The Deadly Cloud

Glenn L. Martin makes big airplanes at Baltimore. He also makes big statements to reporters. Last week he announced at the Wings Club, Manhattan, that the U.S. has developed a "radioactive cloud" that is effective over a much wider area than an atomic bomb, and "kills anyone who comes in contact with it."

Martin may have been leaking some inside information. It is just as likely that he was merely repeating some gossip in military circles. Radioactive clouds have been discussed since Hiroshima.

One possible but unlikely theory: a killing cloud might be formed by dispersing radioactive byproducts of plutonium-making piles. The byproducts are deadly, all right, but if large quantities were loaded on an airplane without prohibitively massive shielding, the first casualties would probably be the crew.

Physicist Enrico Fermi, Chicago Nobel Prizewinner who started the first nuclear chain reaction, said last week: "I know of nothing that can be developed into a radioactive cloud without the bomb." Other physicists in a position to know preferred to keep their mouths shut.

When the primitive atomic bombs were exploded in the air over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, their radioactive residues were carried harmlessly into the stratosphere. Most of their free neutrons and high-energy gamma rays were "wasted." But the second Bikini bomb (exploded underwater) threw into the air millions of tons of radioactive seawater, which did more damage than the detonation. If an atomic bomb were exploded below the surface of the earth like a pre-atomic blockbuster, it would probably stir up a cloud of deadly radioactive dust over a wide area. Chunks of rubble, tossed like projectiles, might be "hot" enough to kill.

The early "Model T" bombs were designed to give maximum shock effect. Up-to-date bombs, intended to make the most of the radioactive effect, may be angled differently. Their explosive plutonium hearts may be surrounded by material chosen for its ability to absorb radiation and neutrons. When the bomb goes off they would turn into extra-deadly isotopes. Such a bomb would be a double threat. It could devastate a comparatively small area by shock and heat. Then the isotope fog could drift slowly downwind, killing by radiation.

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