deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,...069,00.html
October 12, 2006
Underground blasts were also culprits
'96 report says that radiation detected off Nevada Test Site
By Joe Bauman
Deseret Morning News
Fallout researchers have focused their attention on above-ground
nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site from the 1950s through the
early '60s.
However, a 1996 report says hundreds of underground tests also spewed
radiation.
Besides the danger to workers at the NTS, more than 50 of the
tests
released enough radioactive material that some made its way off the
sprawling
test site.
The report is "Radiological Effluents Released From U.S.
Continental
Tests 1961 through 1992," produced by the U.S. Department of Energy in
August
1996 and available at a DOE Web site, www.nv.doe.gov.
U.S. above-ground testing ended in 1962. However, since 1961,
radioactive material escaped from 433 tests, "some of which have
simultaneous
detonations" where several explosions would go off at once, the report
says.
"However, only 52 of these are designated as having offsite
releases,"
according to the report.
The "Palanquin" test of April 14, 1965, blew radiation out of a
crater,
and 23,000 picocuries of gross beta activity per cubic meter of air was
detected offsite at the populated community of Clark Station, Nev., the
report
says. At Highway 6, an uninhabited location offsite, eight miles east
of the
Tonapah Test Range Road, the reading was 87,000 picocuries per cubit
meter of air.
Stone Cabin Ranch, Nev., also off the Nevada Test Site, had the
greatest gamma radiation exposure, at 3 milliroentgens per hour. The
report adds that
the highest radioactive iodine concentration in milk was "11,000
picocuries
per liter at Martin Ranch near Eureka, Nev.; no children present."
Fallout at 0.03 milliroentgens per hour was detected as far as
Council,
Idaho, about 500 miles away.
In the Baneberry test of Dec. 18, 1970, "gross fission products"
blew
out of the underground test and were detected off the Nevada Test Site.
Part of the fallout cloud drifted over Nevada, Utah and Wyoming,
while
"another fraction (of the cloud) moved toward California."
Maximum radioactivity detected offsite was 3,400 picocuries of
Iodine-133 per cubic meter of air at Stone Cabin Ranch, Nev. Maximum
iodine level
detected offsite was 810 picocuries of radioactive I-131 per liter of
milk at the
McCurdy Ranch near Beatty, Nev., it says.
"Venting occurred from a fissure near surface ground zero" 3 1/2
minutes after the blast, says the report. "The effluent venting rate
steadily
decreased with time, but visible vapor continued to emanate from the
fissure for 24
hours after the detonation."
October 12, 2006
Underground blasts were also culprits
'96 report says that radiation detected off Nevada Test Site
By Joe Bauman
Deseret Morning News
Fallout researchers have focused their attention on above-ground
nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site from the 1950s through the
early '60s.
However, a 1996 report says hundreds of underground tests also spewed
radiation.
Besides the danger to workers at the NTS, more than 50 of the
tests
released enough radioactive material that some made its way off the
sprawling
test site.
The report is "Radiological Effluents Released From U.S.
Continental
Tests 1961 through 1992," produced by the U.S. Department of Energy in
August
1996 and available at a DOE Web site, www.nv.doe.gov.
U.S. above-ground testing ended in 1962. However, since 1961,
radioactive material escaped from 433 tests, "some of which have
simultaneous
detonations" where several explosions would go off at once, the report
says.
"However, only 52 of these are designated as having offsite
releases,"
according to the report.
The "Palanquin" test of April 14, 1965, blew radiation out of a
crater,
and 23,000 picocuries of gross beta activity per cubic meter of air was
detected offsite at the populated community of Clark Station, Nev., the
report
says. At Highway 6, an uninhabited location offsite, eight miles east
of the
Tonapah Test Range Road, the reading was 87,000 picocuries per cubit
meter of air.
Stone Cabin Ranch, Nev., also off the Nevada Test Site, had the
greatest gamma radiation exposure, at 3 milliroentgens per hour. The
report adds that
the highest radioactive iodine concentration in milk was "11,000
picocuries
per liter at Martin Ranch near Eureka, Nev.; no children present."
Fallout at 0.03 milliroentgens per hour was detected as far as
Council,
Idaho, about 500 miles away.
In the Baneberry test of Dec. 18, 1970, "gross fission products"
blew
out of the underground test and were detected off the Nevada Test Site.
Part of the fallout cloud drifted over Nevada, Utah and Wyoming,
while
"another fraction (of the cloud) moved toward California."
Maximum radioactivity detected offsite was 3,400 picocuries of
Iodine-133 per cubic meter of air at Stone Cabin Ranch, Nev. Maximum
iodine level
detected offsite was 810 picocuries of radioactive I-131 per liter of
milk at the
McCurdy Ranch near Beatty, Nev., it says.
"Venting occurred from a fissure near surface ground zero" 3 1/2
minutes after the blast, says the report. "The effluent venting rate
steadily
decreased with time, but visible vapor continued to emanate from the
fissure for 24
hours after the detonation."
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