[ RadSafe ] Beer and nuclear explosions

[KARAM, PHILIP]

For something on the lighter side...a friend just sent me a link that's worth sharing. It seems that, in 1957, the US decided to set a bunch of soda and beer at various distances from a 20 kT nuclear explosion (surface burst) to see what happened to the beverages. The report can be found at this link (http://bit.ly/1dNRlIw). I have to admit that I never thought I'd see a nuclear weapons test report that contained the data line "12 fl oz, amber stubby, 1-trip, contents beer."

For those of you who don't want to read the report, you should be happy to know that, even as close as 1270 feet, there was very little induced activity in the beer, and none of the induced activity in the container leached into the beer.

P. Andrew Karam, PhD, CHP
Radiological Operations
NYPD Counterterrorism
(718) 615-7055 (desk)
(646) 879-5268 (mobile)