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Sunday, November 28, 2010
The Danger Of Cloudbuster Proliferation
In recent years, as the internet has made it possible for anyone with a
computer to spread the word about anything they please, irresponsible
instructions for building cloudbusters have mushroomed and I now would place
cloudbusting in second place only to nuclear power as the worst environmental
threat facing this planet.
At least several hundred individuals have experimented with cloudbusters in
recent years, and almost none of them have understood enough to be able
to avoid causing problems. Some of those problems have included serious
ecological disasters and the loss of numerous lives.
There is an anti-nuclear movement trying to protect the earth from nuclear power
plants. As a supliment to that movement, we urgently need an anti-cloudbuster
movement to protect the earth and it's atmosphere from what my teacher, the late
Dr. Eva Reich, used to call "wildcat" cloudbuster operators.
Anyone interested in helping to protect the earth against incompetent and
irresponsible misuse of the cloudbuster, please contact me at:
joelcarlinsky@yahoo.com
Joel Carlinsky
International Law Affecting Cloudbusting: World Charter For Nature Article 16
International Law That Applies Cloudbusting
The World Charter for Nature is a United Nations Treaty that has been signed by almost every country in the world - except the United States. The following provision, would apply to any cloudbusting activities:
ARTICLE 16.
(A) All planning shall include, among its essential elements, the formulation of strategies for the conservation of nature, the establishment of inventories of ecosystems and assessments of the effects on nature of proposed policies and activities.
(B) All of these elements shall be disclosed to the public by appropriate means in time to permit effective consultation and participation.
The World Charter for Nature is a United Nations Treaty that has been signed by almost every country in the world - except the United States. The following provision, would apply to any cloudbusting activities:
ARTICLE 16.
(A) All planning shall include, among its essential elements, the formulation of strategies for the conservation of nature, the establishment of inventories of ecosystems and assessments of the effects on nature of proposed policies and activities.
(B) All of these elements shall be disclosed to the public by appropriate means in time to permit effective consultation and participation.
Cloudbusting And The Environment
Cloudbusting And The Environment
by Joel Carlinsky
Wilhelm Reich, in his book, "The Murder of Christ" spoke of the harm done to the cause of freedom by irresponsible "Freedom Peddlers" and warned about the possibility that his own work would be similarly usurped by "Orgonomy Peddlers" who would use it in harmful ways. As with so much Reich said, this warning has been ignored by many people favorably disposed toward Reich and his work, many of whom are supporting and encouraging individuals whose reckless and irresponsible misuse of Reich's invention of the cloudbuster and incompetent and misguided efforts to "prove Reich right" by using it to influence the weather are causing serious ecological damage.
The cloudbuster is an extremely simple device which is capable of having an effect on the weather over a very large area. If properly used, it can remove toxic, stale, stagnant orgone energy, known as DOR, from the atmosphere and restore normal conditions, ending droughts and enhancing biological processes throughout a vast region.
Improperly used, however, it can facilitate destructive intervention in weather conditions by people whose often good intentions are often matched by their profound ignorance of how an ecosystem functions.
Among the worst of these is a Dr. James DeMeo, of Ashland, Oregon, who has conducted numerous cloudbusting operations over many years and has caused the deaths of thousands of innocent people and done enormous damage to the environment.
Dr. DeMeo and his associates are doing a great deal of harm to the environment and innocent members of the public by incompetent cloudbusting operations conducted without proper ecological knowledge or concern for the environment. Their bungled operations have frequently resulted in devastation to ecosystems and other damages, including the deaths of many innocent bystanders, due to storms, floods, and freezing weather.
In 1989, DeMeo, then living in the San Francisco Bay area, conducted a series of cloudbusting operations in the Arizona desert. As recounted in his article in the Journal of Orgonomy, he first visited Arizona in March, two months before the rainy season starts, and within 3 days had produced rain. He subsequently visited Arizona one weekend each month during the 5-month rainy season and brought rain each time for a seasonal total of 5 times the normal rainfall for the area in which he was working.
Now, in any area with a well-defined wet season and dry season, all native plant and animal species are adapted to the normal dry season and need it. Small burrowing mammals such as pocket mice, kangaroo rats, gophers, etc.give birth underground in the dry season; if it rains unexpectedly at the wrong time of year, the burrows flood and the infants drown.
Reptiles such as snakes, lizards, the desert tortoise, which is on the endangered species list, and the Gila Monster, found only in Arizona, lay their eggs in the dry season under a thin coat of sand, just enough to hide them but allow the sun to incubate them. If it rains out of season, the sand is washed away and they lose a clutch of eggs.
These small mammals and reptiles are the base of the food chain and if their population crashes so will that of the owls, coyotes, badgers, and other predators that depend on them.
Seeds dispersed in desert sand will germinate when they become moist. If there is out-of-season rain too long before the rainy season starts, they get a "false start" and then die before the real rainy season comes with sufficiently prolonged rains` to keep them growing until they produce a new generation of seeds.
The following year, DeMeo undertook a series of weekend expeditions to Arizona durring the usual rainy season. Since this series of operations was planned far in advance, when it would have been impossible to know what the weather at the time would be like, it was obviously not an attempt to break a drought or restore normal conditions. It was intended to be conducted regardless of what he actual weather at the time` of the planned operation might turn out to be.
The published report of that project shows a 500% increase in rainfall over the course of the wet season. Ask any farmer what 5 times normal rainfall would do to his crops! Unlike plants in non-desert areas, most desert plants lack the mechanism that limits uptake of excessive wather. Most desert plants absorb all the water they can get, and will swell up and burst when they get twice normal rainfall. This applies especially to the Sagaro Cactus, the State Flower of Arizona, which is on the Endangered Species List.
