Science: Radioactivity from Russia

Borne on the winds that sweep out of Russia, radioactive dust from the Soviet Union’s latest super H-bomb (TIME, Dec. 5) descended on its neighbors. The Dutch army reported a “high content of radioactive substance” over The Netherlands; West German scientists spoke of “an appreciable increase in radiation,” and Paris’ Municipal Hygiene Laboratory said that radioactivity over the city increased eight to nine times. From Tokyo came reports that rain which fell on the island of Kyushu contained 29,800 conts of radioactive particles per liter, compared with a norm of 20 to 30, and with 5,400 during last spring’s U.S. tests in Nevada. Some of the radioactive particles fell during snowfalls in the U.S. and Canada.

Some Western scientists reckoned that the Russian explosion took place in Eastern Siberia or in the Gobi desert. British scientists guessed that its intensity was in the neighborhood of 15 megatons (the most recent U.S. blast at Bikini is usually estimated at between ten and 20 megatons). Excited newspaper headlines (and some discreet Communist prodding) led fainthearts and opposition parties in most of the affected nations to demand an immediate stop to all atomic tests everywhere. Yet even in France, where the wails were loudest, the most intense concentration of radioactivity was ar below the top level that human beings can tolerate. Said the U.S. Atomic Energy Commision: “The fallout radioactivity in the U.S. has been far below levels that would be hazardous to the health of exposed persons.”