Historical Estimates of External Gamma Exposure and Collective External Gamma Exposure from Testing at the Nevada Test Site. II. Test Series After Hardtack II, 1958, and Summary

Abstract

The historical data on the cumulative individual external gamma exposures are tabulated for communities around the Nevada Test Site for the time periods of 1961 to the signing of the Limited Test Ban Treaty on 5 August 1963, and from then until 1975. The collective exposures during the two time periods are calculated to be 610 and 320 person-R, respectively. The total collective external gamma exposure from 1951 through 1975 for these communities s calculated to be 86,000 person-R. The area considered includes the countries of Clark, Lincoln, Nye, and White Pine in Nevada and the countries of Iron and Washington in Utah; inclusion of Salt Lake City would have substantially increased the calculated collective exposure because of the large population. The methods of calculation are reviewed. Also, the historical data on the assessment of dose via ingestion are reviewed with emphasis on the dose to the thyroid of infants living in St. George, UT, at the time of fallout from event HARRY on 19 May 1953.

Estimation of Radiation Doses to U.S. Military Test Participants from Nuclear Testing: A Comparison of Historical Film-Badge Measurements, Dose Reconstruction and Retrospective Biodosimetry

“…The term ''dose reconstruction,'' as used here, pertains to applications of theory and measurements and may, but not necessarily, include personnel dosimetry measurements. While dose reconstruction has been used rarely for occupational and military exposure, it has been used extensively for civilian dose reconstruction after nuclear tests and detonations in Japan during WWII (17), Nevada (18,19), Utah (20,21), Kazakhstan (22), Marshall Islands (23) and New Mexico for the Trinity nuclear test. 3 Types of measurement data needed include environmental measurements of exposure rate, shielding factors and other parameters that might be used to estimate individual dose.…”

Technical Basis of Dose Reconstruction

“…This dose-reconstruction study for the NTS became known as the Off-Site Radiation Exposure Review Project (ORERP). The historical estimates of external exposure reported by Dunning (1959) were essentially correct (Beck and Krey 1983;Anspaugh and Church 1986;Anspaugh et al 1990;Henderson and Smale 1992;Haskell et al 1994). …”

Dose Estimation for Exposure to Radioactive Fallout from Nuclear Detonations

“…More extensive monitoring evolved with time at continental test sites (Thompson et al 1994) and Pacific test sites (Eisenbud 1997). Exposure-rate data were eventually used to estimate cumulative exposure and cumulative collective exposure for populations residing near to the NTS (Anspaugh and Church 1986; Anspaugh et al 1990).…”