Animal Studies at Operation Hardtack II, Nevada Test Site

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Major Jack C, Iritspatrick, we returned t o Nevada i n AUgu8t of lut pur 8pecIficall~ on thin device would be .where project leader, urd operati-lly and t8chnically our end of the project went VOW well. lb bid hare W l tip le problem#, particularly with rospct t o yield variation., weapons failures, and changee of the date. out there 15 Soptsrber 1958, Io were originally mcheduled t o go just the radi rti on effects were t o be avaluated, but we 80011 (I, rerlieed that blutn8 going t o be irporkzrt io raages where radiation level8 were high eaough t o produce anything new what we thought would be mufficient radiation for immedirte biological effecta. Major Roger Sherman, MC, Walter Reed Army Institute of ReeearchDand I were respon8ible for thir project. fine by veterinary officer from alter Reed by Institute Approved for put li c release;’+

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t o weapon. failurem tho projoct ma wiped out. We had 360 mine in thim project, thiouroniur, AET, a pm-prot.ctivo drug which y.3- Dlcquimto mtubiod 00 rice, & gave tha thim drug orally i n 40808 of 1000 milligrams par kilogram of mouae. Orally thim drug laate for about 8- houlr. .' I important frar the mtmdpoint of exploiting thim area pemonally. activity and any local fallout h tho area. Noxt objoctin was the Na24 biological borrimtor. Thi8 mbarm conmidarable promi- as a method o f dotemining neutron do80 received. If you know .#.thing about tho noutron-gama ratio of tho weapon, and can BOUUIY the u o u n t of modi- 24 i n the malmal, rou cam calculate what doma of neutron rrdiation warn received amd what do80 of gamma radiation wam roceirod. Thi iwa8 done on snino. Tho modlum 34 was countod both a t Ualtor bed with

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tho lor larol rholo body counter m d 8 roll countor warn 81.0 mhlppod out - t o ~ lorr & . Howoror, unfortueutoly, the cloud from en. 02 tho weapon8 w n t mor tho rb.lrrk whom the owntor warn &opt and at tha tiso wo noobd the countor the background accident and bra bean omad to crlculato Qw, Alpha hrclrds: of thle &miP.ter to noutrolu of variou8 enorgioa, am wall u to the gamma. Some of ther wore cadmium coated to convert Finally, damago to flold fortfflcrtlone.' Thla n68 projoct of the Engineer Remoarcb and Slovelopmont Laboratory. determine the iaplecliote lethal response of mwlno following exporure to detonation of th-type nuclear ..weaponm. We u8ed exactly the o m 6 type Brine u6ed In 4 . 1 on operation PLUMBROB, Triarble Manor Farms i n Yieeourl, and these /,. _ - were i n standard field fortifications, pomelg, open foxholem,

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Lmportmt to moo if this ru raally W e for them to do thiB,. Next. Then the problem af "I.mmedirto"CIU up. W = t do you man by frmediats? "hmwlhtew t o me meant right now. I t meant that we had to be right thore with the pip. at tho the of detonation. This rrth8r undeairrble becaume our . (4 whether these rslmalr wero living or bad7 Colonel Yoncrief felt that psrsonrl obeenrticm or, LEI he called It, " the old Y1eyeball, " was the best method o i determiaiap the condition of the mine and it turned out t o be #e only affective method. Thr arrival tine for observers had to be calculated, dhow long it would be &a for thmm to raerrln inthe area. , We were about 1 rile away a t the the of datoartlon. pec ted to encounter ucma residual rrdiorctivlty and the aooner you get there after P dstonrtion, the higherr+lt Is. Tfiia real dual radiation I8 "hot: from fia a ion products m d neutron induced activity. The NCVR& roil contain8A lot of

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riurinur, which i m quite rrdiorrctiva after the detonation. It rlmo contains manganese, #odium and 8il icon which also becaaer rr dior ct ivo. Other morns o f obmemtioa were coilsiclored, including photography. C% courm you c a n ' t take '-'.*.-- d - a - c picture8 when the level of radiation i8several hundred r per hour, without fogging the fila. Television equipment wouldn't inch. !hlomanitoring wa8 considered and a vary fine Havy team came aut and telemonitored uny of our miulm, 15 of them. They put microphone6 under the .kin to detect heart be8t urd breath sound.. 1s1[G leads were mutumd to the animals. and hard w i r e warn run w e l l over a rile t o get electrocrrdio graphic tracings Hnlicogter obwtrvrtim rrur+hnother thing that w a s consibred, but you u w the du8t on the previous PLUHBBOB film and it is impommible t o mee anything by helicopter after one of them weapons goes off on the Nevada Next. Then we had t o decide what whole body residual ( 7r adi ation exposures w e might get. When we first etarted calculrting w e thought that i f we were going t o go in there within 6to 10 minutes after the detonation, we were going t o run Into pretty high level8 of rrrdirtion and we would have t o get speclrl pemimmion t o rbmorb more radi rti on. fe got pemi88ioir t o receive up t o 25 r per person for eight of u8md wec rl - cul r ted on the buis of not receiving more thm 15 rif we