In "Contact With Space", Reich described exactly what he did in Arizona. He spent 5 months in the desert. He drove 100 miles every day just to familiarize himself with the landscape so he could note any changes in it. By contrast, James DeMeo lived in Northern California and commuted to the desert one weekend a month.
After 5 months of patient work, Reich succeeded in obtaining a lush growth of grass WITHOUT A DROP OF RAIN HAVING FALLEN ---- That's right! Reich, according to his own report, did not create rain in the desert and did not want to!
In fact, he explicitly says that rain would have made it impossible to obtain the increase in plant growth he did obtain, since it would have drowned the developing vegetation. Reich's goal, in which he was successful only after 5 months of patient daily labor, was not to make rain, but to revive the stagnant energy field of the desert to the point where it could regulate itself and produce rain at its own times, not according to some man-made schedule.
DeMeo misses this point entirely. He produces rain on an artificial schedule only to create impressive charts and graphs, ignoring the catastrophic effects of 5 times normal rainfall on all plant and animal species, and then, totally disregarding what Reich plainly said, claims to have "replicated" Reich's work in the desert. He repeatly refers to "Reich's rainmaking expedition" and to Reich "making rain in the desert" when in fact Reich specifically said he did not do so.
In subsequent years DeMeo undertook two trips to Namibia to break droughts there with a cloudbuster. He also trained local operators and left equipment with them so that Namibia now has a permanent drought- abatement program in place. Under normal conditions -- normal for the last 5-6000 years, that is -- Southern Africa has a regular cycle of 3 or 4 good years followed by a drought year.
In the dry years, the prevailing winds pick up millions of tons of dust and carry it out over the ocean. About half of it falls into the ocean where it provides silica, phosphates, and other essential nutrients to the phytoplankton which are the base of the marine ecosystem food chain. So in years when Southern Africa has droughts, life in the South Atlantic flourishes and in years Southern Africa has good rains, the South Atlantic marine life dies back.
The remainder of the dust is carried over to Brazil, where it is the sole source of trace elements not found in Brazilian soils which are essential nutrients for many tropical rainforest plant species. Like the sea-life, the Brazilian rainforest therefore flourishes in years when Namibia has a drought and declines in years when Namibia has plenty of rain. By establishing a permanent drought abatement facility in Namibia, DeMeo has contributed to irreparable harm to the global environment. (1)
In another case of ecological ignorance and irresponsibility, he reports in one of his publications that to make up a long-standing water deficit during a recent series of dry years in California, he extended the rainy season by a month one year and 6 weeks another year. I have spoken to a biologist at the Point Reyes Bird Observatory who tells me that in both years in question they lost a significant percentage of baby birds due to inclement weather during the normally dry nesting season. Baby birds get pneumonia in wet weather. Incidentally, some of the birds affected were on the Endangered Species List. (2)
In several consecutive years in which there was a drought in California, DeMeo and the group he belongs to, known as the C.OR.E. Network, conducted a long series of operations in an effort to end the drought pattern. While some rains did fall, the drought prsisted. It was obvious from reading his reports that the problem was the cloudbuster itself. As a safety measure, DeMeo and his associates use cloudbusters operated by remote control. This is to protect the operator from too much exposure to DOR in the immediate vicinity of the cloudbuster.
The remote control equipment uses 12-volt D.C. batteries to power electrical servo-motors to elevate and turn the cloudbuster pipes. Electricity has an excitng effect on orgone, and the 12-volt D.C. current was enough to cause an over-excitation of the field of the cloudbuster, which was then imparted to the orgone energy field of the atmosphere, causing an expansion that counteracted the contraction they were trying to cause to bring rain.
As a result of this attempt to end the drought, it was instead prolonged. The drought would have been over much sooner if there had been no cloudbusting attempted.
DeMeo has also done cloudbusting operations in the Middle East. I have seen documentation obtained from the National Climate Data Center, in Ashville, North Carolina, showing numerous deaths of people in the region as a result of catastrophic weather during the periods in which he was operating there.
In addition to a cold snap that was the worst in recorded history and brought the first snow in 40 years to Israel, along with the deaths of 22 people in a snowslide in the mountains in Turkey, his own report contained documentation of people drowned in a flash-flood while camping in a normally dry riverbed, and several deaths in accidents caused by driving too fast under unfamiliar`conditions on rain-slicked roads. When questioned about this by some of his German collegues, DeMeo reportedly defensively replied that his operations in the Middle East had done so much good that a few` deaths were an acceptable price to pay. (3) (4)
Dr.DeMeo also conducted a 4-year project in Eritria to increase rainfall in that normally very dry country. The project was, according to his own report, a great success. However the effective range of the cloudbuster is very large, and the weather it creates does not stop at national borders. At the same time the rains were falling on Eritria, they also were falling on surrounding countries, and in neighboring Kenya there were disasterous floods, killing many people, followed by epidemics of water-bourne diseases like cholera and malaria caused by the increase in mosquitos which found favorable breeding conditions in the now water-logged landscape. About 20,000 people died of diseases in Northern Kenya as a result of the successfull cloudbusting operations in nearby Eritria.
DeMeo is the leader of a group called the C.O.R.E. (for Cosmic Orgone Engineering) network. Two other members of the group, Mr. John Schleining and Dr. Stephen Nagy, have on occasion taken it upon themselves to play Smokey the Bear and stop forest fires in Oregon. According to their own reports published in the Journal of Orgonomy, they have caused up to 2.5 inches of rain in a dry summer month which normally has about 0.25 inch. Ten times normal rainfall for that time of year! This is not drought relief; it is blatant disruption.The time to break a years- long drought is in the normal rainy season, not in what is normally the dry season.
