Atomic Dust Storm

How far do atomic bombs spread their radioactive end-products? This question has never been answered conclusively. Except for a few negative statements to soothe the nervous public, the Manhattan Project has kept its observations secret. But last fortnight some scattered facts came out:

Two and a half days after the atomic bomb went off in the New Mexico desert last summer, the air over Maryland, 1,700 miles away, had nearly twice its normal radioactivity. The U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey noted a similar phenomenon at Tucson, Ariz. But the Eastman Kodak Co. was the first to trace, and announce, the actual spread of the deadly, dusty mushroom which sprouted above MacDonald's ranch that July day.

Last fall Eastman discovered that some of its photographic film had been fogged by mysterious radioactive particles in strawboard packaging. It shifted to a new source of strawboard 500 miles from the first; both were in the Middle West. The new supply also turned out to be radioactive. Apparently a large area had been peppered with fission products from the atomic bomb explosion.

Wind & Rain. To make sure it was not jumping at sensational conclusions, Eastman analyzed the strawboard. Chemists cut out bits of it which fogged X-ray film, and burned them. The ashes were strongly radioactive, shooting out beta rays (streams of electrons). They gave out no alpha rays (helium nuclei), thus proving that they were not the naturally radioactive elements: radium, uranium, or thorium. The only remaining possibility was that, the guilty particles came from the atomic bomb, were carried to the Middle West by the wind, and washed down by the rain. Six months after the explosion, they were still measurably active.

Some scientists believe, that active particles from a single bomb are carried all over the earth. After the fourth bomb explodes at Bikini lagoon this summer, the Manhattan Project may have the answer. It plans to measure atmospheric radioactivity around the world.

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