Project SUNSHINE

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Project SUNSHINE was a series of research studies that began in 1953 to ascertain the impact of radioactive fallout on the world's population. [1] The project was initially kept secret, and only became known publicly in 1956. [1] Commissioned jointly by the United States Atomic Energy Commission and USAF Project Rand, SUNSHINE sought to examine the long-term effects of nuclear radiation on the biosphere due to repeated nuclear detonations of increasing yield. [2] With the conclusion from Project GABRIEL that radioactive isotope Sr-90 represented the most serious threat to human health from nuclear fallout, Project SUNSHINE sought to measure the global dispersion of Sr-90 by measuring its concentration in the tissues and bones of the dead. Of particular interest was tissue from the young, whose developing bones have the highest propensity to accumulate Sr-90 and thus the highest susceptibility to radiation damage. [2] SUNSHINE elicited a great deal of controversy when it was revealed that many of the remains sampled were utilized without prior permission from relatives of the dead, which wasn't known until many years later. [3]

Contents

History

On January 18, 1955, then-AEC commissioner Dr. Willard Libby said that there was insufficient data regarding the effects of fallout due to a lack of human samples – especially samples taken from children – to analyze. Libby was quoted saying, "I don't know how to get them, but I do say that it is a matter of prime importance to get them, and particularly in the young age group. So, human samples are often of prime importance, and if anybody knows how to do a good job of body snatching, they will really be serving their country." [4] This led to over 1,500 samples being gathered, of which only 500 were analyzed. [4] Many of the 1,500 sample cadavers were babies and young children, and were taken from countries from Australia to Europe, often without their parents' consent or knowledge. [5] According to the investigation launched after a British newspaper reported that British scientists had obtained children’s bodies from various hospitals and shipped their body parts to the United States, a British mother had said that her stillborn baby's legs were removed by British doctors, and to prevent her from finding out what had happened, she was not allowed to dress the baby for the funeral. [5]

Notable studies

In 1958, research for project SUNSHINE was brought to Belgium. Scientists started doing tests that were slightly different than those done previously in the United States and Europe by analyzing soils in agricultural regions instead of human bones. They headed in two main directions: environmental surveys and experimental research in natural and in controlled conditions. Their goal was to see the effect of Strontium-90 in the soils as well as to see how it transferred to the grass and grazing animals such as cows and sheep, the animals from which humans consume milk and meat. Researchers also looked for direct influences of strontium-90 by observing how well the contaminated grass and crops grew. [6]

In a 1957 article, Dr. Whitlock, director of Health Education in the National Dairy Council, Chicago, Illinois, discussed the impact of strontium-90 in the cow milk consumed by humans, concluding that the effects of Sr-90 would not be detectably harmful to the general populace of the US. "From the foregoing information, it would seem we have a long way to go before the presence of Strontium-90 in milk and other foods can catch up with the amounts of radioactivity to which we have long been exposed through natural resources." Specifically referring to the natural radioactivity one is exposed to from potassium-40. [7] "

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Strontium</span> Chemical element, symbol Sr and atomic number 38

Strontium is the chemical element with the symbol Sr and atomic number 38. An alkaline earth metal, strontium is a soft silver-white yellowish metallic element that is highly chemically reactive. The metal forms a dark oxide layer when it is exposed to air. Strontium has physical and chemical properties similar to those of its two vertical neighbors in the periodic table, calcium and barium. It occurs naturally mainly in the minerals celestine and strontianite, and is mostly mined from these.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear fallout</span> Residual radioactive material following a nuclear blast

Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioactive dust and ash created when a nuclear weapon explodes. The amount and spread of fallout is a product of the size of the weapon and the altitude at which it is detonated. Fallout may get entrained with the products of a pyrocumulus cloud and fall as black rain. This radioactive dust, usually consisting of fission products mixed with bystanding atoms that are neutron-activated by exposure, is a form of radioactive contamination.

