ANTARCTIC FALL-OUT

Press, Volume C, Issue 29679, 24 November 1961, Page 12

ANTARCTIC FALL-OUT

Snow Water To Be Tested ' The amount of fall-out from atomic bomb tests to reach the Antarctic during the last 10 years, and the times when these deposits took place, will be determined from a quantity of melted snow samples from McMurdo Sound which arrived by a United States ' Air Force Globemaster at Harewood yesterday. These samples, totalling about 15 gallons of snow water in gallon containers, have been collected by a New Zealand Geological Survey scientist, Mr A. J. Heine, who brought these samples with him on yesterday’s Globemaster flight and who took them to Wellington last night for subsequent testing by the D.S.I.R. there. Mr Heine said the samples were the first fall-out sample ' material to be brought from !the Antarctic to New Zealand I and the results of their test- ; ing would be made known later. He said the samples would probably contain a certain quantity of fission debris. The samples had been taken from a snow mine near McMurdo Sound, which had been sunk and calibrated in such a way that samples could j be identified in terms of time and deposit by the depth from the surface of the layers in which they were found. He said it was intended to continue such fall-out tests. Any debris to reach the Antarctic from recent multi-megaton Russian bomb tests would take some time yet to reach i its destination. How long ; was yet to be determined, but !it might take about 12 ! months.

Mr Heine said his department was anxious to establish present amounts of fall-out in the Antarctic area before the United States Antarctic expedition established its nuclear reactor power plant, which could be responsible for producing a certain amount of radioactive material which could mask accurate evidence of fall-out in the area from exterior sources.

Mr Heine also brought back a quantity of water for testing to determine the composition of the sea ice for scientific records.