FALL-OUT MKASURLMLNTS IX AUSTRALIA 



Professor Thterton: Tliis piohlcin was lookrcl into in detail many years ago. It 

 is of course proportional to the neutron produclixjn and therefore is insignificant in 

 terms of the weapon tests vvhieh are carried out in Australia: if there is a hazard, it 

 will certainly arise from hydrogen bombs of one kind and another. Two very 

 detailed analyses have been carried ouL one in Britain and one in the U.S.A. and the 

 conclusion is that there is not a problem here. That I think is a very reasonable 

 conclusion in the light of the very low energy /3-particle which results from the '*G 

 break up. 



Dr. Loutit: Ihere is one other point I should like to clear up. Vou mentioned the 

 presence of the ^^tCs, but rejected it as a hazard because it was not selectively taken 

 up into any specific tissue, such as thyroid and bone. However, it is absorbed 

 extremely well through the gut and the respiratory mucous membrane, if that means 

 anything, and it is retained in the human body for a half-period of 1 20 days. Therefore 

 it is not entirely to be neglected, and if there is an internal hazard from weapons on 

 the genetic basis, rather than the somatic basis, it is i^'^Cs that is going to count. 

 Professor Titterton: Quite so, I completely agree with that, but this of course is 

 measured in our whole-body dose measurements and then you get an upper limit 

 for that. I should emphasize that all these figures which I am giving to you are all 

 upper limits; they are the worst thing that could possibly happen. 



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