A cobalt bomb is a type of "salted bomb": a nuclear weapon designed to produce enhanced amounts of radioactive fallout, intended to contaminate a large area with radioactive material, potentially for the purpose of radiological warfare, mutual assured destruction or as doomsday devices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mushroom cloud</span> Cloud of debris and smoke from a large explosion

A mushroom cloud is a distinctive mushroom-shaped flammagenitus cloud of debris, smoke, and usually condensed water vapor resulting from a large explosion. The effect is most commonly associated with a nuclear explosion, but any sufficiently energetic detonation or deflagration will produce the same effect. They can be caused by powerful conventional weapons, like thermobaric weapons such as the ATBIP and GBU-43/B MOAB. Some volcanic eruptions and impact events can produce natural mushroom clouds.

The strontium unit is a unit used to measure the amount of radioactivity from strontium-90, a radionuclide found in nuclear fallout, in a subject's body. Since the human body absorbs strontium as if it were calcium, incorporating it into the skeleton, its presence is very common. One strontium unit is equal to one picocurie from strontium-90 per gram of calcium in the subject's skeleton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radioactive contamination</span> Undesirable radioactive elements on surfaces or in gases, liquids, or solids

Radioactive contamination, also called radiological pollution, is the deposition of, or presence of radioactive substances on surfaces or within solids, liquids, or gases, where their presence is unintended or undesirable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear fission product</span> Atoms or particles produced by nuclear fission

Nuclear fission products are the atomic fragments left after a large atomic nucleus undergoes nuclear fission. Typically, a large nucleus like that of uranium fissions by splitting into two smaller nuclei, along with a few neutrons, the release of heat energy, and gamma rays. The two smaller nuclei are the fission products..

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caesium-137</span> Radioactive isotope of caesium

Caesium-137, cesium-137 (US), or radiocaesium, is a radioactive isotope of caesium that is formed as one of the more common fission products by the nuclear fission of uranium-235 and other fissionable isotopes in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. Trace quantities also originate from spontaneous fission of uranium-238. It is among the most problematic of the short-to-medium-lifetime fission products. Caesium-137 has a relatively low boiling point of 671 °C (1,240 °F) and easily becomes volatile when released suddenly at high temperature, as in the case of the Chernobyl nuclear accident and with atomic explosions, and can travel very long distances in the air. After being deposited onto the soil as radioactive fallout, it moves and spreads easily in the environment because of the high water solubility of caesium's most common chemical compounds, which are salts. Caesium-137 was discovered by Glenn T. Seaborg and Margaret Melhase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Effects of the Chernobyl disaster</span> Overview of the effects of the Chernobyl disaster

The 1986 Chernobyl disaster triggered the release of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere in the form of both particulate and gaseous radioisotopes. As of 2022, it was the world's largest known release of radioactivity into the environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental radioactivity</span> Radioactivity naturally present within the Earth

Environmental radioactivity is produced by radioactive materials in the human environment. While some radioisotopes, such as strontium-90 (90Sr) and technetium-99 (99Tc), are only found on Earth as a result of human activity, and some, like potassium-40 (40K), are only present due to natural processes, a few isotopes, e.g. tritium (3H), result from both natural processes and human activities. The concentration and location of some natural isotopes, particularly uranium-238 (238U), can be affected by human activity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Strontium-90</span> Radioactive isotope of strontium

Strontium-90 is a radioactive isotope of strontium produced by nuclear fission, with a half-life of 28.8 years. It undergoes β− decay into yttrium-90, with a decay energy of 0.546 MeV. Strontium-90 has applications in medicine and industry and is an isotope of concern in fallout from nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons testing, and nuclear accidents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Underground nuclear weapons testing</span> Test detonation of nuclear weapons underground

Underground nuclear testing is the test detonation of nuclear weapons that is performed underground. When the device being tested is buried at sufficient depth, the nuclear explosion may be contained, with no release of radioactive materials to the atmosphere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radioecology</span> Ecology concerning radioactivity within ecosystems

Radioecology is the branch of ecology concerning the presence of radioactivity in Earth’s ecosystems. Investigations in radioecology include field sampling, experimental field and laboratory procedures, and the development of environmentally predictive simulation models in an attempt to understand the migration methods of radioactive material throughout the environment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human radiation experiments</span> Studies of radiation effects on humans

Since the discovery of ionizing radiation, a number of human radiation experiments have been performed to understand the effects of ionizing radiation and radioactive contamination on the human body, specifically with the element plutonium.

