U.S. Atlas of Nuclear Fallout 1951-1962 Calculations

ISBN: 1-881043-19-3

The U.S. Atlas of Nuclear Fallout 1951-1962 Volume 5 : Calculations was written only to answer one question: where did the numbers come from? Broadly, the various radioisotope values were calculated from ratios found in a set of documents known as the Hicks Tables--a group of papers written by radiochemist Harry G. Hicks of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. Dr. Hicks measured the amounts of each and every important radioisotope produced by the various nuclear detonations at the Nevada Test Site---and then published the data. As a result, we know the general spectrum of radioisotopes found in each nuclear test. Not surprisingly, each nuclear test seemed to be unique. Sedan, for example, produced massive amounts of the radioisotope beryllium-7, yet most of the other tests produced none at all.

By knowing how much radioiodine (I-131) was deposited on a given county--and then knowing from the Hicks Tables the ratio of radioiodine to the other radioisotopes---it was possible to estimate how much of a specific radioisotope (for example, cobalt-60) might have been deposited with the radioiodine (I-131).

The Calculations volume is a 700-page blueprint showing how the calculations for the other books were done.

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