Aircrew Ionizing Doses from Radioactive Dust Cloud Generated by Nuclear Burst

摘要

This report will evaluate the threat of radioactive fallout to which aircrew members will be exposed when flying through a descending fallout cloud. A computer program is developed for calculating the ionizing dose rate of a radioactive dust cloud as a function of time, and also the dose that an aircrew receives when flying through the respective cloud. A cloud model that is patterned after the AFIT fallout smearing code was developed. A comparison is made between the activities at various altitudes from 305 meters to 9150 meters to provide information for possible re-direction of flight. The external ionizing dose to the aircrew is computed by the new code considering the cloud size, the aircraft's transit time through the cloud, and the ingestion rate of radioactive particles into the aircraft's cabin. Information is also provided to indicate the method by which doses can be computed from a cloud of multiple bursts. The results demonstrate that total dose to each aircrew member is approximately 8 rems after flying through a fallout cloud one hour after cloud stabilization of a 1 Mt burst, with the mission continuing for eight hours subsequent to the cloud transit. (Author)