Despite what Smokey told these people in grade school, natural wildfires have an important role in forest life-cycles and should not be prevented. They open up stands of trees so some can grow, recycle nutrients back into the soil, help some kinds of seeds germinate, and clear away underbrush that would otherwise accumulate enough in several years to cause an eventual really disastrous fire.By meddling in normal forest fire cycles, Schleining and Nagy are following an outmoded fire-suppression policy which the Forest Service now realizes was a mistake and has abandoned. (5)
According to the same report in the "Journal of Orgonomy", the cloudbuster was also used to prevent fire in another way besides increasing rainfall: it was used to decrease the number of lightning strikes in the area. Now, aside from its role in creating useful and necessary fires, lightning fixes atmospheric nitrogen into compounds plants can utilize. For plant species that lack a symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria on their roots, including many temperate-zone forest trees, lightning plays an essential role as a source of fertilizer, so this application of the cloudbuster, far from benefiting the environment, amounts to mere vandalism of Oregon's forests. (6)
Dr. DeMeo has also acted as an advisor for some groups in Europe who look to him for guidance and expertise in cloudbusting. One such group was responsible for a severe storm that killed about 200 people in Central Europe. (7) (8) (9)
**********************************************************************************************************
Documentation of Cloudbuster-related Damage By Dr. DeMeo and His Associates
(1) My claim that atmospheric dust transport from Africa is essential to South Atlantic and South American ecosystems and that therefore cloudbuster interference with droughts in Africa is irresponsible and damaging is documented by the following:
The New York Times' International Edition on October 29, 1992 contains an article about how hot "October winds scoop up the thin topsoil off the African savanna, swirl it high into the skies, and thrust it west on a journey that can stretch thousands of miles." The article
by Marlise Simons goes on to explain how "the severe and lethal droughts of Africa are a boon for life in the Atlantic Ocean and for soil and vegetation in the Americas."
( Go to a public library and check out: Marlise Simons, "Winds Toss Africa's Soil,
Feeding Lands Far Away," New York Times, October 29, 1992.)
In addition to that New York Times account, There is also an article published in Tellus (1992, 44B, pp 133-149), a scientific journal, on "Saharan Dust in the Amazon Basin." The authors of the article, R. Swap, M. Garstang, and S. Greco of the University of Virginia Department of Environmental Sciences, are the same scientists who are featured in the New York Times account, and they make a compelling case that "Any strategy designed to preserve the Amazonian rain forest or any part thereof should equally concern itself with the inter-relationship between the rainforest, global climate, and the arid zones well removed from Amazonia."
(2) My source on bird mortality in wet nesting seasons is: Geoff Geupel, Pt. Reyes Bird Observatory, Bolinas, CA (415) 868-1221 ext 30.
**********************************************************************************************************
Documentation of Cloudbuster-related Damage By Dr. DeMeo and His Associates
(1) My claim that atmospheric dust transport from Africa is essential to South Atlantic and South American ecosystems and that therefore cloudbuster interference with droughts in Africa is irresponsible and damaging is documented by the following:
The New York Times' International Edition on October 29, 1992 contains an article about how hot "October winds scoop up the thin topsoil off the African savanna, swirl it high into the skies, and thrust it west on a journey that can stretch thousands of miles." The article
by Marlise Simons goes on to explain how "the severe and lethal droughts of Africa are a boon for life in the Atlantic Ocean and for soil and vegetation in the Americas."
( Go to a public library and check out: Marlise Simons, "Winds Toss Africa's Soil,
Feeding Lands Far Away," New York Times, October 29, 1992.)
In addition to that New York Times account, There is also an article published in Tellus (1992, 44B, pp 133-149), a scientific journal, on "Saharan Dust in the Amazon Basin." The authors of the article, R. Swap, M. Garstang, and S. Greco of the University of Virginia Department of Environmental Sciences, are the same scientists who are featured in the New York Times account, and they make a compelling case that "Any strategy designed to preserve the Amazonian rain forest or any part thereof should equally concern itself with the inter-relationship between the rainforest, global climate, and the arid zones well removed from Amazonia."
(2) My source on bird mortality in wet nesting seasons is: Geoff Geupel, Pt. Reyes Bird Observatory, Bolinas, CA (415) 868-1221 ext 30.
(3) The dates of operations in the Middle East by Dr. DeMeo are in his own report posted on his website. Compare those dates with the following for evidence that those operations killed a number of innocent people:
The January 4, 1992 issue of the "Weekly Climate Bulletin," a newsletter published by the Climate Analysis Center of the United States Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports on a "New Year's Day storm [which] brought torrential rain and high wind to parts of the Middle East, forcing schools and businesses to close," flooding streets, blanketing Jerusalem with snow, "blacking-out" power for a fourth of the homes, creating "snow...for the first time in the mountains north of the Red Sea resort of Eilat," covering the mountains of northern Saudi Arabia with snow, downing
power lines and telephone lines in Lebanon, causing heavy avalanches in southeastern Turkey, and "killing 22 people."
The "Global Climate Highlights Feature" page states that "Abnormally cold air has
settled over large sections of northern Africa, the Middle East, south-central Asia, and the Far East during the last two weeks."
(4) On page 96 of the Pulse of the Planet, #4 issue, there is
a report by DeMeo entitled "OROP ISRAEL 1991-1992," in which [DeMeo] does mention flooding, homes destroyed, and people dying from traffic accidents on flooded roads as a result of the heavy rains occuring after DeMeo's November 1991 cloudbusting operations in the Middle East.
