Air Activation Following an Atmospheric Explosion

Lowrey, Justin D. ; McIntyre, Justin I. ; Prichard, Andrew W. ; Gesh, Christopher J.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (U.S.)

关键词: Nuclear Explosions;    Atmospheric Nuclear Explosion;    High Neutron Flux;    Thermal Radiation;    Fission Products;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1122331
RP-ID  :  PNNL-23023
RP-ID  :  AC05-76RL01830
RP-ID  :  1122331

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

In addition to thermal radiation and fission products, nuclear explosions result in a very high flux of unfissioned neutrons. Within an atmospheric nuclear explosion, these neutrons can activate the various elemental components of natural air, potentially adding to the radioactive signature of the event as a whole. The goal of this work is to make an order-of-magnitude estimate of the total amount of air activation products that can result from an atmospheric nuclear explosion.