URBAN DUST FROM NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS

FRATRICIDE, FALLOUT, AND AIRCRAFT HAZARD ZONES ARE INFLUENCED BY NUCLEAR DUST CLOUDS. THE DUST MASS LOFTED FROM OPEN AREAS IS WELL ESTIMATED; THE AMOUNT LOFTED FROM URBAN AREAS IS NOT ESTIMATED AT ALL. SINCE MANY TARGETS ARE LOCATED IN URBAN AREAS, THE ADDITIONAL DUST LOFTED MAY BE SUBSTANTIAL. IN THIS SBIR EFFORT, WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP A UNIQUE AND INNOVATIVE SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS THAT WILL LEAD TO FIRST ESTIMATES OF THE DUST PRODUCED IN URBAN AREAS. THE EXPERIMENTS WILL BE COINCIDENTIAL (AND THUS HIGHLY LEVERAGED AND AT MINIMAL COST TO THE DNA) WITH SCHEDULED EXPLOSIVE BUILDING DEMOLITIONS. WE PLAN TO DESIGN EXPERIMENTS TO MEASURE TOTAL BUILDING DUST MASS, COMPOSITION, AND PARTICLE SIZE DISTRIBUTION. SEPARATE TASKS RELATE THE MEASUREMENTS PERFORMED DURING BUILDING DEMOLITION TO SOVIET TARGET AREA BUILDINGS, AND THE DUST MASS PRODUCED AND SWEPT INTO NUCLEAR CLOUDS. THE PROPOSED EXPERIMENTS AND ANALYSIS WILL LEAD TO FIRST ESTIMATES OF DUST LOFTED OVER URBAN TARGET AREAS. PREDICTIONS OF FRATRICIDE FOOTPRINTS, FALLOUT, AND LONG-LIVED CLOUDS DEFINING AIRCRAFT (ENGINE) HAZARD AREAS WILL FOR THE FIRST TIME ACCOUNT FOR URBAN DUST.