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By Howard Simons ' Washlnston Post Staff Writer A few days after four unarmed hy drogen bqmbs fell on Jan. 17 near Palomares on; Spain’s southeastern coast; Wright H. Langham arrived at the small Mediterranean village. Langham had come from the Atomic Energy Commission’s Los Alamos Na tional Laboratory in New Mexico and his presence in Palomares was to Two of the four bombs spewed radio active plutonium around when their detonated upon impact. A third did not. The fourth, whose high explosive ' conceivably could have been set off - It has now been established that there is no. health threat to the vil- i lagers from the plutonium clouds that, passed overhead or the plutonium par ticles that dusted crops and animals and clung to the soil. Still, the psychological “fallout” from the atomic incident is likely to' linger over Palomares long after the Americans have scraped the earth and removed all physical signs of the vil Much of the credit for averting a po tentially explosive medical situation elongs to Langham, a world author: ity on radiation health protection and especially on what happens to radio active chemicals like plutonium once they get into the bo'dy. Before the 54-year-old Langham got to Palomares, urine samples already had been taken from villagers caught in the two separate plutonium clouds generated by the high-explosive blasts. The , samples showed,- in effect, that the villagers were hazardously con taminated. Cables, were sent to Wash ington. Officials here were frantic. By now, Langham—whose slender HUNTEKS—A crew dons protective clothing for the H-bomb search, ..tight mustache give him the look of a Spanish grandee iThe first safety test, dubbed 1957. The second, whose 'code •wrong with the first tests. He in each test, the high-ex;- was rieht plosive portion of a plutonium What had happen e d, as see wh.at happened to the plutdnium. One finding was that the greatest hazard comes from a cloud of microscopic by the high-explosive blast. Langham reported in a brief Visit to Washington ten days ago before returning to Spain, was that no one had asked the Ifirst farmers tested to scrub,, themselves, change their -m hospital for a proper urinaly sis. As a result, microscopic particles of, plutonium had fallen from their clothes into the specimen bottles. 1 The effect was predictable. A particle of plutonium weighing only three-fifths of Two such clouds passed oyer the Palomares area. Luckily the wind pattern pre vented an overlap of ’ the clouds. Which would have raised the radiation dose. But some villagers were exposed and may have received up wards of- half the dose to a millionth of a gram is n5itted American atomic enenough to equal the amount efSy workers to all their ordf plutonium now considered showed that a lesser danger, but still a hazard, comes from plutonium particles rooted to the ground and then swept up irtto the air by the wind. It is to prevent such resuspension] that Americans and Span-1 lards at Palomares continue to water down contaminated can be stopped by a piece of paper, or the skin’s unbroken upper layer, with no harm done. But if inhaled," it can lodge in the lungs or bones and be highly toxic. Hence, over, twice over the past, nine f face masks, such as those to be a safe amount 'in the bone of American atomic New Tests Made ■ Arrangements were quickly made for proper tests in a nearby hospital. These new tests show that the villagers have not accumulated a haz ardous amount of plutonium in their bodies. i Plutonium, which was cre ated by man 25 years ago, this month, lias probably been more intensively studied, as a health hazard than' any other years experts have deliberate ly re-created at the Nevada tost site much the same kind worn by Palomares safety and search parties, are-stand ard protection in any atomic
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I Incredible Stayinc Power |staying power is incredible, I plutonium to lose half its [For this reason, it is unlikely [that American and Spanish [authorities will ever be able to erase ail trace of the ac cident But they are trying land have been marked out of bounds,. The tomatoes, vines and all, have been uprooted and piled,, along with tons of ready worried about the im mediate loss of their tomato crop, also' wonder whether they will be able to sell toma toes from their area in the years hence, to persons who only have a vague but uneasy notion of. what words like Some farmers already have made financial claims for their losses. A week or so ago the Dump it into the sea? ABC officials cringed at the thought. They. recall all too painfully that everytime barrel of radioactive waste, or anything that resembles it, washes ashore in the United States, it takes a massive public relations campaign to reassure the public that it is safe to swim and to fish in the the missing hydrogen bomb is somewhere offshore on the sea floor has raised questions about radiation effects on fish Bury It on land and pover it with concrete or black top? Not wanting to create a ‘■'monu ment” to the accident, this Move it to a Spanish Nuclear Commission radioactive waste dump?; But how could we transport it there without stirring some fear along the route? Officials quickly re membered the uproar in New claims amounted to $4700. One York City when it was diS' American estimate is that the ( covered that , the Defense De total Palomares tomato crbp(partment was surreptitiously jened in the days immediately! jmorable footnote to the inei-| (dent, when Langham returned I (briefly to the United States I he picked up a common cold! jcials, at the time, feared thatl (if word got out it might be I sickness. Langham has fully] But when the last bulldozer has left Palomares and the last person has been reason ably convinced that there is no physical hazard to the in mares will still-have a scarred All the villagers really j been told that what fell from the heavens were unarmed hydrogen bombs—is that for eigners tore up their front yard and subjected them to tests for something that couldn’t be seen or smelled or is worth only $20,000 to $30,- Problem of Disposal moving nuclear weapons through the city at night. The likeliest prospect, it now appears, is that the United If the villagers are upseti States will go through the : about the loss of their to-i costly business of specially matoes and the destruction of packaging all the dirt and their terraced farms, Ameri-withered vines in 55-gallon can and Spanish officials are drums and cart them home to in a quandry over what to do he properly interred in U.S. tables and soil. “ To their credit, the innabitSeveral suggestions have ants. ^f Palomares have not • village. To be sure, they were confused, disturbed and fright-