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could help it. the 238 r per hour l i n e m d 8-y 18 minutee or we'd get too much. If than 'this when we arrived, w e would have to wait for 12 miaute6. If you wait longer you get Next. This ie a dirgram of 4.2.1 experimental array. -Neutron flux would be lower on t h i s &xi6 than on t h l 8 axis. high neutron axis. Our project was om the high oeutron f l u x axis. Now, o u t here a t the safe dlrrtaace end, we had 20 (98t &e- 7 c u animals, in these pene,/- yard@. Now w e rill 8- a close-up of t h i s section right here in a second. This is 80 yards north, 30 yards across , and 70 yard8 'aouth. The whole project M B cloae t o ground cero Next. This i88 blowup of the section you ju6tsaw, here is ground zero, this i e the northern section. These are offholes. In the ends of theme particular one8 the Navy teams had telemonitorlng equipment. $em are tanks and APC's. There was another APC over here that you can't 6ee. were the transmiasion factors that we used to calculate the radiation dose that would get into t h e foxholes. t o spread the6e foxholes out 80 that you have eke close Now, we had enough if the y i e l d ras-and far enough away If the yield- This means you have t o have considerable numbers of stations t o cover all theme yield porrsibllities.

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Is uch our crlcutrtioru OTI t h i s brmF#. Theso first thrre tificationn. The offnt forhole. 7fmt damp through 8 tmol underneath t& moil trurmfttod only2 porcent of the neutron. urd 3/10 oi a percoat o f the gl.~u,which is pretty good ramtion prot action. But the woff ut foxhole8 had the unfortunate -It of doubling tha blsst orrrpremurus. Whatever the b l u t leva1 on tha murfaca, it va6 roughly twice that in mid m. In thim prrticnlar taak, the MU, 50 percant of thr nsutronr were expoctsd t o onter, I5 percent of the QIIM. In tho amored pernormel carrier, 80 pemont of the neutrons, and 60 pmrcont of tho g a n 8 were slrpocted to Next. Those are the prmdictrd figurer for the BbyXLTQl level If the yi old m rou ld b. gmrtor than 100 calories per quare centlaeter, blut greater thn 1000 pound. per equare inch,at5 yard. Whatever rrrdirtion was delivered here would be of academic intereat. Fo- again In re-, the pro apt air OM was expected to neutron and gamma. The offs at foxhole do8e, h ~ meV8l, 17,700 neutrons plus gamma. Y 5 9 , 865,OOO neutron6 p l u s gamm if it hrd beon at

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( I 3b l a s t . 22.6 pml and sadlrtion, prolpt rir Qu here,. of COUP~C., 1. alam1 dma, would ontu the off*o't foxhole. a t 70 pud., m d th. AI% a t tbir di.t&ncr is 27,000. the high neutron u i 8 . This was th. lox n8otraa =is. A gm=affin rhirld a pot hare no- t o tho end o f tho rarpon t o SurthOT absorb mom nmatroar, u) that thu gnmaa neutron give you I, diifermntirl. mine. Thore in tha tm8r bo fert,md the bamb ii hem, Next. N o r tho mourn0 projmct, 4.2.3, WM intermperred in hemimphoram on the high arutron mi., there big lard hemi8phsrec relgb rlmost a ton 8nd flfter out the gumm almomt c wp let ely while rl lai ag the neutrons to enter. These ricm in rluminum hemitphere8 were not protected from neutron. 3~ .- by the alumiatn. Thi8 is tho high flux ulr. Again there -8 no

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photo in Waking iror the tcnnr. onvirt~nmoat. Thim, thon, could bo compared to what the do80 AB you can u.,t h o w .1p4 tho foxholorr and thi. i m the armor (31 on eitbr 8id0, the high noutnw flux -8, th8.0 m e the weaponoora up horn,- umoabling thlr weapon, and t h i r 18 tho lor neutron flux uis, the RBE exporkeat aad the Nut. Thin in irr.diatoly after or moon after the betoWe wore about IC rile awry amd u w thl. device detonate,nation. we could toll that itwua nuclear yield, but you can't tell what tho ylold 18 by looking at it. 80 am p laded, eight of u s went in, four on the north and four on the aouth, and got our data. Wo found a l l the aainrls except two that wereI