Quoting now from DeMeo's own report :
"Our research team had not anticipated the strength of the storms
which subsequently developed in the eastern Mediterranian.... When heavy
rains came, traffic often came to a standstill for hours. Previously
bone-dry river beds and conduits filled quickly, and overflowed onto major
roads.... A few deaths also occured on the highways due to the fatal
combination of rain-slickstreets and highway speeding, or when people
attempted to drive their cars through rain-swollen streams.... Additional
difficulties also occured in a few areas when power lines were knocked down
by heavy winds or accumulated snow, leaving many persons without power,
sometimes for days."
Here, in his own words, DeMeo admits to having participated in a scientific
experiment which appears to have wreaked havoc on the public while
concurrently serving as the direct or indirect cause of several deaths
(5) My source for forest fire information is: Cascadia Fire Ecology Education Project, P. O. Box 3563, Eugene, OR 97403. (503) 726-4738.
(6) An article published in "Science News," October 1995 documents an atmospheric chemist by the name of Pud Franzblau has discovered that lightning is a crucial ingredient
involved in the maintainence of life, because it "fixes," or breaks down, the nitrogen atoms
which exist in the air in a form unusable by plants, into a usable form. Up until Franzblau's fieldwork indicated that lightning is responsible for about 1 billion tons of nitrogen fixing (instead of only 10 million tons), researchers had thought that plants were the biggest nitrogen fixers on earth.
It should be apparent that messing around with the atmosphere with a cloud-buster without an inkling of its ramifications on the generation of lightning could have unforeseen, untoward consequences in the ecological system on nitrogen fixation, plant growth, and human existence.
(7) "I stopped all the financing of cloudbusting as the president of the Wilhelm Reich Society because of the side effects in 1992 because I pointed out that nobody knew about the dangerous side effects of the operations ! As a result, James DeMeo became a furious enemy towards me."
------Heiko Lasek
Berlin, Germany
(Personal communication to the author.)
(8) Der Grund, warum für mich Cloudbusting lange Zeit kein Thema war, war eine Erfahrung, die ich in den 90er Jahren gemacht habe. Bei einer großangelegten Aktion, kam es zu einer internationalen Wetterkatastrophe, in deren Verlauf es etwa 200 Tote und Schäden im Bereich von 100 bis 200 Milliarden Dollar gab. Diese Aktion, an der eine Reihe von Leuten beteiligt waren, die sich heute in der orgonomischen Cloudbusting-Szene lautstark über die positiven Ergebnisse äußern, wurde daraufhin totgeschwiegen. Um keine rechtlichen Probleme zu schaffen, werde ich die genauen Umstände dieser Aktion auch nicht preisgeben. Obwohl diese Aktion (intern) als erfolgreich gewertet wurde, (weil eine monatelange DOR-Situation beendet werden konnte), werden das sowohl die Opfer und deren Angehörigen, wie auch die vielen Menschen, die ihre Existenz verloren haben, anders sehen. Außer den straf- und zivilrechtilichen Folgen, die das für alle Beteiligten haben könnte,
wurden auch internationale Abkommen verletzt.
Jurgen Fisher
Newsletter von www.orgon.de
------Heiko Lasek
Berlin, Germany
(Personal communication to the author.)
(8) Der Grund, warum für mich Cloudbusting lange Zeit kein Thema war, war eine Erfahrung, die ich in den 90er Jahren gemacht habe. Bei einer großangelegten Aktion, kam es zu einer internationalen Wetterkatastrophe, in deren Verlauf es etwa 200 Tote und Schäden im Bereich von 100 bis 200 Milliarden Dollar gab. Diese Aktion, an der eine Reihe von Leuten beteiligt waren, die sich heute in der orgonomischen Cloudbusting-Szene lautstark über die positiven Ergebnisse äußern, wurde daraufhin totgeschwiegen. Um keine rechtlichen Probleme zu schaffen, werde ich die genauen Umstände dieser Aktion auch nicht preisgeben. Obwohl diese Aktion (intern) als erfolgreich gewertet wurde, (weil eine monatelange DOR-Situation beendet werden konnte), werden das sowohl die Opfer und deren Angehörigen, wie auch die vielen Menschen, die ihre Existenz verloren haben, anders sehen. Außer den straf- und zivilrechtilichen Folgen, die das für alle Beteiligten haben könnte,
wurden auch internationale Abkommen verletzt.
Jurgen Fisher
Newsletter von www.orgon.de
(9) On Thu, 3/12/09, Jürgen Fischer <orgon@......................> wrote:
From: Jürgen Fischer <orgon@................................>
Subject: Re : [OrgonomyMail-List] Tr : emotionnal plague
To: OrgonomyMail-List@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, March 12, 2009, 8:19 PM
I did cloudbusting with DeMeo, Bernd Senf and others in the eighties and nineties. I did it in Arizona and in Germany. It always worked - even "better" than intended. The last operation (I was doing the videos) led to one of the biggest weather disasters in Europe with seven severe storms from Scotland to Greece that cost more than 200 human lives and many billions on money. Thousands lost their health and properties. Many forests were damaged for decades.
Well. No one of the nowadays "cloudbusting specialists" want to know about this event now - they simply don't mention any more - and they act on as if cloudbusting was a fine thing and could be done by some private persons. Actually it is very cheap and simple (about 2000,- $) to build a fully equiped cloudbuster and as myself anyone else who knows how to operate could built one and do it. And some really do.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Irradiation Of The Global Atmosphere
Irradiation Of The Global Atmosphere
This paper from the refereed scientific literature is being posted here to support my often-stated position that man-made radioactive gases are becoming an increasingly important ingredient in the earth’s atmosphere and are responsible in large part for the climate changes now underway.
