclear weapon cores were destroyed by means of conventional explosives, with no or—on a few occasions—very small releases of fission energy. 

Recently, DOD Usted 400 atomic weapon test sites. The author does not know if this Ust includes all atomic weapon storage facilities or ocean dumpsites. Although the cleanup of nuclear facilities is a function of the Department of Energy (states and local government entities only have authority over medical radioactivity), locating and defining radioactive contamination is still a proper role for these entities. 

In choosing the correct detectors, other particular facts should also be considered. Whereas most ordnance is ferrous, fuses may be nonferrous and are usually buried separately from the projectile bodies and may be in large and dangerous quantities. Some explosives such as dynamite or C-3 and C-4 may not be in metallic containers, thus the nonferrous detonators may be the only clue to their location. Also, some chemical agent containers are nonferrous. Chemical weapon test sites may have the unique problem of arsenic, magnesium, and other metals in the soil. Ranges may have copper and beryllium in the soil. The effects of such contamination or natural soil conditions on the detection equipment should be carefully considered. 

Lyon JL, Alder SC, Stone MB, et al. (2006) Thyroid disease associated with exposure to the Nevada nuclear weapons test site radiation a reevaluation based on corrected dosimetry and examination data. Epidemiology 17 604—614... 

SEMIPALATINSK. Now located in Kazakhstan, Semipalatinsk was the principal nuclear weapon test site of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). It was established in accordance with a 1947 decision by the Soviet Communist Party s Central Committee and the Council of Ministers. The USSR detonated its first nuclear weapon there on 29 August 1949 under the scientific direction of Igor V. Kurchatov. It was also the site where the USSR detonated its first thermonuclear weapon (12 August 1953) and its first hydrogen bomb (22 November 1955). A total of 467 nuclear weapons were detonated at Semipalatinsk firom 1949 to 1990. The test facility was shut down in 1991. The site is today occupied by the National Nuclear Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The region has experienced serious environmental and human health damage as a result of the nuclear weapon tests. See also JOE. 

Am released to the atmosphere will be associated with particles and will settle to earth or be washed from the air in precipitation (e.g., rain, snow). 241 Am from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests is injected into the stratosphere and may remain in the atmosphere for decades, traveling all around the world and only slowly settling to earth. 241 Am released in nuclear accidents, like Chernobyl, stays in the lower atmosphere where it can begin settling out near the site from which it is released. Larger particles will settle out more quickly and over a smaller area smaller particles may remain in the atmosphere for several months and travel far from where they are released. Precipitation scrubs particles out of the air more rapidly and deposits them in areas where the precipitation occurs. 

Northern Marshall Islands Radiological Survey (NMlRSf, site ofU.S. atmospheric including BRAVO explosion on 3/1/54 weapons testing from 1946 to 1958, Robison etal. 1997a... 

Nuclear Weapons Testing Range, Maralinga, South Australia, site of 12 hydronuclear experiments at Taranaki in 1960, 1961, and 1963 (Vixen B Trials) in which 22.2 kg of plutonium was dispersed, having been ejected 2,500feet vertically into the atmosphere. Cooper etal. 1994... 

Since 1978, large-scale LNG spill tests have been conducted by a joint team from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the Naval Weapons Center (NWC) (Koopman et al., 1981). The test site was located at NWC, China Lake, California. The program, sponsored primarily by the Department of Energy, had as its principal objective the acquisition of data to aid in modeling both vapor dispersion and thermal radiation effects (from LNG vapor cloud fires). 

Finally, a study is underway to determine the suitability of the Nevada Test Site in southern Nevada which has been used in the past for both surface and underground testing of nuclear weapons, to see if it may possibly be suitable as a potential permanent radioactive waste repository site. 

During each winter rainy season, meteorological alert was established after each of the Chinese nuclear weapons tests October 1966, December 1966, and December 1967. The criteria used to alert the collection network of a forecasted storm system included the presence of a well-defined jet stream and a forecast for precipitation in excess of 3 mm. over a majority of the sampling sites. 

The different pattern of fallout is mainly related to the particle size of the aerosol in the circumstances. The cumulative fallout of 137Cs in Cumbria from distant weapon tests reached a peak of 4 to 7 kBq m-2 (depending on annual rainfall) in 1964. Thus a few farms within about 1 km of the Windscale site received two to four times as much fallout of 137Cs and 90Sr from the oxide particles as they did subsequently from weapons tests. At the nearest large settlement, Seascale, which is 3 km from the Windscale site, the fallout in oxide particles and in bomb debris were of similar magnitude. 

In some tests carried out at the Nevada Test Site in 1956-8, fission was incomplete and some plutonium was dispersed. Also some weapons were exploded chemically without nuclear fission in safety tests. Analysis of soil from an area extending about 500 km north-eastwards from the N.T.S. into the neighbouring state of Utah showed excess Pu over the amounts expected from global fallout (Hardy, 1976). The Pu from these low-level, low-yield tests was distinguished from global fallout by two criteria ... 

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