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Operation Roller Coaster - 1963
Operation Roller Coaster was a joint United States and United Kingdom experiment to determine plutonium hazards from accidents with plutonium bearing weapons. Four chemical detonations were involved, with no nuclear yield. The U. S. Public Health Service, through a Memorandum of Understanding with the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission and in conjunction with Project Roller Coaster, provided off-site radiological health surveillance. Detectable quantities of plutonium were released to off-site locations, but contamination levels did not present a significant hazard.
The project was designed to supply empirical information concerning the nature and extent ofthe resultant alpha contamination and to help establish criteria for the transport and storage of weapons. Studies of a similar nature were conducted as part of Project 56 in 1956, Operation Plumbob in 1957, and Project 58 in 1958.
Tests were done to evaluate the distribution of radioactive particles in a 'dirty bomb' scenario, or an inadvertent, non-nuclear detonation of a nuclear weapon, as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of storage structures in containing the explosion and the particles released.
Some physical and chemical properties of fallout resulting from the high-explosive detonations of nuclear weapons containing plutonium were determined.
They included:
1. The total mass of fallout collected per unit area
2. The amount of plutonium and uranium collected per unit area
3. The mass distribution of plutonium and uranium by particle size
4. The relationships among mass, plutonium content, and density of fallout
samples
5. The solubility of plutonium under conditions associated with the radiological recovery of contaminated facilities.
The four events in this series were:
Double Tracks - May 15th 1963
Clean Slate I - May 25th 1963
Clean Slate II - May 31st 1963
Clean Slate III - June 9th 1963
A vast number of experiments with very detailed analysis were conducted as part of the project, some included animal testing.
Dogs, donkeys, and sheep were allowed to breathe from the cloud generated by the high-explosive detonation of a plutonium-bearing nuclear weapon simulant. No nuclear yield was present in any of the explosions. Animals were sacrificed serially from H + 1 hour to D + 2 1/2 years to quantitate initial tissue burdens, to establish lung clearance kinetics, and to determine extent of translocation to other organs.
Ten dogs and ten sheep were exposed in a similar trial in which more explosives were used and the weapon simulants were housed in a typical earth-covered high-explosive storage magazines.
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