Radioactive gases consist of charged particles, and when charged particles enter the field of a magnet, they migrate toward the poles. The earth is a giant bar magnet. So most of the Kr85 will end up at the poles.
Since tropical storms such as hurricanes are strongly charged systems, their tracks are affected by the build-up of charge at the poles. Tropical storms will be attracted farther toward the poles, affecting the climate of the polar and temperate zones.
The earth receives an influx of energy from space which enters the earth at the poles. This is known as the Wilson Current. This current flows through the crust of the earth towards the equator and is discharged back into space in the form of lightning bolts from the continuous belt of thunderstorm activity that circles the earth at the equator.
The concentration of Kr85 at the poles interacts with the Wilson Current to reduce the number of lightning discharges, thereby reducing the amount of bioavailable nitrogen compounds needed by plant life. Since some species are more lightning-dependent than others, the net result is an imbalance in species ratios all over the planet.
This is a serious ecological problem that has not yet been addressed by the anti-nuclear movement. I suggest it should be looked into.
The radiation produced at high altitude at the poles is also being mistaken for ultraviolet from the sun, giving rise to the "hole in the ozone layer" which has wrongly been ascribed to CFCs. .
Radiation-induced changes in atmospheric chemistry are also being wrongly attributed to combustion emissions. The build-up of Kr85 in the atmosphere is a significant factor in the ph of rainwater, leading to so-called "acid rain" and the acidification of seawater which has been thought to be due to increase of atmospheric CO2.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1997 July 22; 94(15): 7807–7810.
Copyright © 1997, The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
The radioactivity of atmospheric krypton in1949–1950
Anthony Turkevich,* Lester Winsberg,† Howard Flotow,‡ and Richard M. Adams
Accepted April 10, 1997.
Abstract: The chemical element krypton, whose principal source is the atmosphere, had a long-lived radioactive content, in the mid-1940s, of less than 5 dpm per liter of krypton. In the late 1940s, this content had risen to values in the range of 100 dpm per liter. It is now some hundred times higher than the late 1940 values. This radioactivity is the result of the dissolving of nuclear fuel for military and civilian purposes, and the release thereby of the fission product krypton-85 (half-life = 10.71 years, fission yield = 0.2%). The present largest emitter of krypton-85 is the French reprocessing plant at Cap-de-la-Hague.
It is generally known that the chemical element krypton, isolated from the atmosphere in 1996, is radioactive. For example, Wilhelmova et al. (1) quote the air in Prague , Czechoslovakia , as having an average krypton-85 content of 0.8 Bq per cubic meter of air in the period 1983–1988. This radioactivity is the result of the dissolving of nuclear fuel both from past military and civilian programs and from present civilian power programs. The largest current producer of radioactive krypton is the French reprocessing plant at Cap-de-la-Hague, which released 1.8 × 1017 Bq of krypton radioactivity in 1994.¶ If diluted by the whole world’s atmosphere, this would produce a radioactivity of krypton of 2,400 dpm per liter (STP).‖ Cap-de-la-Hague’s output may represent about half of the present input into the atmosphere of this radioactive nuclide.
The present paper provides the earliest known measurements of the krypton radioactivity in the United States , relates them to the output of the Hanford reactors and of the nuclear explosions that occurred before the samples were collected, and points out the special characteristics of krypton-85 for studying atmospheric mixing on a planetary and subplanetary scale. The nuclear fission product krypton-85 was discovered independently by Thode and Graham in Canada (ref. 2; ref. 2 was based on ref. 3) and by Hoagland and Sugarman in the United States (4) in the mid-1940s. It was found to have a half-life of about 10 years [the presently listed value is 10.70 years (5)], to decay primarily by beta emission [a branch emitting a half million electronvolt (MeV) gamma ray was later found (6)], and to be formed in about 0.23% of the thermal neutron induced fissions of uranium-235. Soon after the World War II, while writing up the fission product research of the war, A.T. pointed out the special characteristics of this fission product for, among other uses, tracing air masses on a worldwide scale (letter from A.T. to P. Morrison, Argonne National Laboratory, July 19, 1946). Preliminary measurements made in a screen-wall counter by W. F. Libby (in 1947; unpublished work) and A.T. and W. F. Libby (in 1948; unpublished work) gave indications that these predictions were correct.
The present report describes the technique that was used soon afterward to establish more precisely that atmospheric krypton in the late 1940s was much more radioactive than it had been, and gives the results of some early measurements of krypton samples isolated from the atmosphere at that time.** Measurement Technique. The measurement technique that was used was influenced by those simultaneously being developed by Libby and Anderson (9) to measure the radiocarbon content of samples of archeological interest. In contrast to Libby’s work, however, Geiger counting of gas samples was employed. The counters, made of brass, were 3 in. in diameter and 24 in. long, with an insulated central wire of 0.5 mil tungsten. The volume of the counters was about 2.3 liters.
The counters, filled with an inert gas, after shaking, had a background counting rate, in an open room, of about 1,000 cpm. When they were inserted into a “tomb” consisting of a shield of 8 in. of steel surrounded by 4 in. of lead, the background went down to about 350 cpm. A more drastic reduction was achieved by operating the counters not only inside the tomb but also inside a bank of 2-in. Geiger counters that were used in anti-coincidence to cancel out cosmic ray events. Only events that were not in coincidence with the shield counter discharges (1,900–2,000 per minute), within about 70 μs, were accepted. There was provision for two counters inside this massive shielding and anti-coincidence counters. Use of this technique lowered the background of a counter to 16–35 cpm. The residual activity was mostly due to the construction materials of the individual counters. The dead time of the counter was about 5 ms, leading to a correction of less than 4% for the most radioactive samples measured. Typical counting times were 8–12 h in the work reported here. Assurance of statistical behavior was obtained from a 15-min printout of the disintegrations recorded during the long measurement times. It was established that the response of a counter was adequately insensitive to position in the tomb, to the presence of the other counter, or to the krypton radioactivity in it. At the time of these measurements, a typical sample had a counting rate of 150 cpm when filled to a pressure of 20 cmHg (1 cmHg = 13.3 Pa).
