ExposureBlog

In an earlier post I noted that the feds (and Bechtel) had claimed Area 16 was free of radioactivity because no nuclear tests were detonated there.  I suggested that since nuclear tests had taken place less than 10 miles from the center of Area 16 that contamination was a real possibility. Then, I listed a few nuclear tests that were implicated:  Turk, Coulomb B, Kepler, Galileo, Shasta and Smoky.  If you click on the links you will see that the Defense Nuclear Agency’s own maps–these from the Plumbbob series–clearly show contamination of the Nevada Test Site west of the detonation points.  In many of the maps you will see the Nevada-California border.  Note that in most of these maps North does not necessarily point toward the top of the page.

Okay. So suppose Area 16 was contaminated in 1957.  That was almost 50 years ago.  Would the ground still be radioactive after all these years?

The answer is yes.  For example, the Hicks Table for shot Kepler, truncated version here, suggests that several radioisotopes—including cobalt-60, americium-241 and strontium-90 are still active after all these years.

And if these radioisotopes are in the soil at Area 16, they will likely be part of one very large dust cloud.