Spying on the Bomb - Jeffrey T. Richelson
Jeffrey T. Richelson. Spying on the Bomb, p.78.
The possibility of detection emerged from the data produced by the July 1945 Trinity test. Two Met Lab scientists, Anthony Turkevitch and John Magee, suggested, with the Krakatoa volcanic explosion of 1883 in mind, that debris from an atomic explosion might be blown around the world, debris that would carry the radioactive fission products of the detonation. To test their hypothesis, a B-29 was modified to carry an air scoop on top of the plane's fuselage. Connected to the scoop was a tube that led to a perforated metal cylinder lined with soft tissue paper, similar to the paper used in air filters at the Trinity test site.
In the aftermath of the Hiroshima blast, five flights were flown, at altitudes between 15,000 and 30,000 feet. Two flights originated from Wendover Field in western Utah, a site designated W-47. The first, on August 10, was completed when it landed in Bakersfield, California, while the other went on to Seattle after landing in Bakersfield. Another two flights departed from Seattle to Alaska and returned, and the fifth, on August 15, arrived at W-47 from Seattle. After each flight the paper was removed and checked for radioactivity.
An analysis of the data completed that fall led to the conclusion that radioactive dust had been detected and that it "seems reasonable that the activity observed is due to the fission products from Hiroshima". This conclusion may have been drawn without proper consideration of the greater volume of dust that resulted from the Trinity test as well as the flight paths of the B-29s, which took them over the Hanford reactor site. In any case, the analysis concluded that the type of air filter employed "would seem to be a practical means of detecting an atomic bomb explosion almost anywhere with proper meteorological condition."
The possibility of detection emerged from the data produced by the July 1945 Trinity test. Two Met Lab scientists, Anthony Turkevitch and John Magee, suggested, with the Krakatoa volcanic explosion of 1883 in mind, that debris from an atomic explosion might be blown around the world, debris that would carry the radioactive fission products of the detonation. To test their hypothesis, a B-29 was modified to carry an air scoop on top of the plane's fuselage. Connected to the scoop was a tube that led to a perforated metal cylinder lined with soft tissue paper, similar to the paper used in air filters at the Trinity test site.
In the aftermath of the Hiroshima blast, five flights were flown, at altitudes between 15,000 and 30,000 feet. Two flights originated from Wendover Field in western Utah, a site designated W-47. The first, on August 10, was completed when it landed in Bakersfield, California, while the other went on to Seattle after landing in Bakersfield. Another two flights departed from Seattle to Alaska and returned, and the fifth, on August 15, arrived at W-47 from Seattle. After each flight the paper was removed and checked for radioactivity.
An analysis of the data completed that fall led to the conclusion that radioactive dust had been detected and that it "seems reasonable that the activity observed is due to the fission products from Hiroshima". This conclusion may have been drawn without proper consideration of the greater volume of dust that resulted from the Trinity test as well as the flight paths of the B-29s, which took them over the Hanford reactor site. In any case, the analysis concluded that the type of air filter employed "would seem to be a practical means of detecting an atomic bomb explosion almost anywhere with proper meteorological condition."