The work reported here was carried out in the old ruling engine room for grating production in the basement of the Ryerson Physics Laboratory of the University of Chicago .
The counters were filled to a pressure of 100–500 torr of the gas to be measured (krypton or argon) and 15 torr of a quench gas. Ethyl alcohol was used for this purpose for most of the measurements; later measurements were made with ethyl ether as quench gas. After filling the counters and shaking with an internal shaker to promote mixing, the applied high voltage was increased until the counting rate indicated a plateau region (less than 10% change in counting rate per 100-V change in operating voltage). Counters filled with a gas having no radioactivity had larger slopes). A 2.0-V output pulse was obtained at a voltage of 2,200 V when the counter was filled with a krypton pressure of 300 torr and 15 torr of a quench gas. The plateau measurements and a monitor of counter behavior were facilitated by use of a capsule of a radium solution that could be placed in a reproducible position near the counter. Early measurements, made on three different krypton samples, established that the radioactivity being measured was due to the krypton in the counters. Successive measurements showed that nothing shorter lived or appreciably longer lived than the 10.7-year half-life was present in detectable amounts. Special efforts were made to ensure the chemical purity of the samples that were measured. These always included adsorption and desorption from activated charcoal under controlled conditions, and removal of reactive components by treating the gas with finely divided calcium prepared by dissolving the calcium in liquid ammonia and then evaporating the ammonia (10). The purified krypton had to show the correct vapor pressureat liquid nitrogen temperature (1.9 ± 0.2 torr). Although the specific origin of the radioactivity that was found in post-1945 gas samples could not be pinned down completely, three samples of gas that had been isolated from the atmosphere before 1934 (gases 3, 5, and 38) showed no radioactivity, whereas all samples isolated from the atmosphere after mid-1947 had easily measurable radioactivity (see below). This makes assignment to nuclear fuel production or nuclear tests most probable.
Sample Procurement. All the samples measured for this report were procured by B.R. Balcar (Special Consultant to U.S. Government Agencies) from operating commercial liquid air plants in northeastern United States . Until October 1949, the samples represent plant operations lasting several days with perhaps 10% representing a “heel” from previous operations. After that date, the plant operation period was restricted to the day listed, except as noted. However, even here, only about 50% of the krypton produced represented the air processed that day; some 13% came from air that had entered the plant the day before, and so on. Thus, these early samples represent an average over several days of the krypton-85 content of the ambient air.
Sample Measurement Procedure. Each sample was measured at least twice, in different counters or at different pressures. The duration of each measurement was at least 8 h. The 15-min records of each measurement were examined to be sure that they were consistent with the totals, that they exhibited no trends, and that the fluctuations were compatible with statistics. The number of events that had been canceled by the anti-coincidence counters was noted and had to be within a small range. The results from the two measurements, after background subtraction, had to agree within the statistical accuracy of the measurements before the results were accepted. Occasionally, a third measurement, sometimes after gas purification, was required.
The routine activity measurements of a gas were made relative to the activity of a “standard gas” (gas 21, collected at Philadelphia , PA , between April 26 and May 10, 1949). This was done by periodically measuring the standard gas in the counter involved. Typically, some 10–20 routine gas measurements were made between standard gas measurements. The standard gas had an activity of about 200 dpm at STP on its collection date.
Similarly, the background of a particular counter was determined, usually at the time of standard gas measurements, by a measurement of the activity of pre-nuclear-age krypton (see below). The measurement of the standard gas and of the background of a counter represented a “calibration” of the counter.
Absolute Radioactivity. Thus, the routine gas measurements provided the activity of the gas in question relative to the activity of the standard gas. The absolute activity of this standard gas was determined in two different ways. In the first, a sample of this gas was given to A. Engelkemeier (Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne , IL ), who was collaborating with W. F. Libby at the time and using a screen-wall counter. She added a known amount of radioactive krypton to the gas. From the decrease in radioactivity, the activity of the standard gas could be determined.
In the second method, two counters were constructed in this laboratory, identical in diameter and in other construction details, but of two different lengths. The lack of efficiency at the walls of these large counters was estimated to be small (about 0.6%), and the difference in counting rate per unit volume could be assigned to the inefficiencies of the counters at the ends. The two methods agreed, with the method using counters of different lengths having a smaller error. The effective volume of a typical counter was thus determined to be 98.0% of the value calculated from the length of the bare central wire [the effective volume of one of the counters was 2.43 (±2%) liters]. In this way it was determined that the standard gas had a disintegration rate of 191 dpm per liter (standard conditions) on the collection date. This corresponds to an isotopic abundance of 5.5 × 10−14 of krypton-85 in the standard gas on collection date.
All routine gas measurements were corrected to the time that the particular gas was collected (separated from the ambient atmosphere) and were then converted to absolute values using this value for the activity of the standard gas. The corrections for decay between collection time and measurement time were usually less than 4% for the samples discussed here. The statistics of counting of the duplicate measurements of the routine gas samples were well below 1%. The agreement of the duplicate measurements suggest that the radioactive assays carry a 1 σ uncertainty of 3%, with most of this coming from the manipulation of the gas samples.
