Problem of the Age

The experts had yet to come back from Bikini; their studies had still to be tallied. But what they had learned was summed up last week in the heartfelt comment of Admiral William H. P. Blandy: "It's a poison weapon." He could have gone farther. The atomic age will be an age of poison. Even the peaceful use of atomic power will generate deadly rays and radioactive particles. How to guard against them is the first problem of the atomic age.

Nuclear chain reactions, explosive or otherwise, produce four types of destructive radiation: 1) alpha rays (streams of high-speed helium nuclei;; 2) beta rays (beams of electrons); 3) gamma rays or X rays (high-frequency electromagnetic waves akin to light); 4) neutrons (subatomic particles with no electric charge).

Alpha rays are stopped by clothing, beta rays by slightly thicker materials. But if a tiny speck which generates one of them gets into the body, it may radiate quietly until it has started a cancer or done some quicker damage.

Gamma rays are rougher. If they are "hard"' (high frequency), they slam through many feet of most materials. The human body can stand a certain amount of them without apparent damage. If the system gets too much, the blood corpuscles disintegrate.

Stealthy Neutrons. Most dangerous of all are the neutrons, which can wander almost at will through most kinds of matter. When they hit an atom's nucleus, they produce a dangerous gamma ray and lose a little of their speed. Eventually they are "captured," but the nucleus which captures them is apt to be unstable. Sooner or later it may disintegrate with another burst of rays, alpha, beta or gamma. Some elements, riddled with neutrons, quiet down in minutes or hours. Others radiate thousands of years.

These radiations are not peculiar to atomic bombs. They are also produced by the controlled chain reaction in a uranium pile or atomic power plant. The reaction itself generates powerful gamma rays and floods of neutrons. The uranium disintegrates, leaving a residue of highly active fission products. The neutrons, wandering through the pile, the cooling system and the concrete shield, stir up radioactivity. The pile may become "poisoned," and everything from it, or in contact with it, must be shunned like death.

Protection. Is there any defense against these subtle poisons? In the case of a bomb exploding on the ground or sea, the answer is probably no. People in the bombed area might survive the blast in deep underground shelters, but the air sucked into the ventilating systems would surely bring in radioactive particles. And in any event they could not venture above ground for some time without tons of shielding.

The peacetime problem is almost as bad, for the radioactive by-products of atomic power plants are exceedingly hard to dispose of. They cannot be blown up a stack near settled communities; rain may bring them down again. They cannot be run down sewers or even into the sea. Probably the only safe disposal place will be radioactive "cemeteries," carefully fenced and guarded.

Scientists are working hard to find some light-weight shield to replace the masses of lead, concrete or water they use at present around their "bad-acting" apparatus. A composite shield may prove useful; but it too will be massive and costly. No "magic shield" is in sight.

Strict inspection and regulation will be essential in the atomic age, for any place once contaminated with radioactivity is exceedingly hard to purify. Admiral Blandy's sailors tried fire-hoses and scrubbing brushes on radioactive ships. Like the blood on Bluebeard's key, the radioactivity would not wash away.

The Friendly Geiger Counter. Watchdog of the atomic age will be the Geiger counter, which registers even feeble radiation. Public-health officials may learn to carry them. Soldiers and diplomats, too, may find use for Geiger counters. When the Russians master atomic energy and explode their first test bomb in darkest Siberia, its radioactive by-products will sweep around the world in the upper atmosphere. Geiger counters will announce the news to every foreign office.

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