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Fall-out Track After Tests

Debris from the French nuclear tests would not reach New Zealand or the Cook Islands for two or three weeks after each detonation, if the tests were conducted as the French had planned them for the protection of their own territories, said the director of the National Radiation Laboratory (Mr G. E. Roth) yesterday. This was because the debris had to travel around the world first. By the time debris from the tests reached the Cook Islands monitoring stations the traces of radiation would be slight, he said. Even if everything went wrong and the winds changed so that the debris was car-

ried to toe west of the test area, it would be five or six days before it travelled the 1218 miles to the nearest Cook Islands monitoring station, on Mangala, Mr Roth said. Before this the debris would pass over Bora Bora and Tahiti, French territories about half-way between the test area and the Cook Islands. Explaining the monitoring procedure at the stations set up for this purpose, Mr Roth said that instruments gave immediate readings of radiation levels and were read regularly throughout the day by meteorological officers, who read them as part of their normal duties. A certain level was designated a “reporting level,” and if the readings reached this point the men immediately reported it. This level was set very low, bid was high enough to be beyond the range of normal daily fluctuations resulting from natural

In addition, the monitoring points had rain-water collecttors, from which rain-water samples were taken for analysis, and many had air samplers as well. These samplers comprised small vacuum pumps which sucked air through a filter for a period; the filters were then sent to the laboratories at Christchurch for testing. A filter sent from Fiji on Saturday was tested in the laboratory yesterday. As expected, it showed no deviation from normal radiation levels. There were monitoring stations throughout New Zealand, and during the French tests intensified testing of fresh milk was being conducted throughout the Dominion. Mr Roth mid that the amount of additional radiation that could be expected in the Southern Hemisphere as a result -of the French tests would be considerably less

than the amount added in the Northern Hemisphere by tests conducted by either the United States or Russia, both of which had tested large numbers of weapons.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19660712.2.19

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31109, 12 July 1966, Page 1

Word count
Tapeke kupu
398

Fall-out Track After Tests Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31109, 12 July 1966, Page 1

Fall-out Track After Tests Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31109, 12 July 1966, Page 1

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