Radioactivity of Pre-Nuclear-Age Krypton. At the time that this program was initiated, it was important to establish a limit to the radioactivity of pre-nuclear-age krypton. This was done in the following way. Three samples of krypton that had been isolated from the atmosphere before 1945 were obtained (B. R. Balcar): gas 3, prepared in July 1932; gas 5, prepared before 1934; and gas 38, old, but the date of isolation uncertain. They were measured in our counters at several pressures. A sample of argon was measured in the same counter, as well as a sample of gas collected after 1945 (gas 18, collected in Buffalo, NY, during July 1948). The results of one of the comparisons are presented in Fig. 1. Shown in the figure are the counting rates of the three gases (pre-nuclear-age krypton, argon, and krypton collected in 1948) as a function of pressure. The figure indicates that the counting rate with pre-nuclear-age krypton (isolated from the atmosphere before 1945) was very nearly the same as that when argon was in the counter, and that the counting rate of these two gases did not increase with pressure. In contrast, the counting rate when the krypton collected in 1948 was in the counter was much higher and increased linearly with the pressure of the filling. The extrapolated value of the radioactivity at zero pressure of gas 18 is indistinguishable from that of argon and pre-nuclear-age krypton.
The calculated limit on the radioactivity of pre-nuclear-age krypton (from the lack of increase of the counting rate with pressure) is 5 dpm per liter (STP) of krypton. The other two pre-1945 gases behaved similarly. The only value available to compare with this number is the estimate of Styra and Butkus (11). They have calculated that the cosmic-ray production of krypton-85 by neutrons in the atmosphere is 5.2 × 1013 Bq per year. This would lead to an activity of about 10 dpm per liter of krypton. This estimate is in adequate agreement with our upper limit.
Several samples of gases collected after 1945 were measured several times, often after extensive purification. They showed no change in specific radioactivity, nor any decay other than what could be attributed to krypton-85. Finally, one sample was analyzed mass spectrometrically, after radiochemical assay, and found to have, at most, 0.5% xenon. As mentioned earlier, atmospheric krypton in the 1990s has a radioactivity of tens of thousands of disintegrations per minute per liter. It is now about a hundred times more radioactive than the samples reported on here.
Atmospheric Measurements and Interpretations. Many samples were collected and measured during the period covered by this report. The results of krypton radioactivity assays made on some of these are presented in Table 1. All results presented in the table are for samples collected at commercial liquid-air plants, with varying control of operating characteristics. Some of these conditions are mentioned below.
The first Soviet explosion of a nuclear device occurred in August 1949. The data reported here on samples collected before about this date have been analyzed on the assumption that the only significant emitter of krypton-85 affecting them was the Hanford, WA, reprocessing plant of the United States and the nuclear tests carried out by this country. The yearly and monthly emissions of the Hanford plant have been published (R. L. Stutheit, personal communication; ref. 12). Ref. 12 gives the monthly dissolvings in terms of mega-watt days of neutron exposure of the fuel that was dissolved. These have been converted to curies of krypton-85 released in a way to be consistent with the data of R. L. Stutheit.
Table 1 presents measurements made on krypton isolated from the atmosphere at several locations in northeastern United States before mid-1950. For each location, the second column identifies the gas. The third column gives the date(s) of operation of the liquid-air plant involved. The fourth column gives the result of the measurement of the specific activity of the isolated krypton, in disintegrations per minute per liter (STP). The last column gives, for dates before about Aug. 10, 1949, the expected specific activity of krypton if the Hanford output were diluted by the whole world’s atmospheric inventory of krypton, taken here as 4.506 × 1015 liters (STP). The collection dates listed should be considered with the following points in mind. The dates correspond to plant operating dates when the krypton was removed from a commercial liquid-air plant. If a range of dates is given, it indicates that the air sampled came from at least this period. Even if only one date is indicated, it probably still involves the processing of air from several days, about half of the krypton coming from the air of the date listed, the rest coming from previous days’ operations. The output from Hanford was calculated on the assumption that the numbers given in ref. 12 were emitted evenly through the year. Although detailed analysis of the data presented here would involve specific meteorological information about conditions on the days involved, some general remarks can be made.
(i) The absolute amounts of radioactivity observed are, in all cases, significantly higher than would be expected from instantaneous mixing with the whole world’s atmosphere. For example, the four samples taken on Aug. 4, 1949, at different locations in northeastern United States, measure 163, 188, 203, and 199 dpm per liter (STP). They were each measured five times. The Hanford output as of this day, diluted by the world’s krypton, would lead to an activity of 115 in the same units. The small (a few percent) contribution of nuclear explosions have been included. This discrepancy is not surprising in view of the faster production of krypton-85 by the U.S. military program than the decay of this nuclide in the atmosphere. Because the plutonium production plants were in the Northern Hemisphere and because mixing with the Southern Hemisphere takes time (13, 14), it is to be expected that the average Northern Hemisphere values would be higher than worldwide averages.
(ii) The ratio of observed specific activities to those expected from infinitely fast diffusion seems to take an abrupt rise at the end of 1949. This may be due to meteorological conditions—faster flow from Hanford to the sampling sites and less vertical mixing on the way. However, an accelerated Soviet reprocessing schedule during those early days of their program cannot be excluded from the contribution.
(iii) Even though the sampling times cannot be defined to as little as 1 day, the variability observed, for example, in the Aug. 4, 1949 samples, is greater than the experimental errors. Similarly, the time sequence of the measured specific activities at a given location indicates a larger scatter than can be explained from the experimental errors. This suggests that the northeastern U.S. sampling sites are randomly situated relative to a meandering plume from Hanford, WA.