Project GABRIEL was an investigation to gauge the impact of nuclear fallout resulting from nuclear warfare. The United States Atomic Energy Commission surmised that the radioactive isotope strontium-90 (Sr-90) presented the greatest hazard to life globally, which resulted in the commissioning of Project SUNSHINE: which sought to examine the levels of Sr-90 in human tissues and bones gathered from around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Reiss</span> American physician (1920 – 2011)

Louise Marie Zibold Reiss was an American physician who coordinated what became known as the Baby Tooth Survey, in which deciduous teeth from children living in the St. Louis, Missouri, area who were born in the 1950s and 1960s were collected and analyzed over a period of 12 years. The results of the survey showed that children born in 1963 had levels of strontium-90 in their teeth that were 50 times higher than those found in children born in 1950, before the advent of widespread nuclear weapons testing. The findings helped convince U.S. President John F. Kennedy to sign the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the United Kingdom and Soviet Union, which ended the above-ground testing of nuclear weapons that placed the greatest amounts of nuclear fallout into the atmosphere.

The Baby Tooth Survey was initiated by the Greater St. Louis Citizens' Committee for Nuclear Information in conjunction with Saint Louis University and the Washington University School of Dental Medicine as a means of determining the effects of nuclear fallout in the human anatomy by examining the levels of radioactive material absorbed into the deciduous teeth of children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radiation effects from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster</span> Effects of radiation released from the Fukushima nuclear disaster

The radiation effects from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster are the observed and predicted effects as a result of the release of radioactive isotopes from the Fukushima Daiichii Nuclear Power Plant following the 2011 Tōhoku 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami. The release of radioactive isotopes from reactor containment vessels was a result of venting in order to reduce gaseous pressure, and the discharge of coolant water into the sea. This resulted in Japanese authorities implementing a 30-km exclusion zone around the power plant and the continued displacement of approximately 156,000 people as of early 2013. The number of evacuees has declined to 49,492 as of March 2018. Large quantities of radioactive particles from the incident, including iodine-131 and caesium-134/137, have since been detected around the world. Substantial levels have been seen in California and in the Pacific Ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Pecher</span>

Charles Pecher was a Belgian pioneer in nuclear medicine. He discovered and introduced strontium-89 in medical therapeutic procedures in 1939.

This article uses Chernobyl as a case study of nuclear fallout effects on an ecosystem.

References

  1. 1 2 Lapp, Ralph (Jan 1, 1959). "Sunshine and Darkness". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 15 (1): 27–29. Bibcode:1959BuAtS..15a..27L. doi:10.1080/00963402.1959.11453918.
  2. 1 2 "Worldwide Effects of Atomic Weapons: Project SUNSHINE" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-07-10.
  3. ↑ PROJECT SUNSHINE AND THE SLIPPERY SLOPE Centre for Medical Education Dundee University Medical School Sue Rabbitt Roff
  4. 1 2 Leary, Warren E. (21 June 1995). "In 1950's, U.S. Collected Human Tissue to Monitor Atomic Tests". New York Times. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  5. 1 2 Jacinto, Leela (6 January 2006). "World Wakes Up to Horrific Scientific History". ABC News. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019.
  6. ↑ Kirchmann, R. J. (1998). "Historical overview of the project "Sunshine" in Belgium". Radiats Biol Radioecol. 38 (4): 624–30. PMID   9765684.
  7. ↑ Gaylord, P. Whitlock (1957). "Radiation from Strontium-90 Not Found in Milk in Harmful Amounts". Journal of Dairy Science. 40 (5): 592–593. doi: 10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(57)94527-7 .
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