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countored onlr 900 u por hour, but am we got clou and Into (A2. Next. Row, that proJoct .1c. ripod out bocaumo tho vupon All tho ro lula bad rucoivod .#. radiation, oaough radiation that thq couldn't bo uwd for Mything 0180 and tho obmerror8 had a1.o rocoivod orrough radiation that they aould aot be u8ed on mother project toaai ~ ifl caa tb grus. demon8tratod again t h a problrr of going %Q with an oxtolrairo biomedical proJoct on a roapon of unpredictable ylold. rerpon n a muppomod to .go on 15 Soptnber and It actually rent on t h e 15th of October, and tho pig8 had grown 14 pound. a day in the mmtimo. Thls next ovoat, the BDYBOWYT .hot, reat on tho 29th of October, 2 d8ys bofote the moratorium. However, wo didn't knm where ground zero w u going t o bo on thi8 project until

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1888 th& 48 houri b d 0 n it Went Off. 80 all O f th8 f-0 holes urd a11 tho urrrrgnontm rem made daring the &-hour here. 'I8 knw, for our ple, that thi. moll -8 not u good piold, 80 alumlam linen we- p u t Innib. the foxholes. The pigs were put iorid, those rlmlnum liner8, that tho reoidrrrl n dirt ioa level in this am8wamld be prohibitive, and that we couldn't parom811y obmerro bocrruam of t h e high radiation levels and thlm fumed out to bo correct. particulrr wapoo, but I t waa only lcccidmt 'I. happened t o get on this u i e which we wanted. W 8 couldn't repeat the 3000 footstool cablem t o each of thoae E'.. A bulldoser wr8 rttrched to the other end of each cable, and am 8000 88 the weapon wont off, tho bulldozen pulled theme two APC'8 out i n a radiologically cool8r area mo we could observe the animal8. N8xt. H.ro wm are putting the aaiaals in the Et.. You see the d o 8 i u t c r 8 hanging up hers. Theme 8re environmental (qf dosiaetar8. Tho mine had in tarn al doslmot~rrrin them also,

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a litt lo ovor 8 rilo -7. 10 rent right into tho area. Next. We oouldn@t got i n t o the foxhole8 for about 10 hourrr bocraw the nmi bul t.dirtloa lor01 wa8 uoy hurrbud r levo1 w m 40 r por hour and highor, &ad wo uw that all the forbolos had bo card in by tho blu f rod them urirrlr 8uffocakd. Thi8 w u a 8 tom yield rupon but the highor holm., rho- blut wam the iP1odlato killore At 10 hours wo did got ina TJm Moxt. Thla i8 w h a t tho bpc'm lookod lilwLwhmawe draggad 8bout Qo p0un.d. per mqurrm inch a t 374 yard. from ground toro. The A X hull6 wore roading &bout 100 r por hour from induced They wro bucklod In. Thor had boon 8ubJocted t o Nor, would you show that 34nute film ploase. 10 rill now show you the rocovery of the mAX ' . beginning about 3 minutem riter detonation. Tho7 were pullod out on thim cable by a bulldotor. Thin hull 1. ro ally radiou:tivo. Tho hard to get tho door open because the blast ham kk lod the door. Here are tho a niu la 12 minutem aftor detonation. You 8ee they rill hardly move at all. thim lamt8 only a 8 h O r t rhilo urd they turporarilr improve. They are very .turned b u t Noticb thi. off ect bocaumo Iw1 amntion it on tho higher

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v o w c l o u to tho front of tho APC at 25 yard. urd he ir uniiesttng tho contra1 nmmouo symtu 8mdror.~duo to acuto wore 8 l i V O at the tire WO lot tho APC'B brck. had recoived an avorrge d o u of about *.rad#. a l l rliro for at 1oa.t Si hwrm. 8aiulm uo. Thim i8 radiation off oct, not blut. T&eu miuls i n APC'8 were not burnod 8nd warn not %aJuredby blamt. wont right on down h i l l and aovor did quit. cridence temporary high except i n the hull. of tho80 APC'm thon wo pullod them The remidual rmltatloxa love1 horn w u not tory out, 10 had no one left w i t h "radiation ro.8rvo" to mond to they warm all coll up ed, 8tuck hi8 radiac met out of the jeep and It went off 0~810rt 600 f por hour, Hem wo arm back a t the pen., The pigs wouldn't eat. if et inti 81 central FVOUB system injury. f&ft'<%b%i&h!&&&~~ khan w e took them out of the E.Itim hard to carpare human prtiont rrrd apig

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anirrl died in 30 hours. The flr8t dorth oceurud a t 34 houra and tho l u t Then …