In any case, these observations of the krypton-85 content of the early-nuclear-age atmosphere provide data on the rate of large-scale mixing of the components of the world’s atmosphere. They provide quantitative data on how activities in one part of the globe affect the rest of the world.
Styra, B.; Butkus, D. Geophysical Problems of Kr-85 in the Atmosphere. Washington , DC : Hemisphere Publishing; 1991.
Nuclear Power In Europe
The following map shows the locations of reactors in Europe.
Maps of Nuclear Power Reactors: EUROPE How to use this map: Click on any of the map labels for further information. Purple labels allow to navigate to maps of the corresponding area, and reactor labels and symbols allow to access detailed information on these specific reactor locations. Some reacor locations have been shifted to allow for easy point-and-click navigation and may not represent the exact geographic location. The maps are freely distributable if a reference to the original INSC source is included (see details). No warranty is made for the correctness and/or completeness of the information presented on this and other pages from this web site (see details). Other links are available from the following lists:
Of course the location of a reactor is not the only factor and it makes no difference which side of a political border it is on. The prevailing winds can carry emissions across borders. Fallout from American/Soviet bomb tests and Chernobyl, as well as from the more serious 1958 meltdown in the Urals, can also be important. It also makes a difference how many people live near a reactor, and how close they live to it. All effects of any environmental pollution are statistical, and there will always be many individual exceptions, but on a statistical basis, I would expect to find a correlation between proximity to a reactor and birth rate. I would also expect a correlation between being born in the high fallout years of atmospheric bomb testing, between 1949 and 1963, and how many children one has. People who were born in the years of high fallout could be expected to have fewer children that those born before or after those years. Since males are more vulnerable to radiation damage than females, I would also expect a statistical difference in male to female birth ratios for both the high fallout years, and populations that live near reactors or downwind from them. Some of this data is in the book, Secret Fallout, by Ernest Sternglass. As for the difference between the U.S. and Europe, the U.S. is much more rural, with many people living much farther from the nearest reactor than is possible in Europe. And birth rates are higher in the most rural areas. In the more industrialized parts of the country, where most of the reactors are, they are about the same as in Europe. |
Hurricanes and Ocean Plants
Hurricanes and Ocean Plants
The Importance of Phytoplankton to the Earth's Oceans
The Effect Of Hurricanes On Ocean Plant Life - Chieh Cheng, istockphoto
Some ocean plants, such as phytoplankton, actually thrive from the effects of a hurricane; these tiny ocean plants are of great importance to the Earth's oceans.
Hurricanes are known for the great devastation left in their wake on land; however, as hurricanes race across the Earth's oceans, tiny ocean plants, called phytoplankton, thrive in the after effects. Phytoplankton are of great importance to both the survival of other fish and sea mammals and to the reduction of greenhouse gases.
What are Phytoplankton?
Phytoplankton are tiny, drifting plants which inhabit the Earth's oceans; they are usually too small to be seen by the naked human eye but can be seen as a green discoloration of the water when drifting in large numbers. This discoloration of the water is due to the chlorophyll present in the phytoplankton cells. Phytoplankton have many species and form the foundation of the marine food chain.
Phytoplankton need water, sunlight and nutrients to grow and need to be near the surface of the water to gain these elements; they obtain energy through the process of photosynthesis, the same process by which land plants do. Through the process of photosynthesis, phytoplankton are accountable for much of the oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere.
Phytoplankton need other nutrients, such as iron, in order to survive. Cold surface water allows the deeper depths of the ocean to swell up and bring these nutrients to the surface, but if the water is warm, essential nutrients are essentially blocked. Phytoplankton starve and die and, in turn, with the loss of the food chain, other fish and sea mammals die too.
The Effect of Hurricanes on Phytoplankton
Hurricanes stir up the oceans and consequently bring much needed nutrients to the water's surface, providing food for phytoplankton, and in turn, fish and mammals. A study carried out by the Applied Physics Laboratory at John Hopkins University in Laurel, Maryland between 1998 and 2001, used NASA satellite data to analyze the level of chlorophyll present in phytoplankton after a hurricane.
The study showed that the size, strength and speed of a hurricane impacted on the number of phytoplankton which benefited from the storm; for about two to three weeks after a hurricane, it appeared that phytoplankton grew in strength. Phytoplankton growth means the trapping of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere, through the energy conversion process of photosynthesis; carbon dioxide is carried to the ocean floor, in carbon form when the ocean plants die, a natural process of the Earth's carbon cycle.
Phytoplankton Influence on Global Change
Phytoplankton use carbon dioxide in the process of photosynthesis; more phytoplankton means more carbon dioxide used and taken from the Earth's atmosphere, lowering the amount of greenhouse gases. Phytoplankton are affected by the surrounding environment and therefore notify scientists to a change in environmental conditions in a particular area; phytoplankton population rises and falls in response to the availability of sunlight, water and nutrients.
Also on Suite101
The general public is aware of climate change or global warming due to recent media coverage but few are aware that the oceans actually remove atmospheric CO2.
Satellite images provide scientists with a clear view of any change in color densities of a particular area of the oceans; a high population of phytoplankton will appear as certain colors on a satellite image, due to the process of photosynthesis (photosynthesis means that green light is reflected and red and blue light is absorbed). These tiny ocean plants are of extreme importance to the Earth's oceans, atmosphere and food chain.
References:
© 2008 Sharon Falsetto
Read more at Suite101: Hurricanes and Ocean Plants: The Importance of Phytoplankton to the Earth's Oceans http://plant- ecology.suite101 .com/article. cfm/hurricanes_ and_ocean_ plants#ixzz0szbL 4SJi
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