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Monday, May 18, 2009

Rafts and A-Bombs


The mountain lake that was the scene of a B-17 crash earlier in the year is also the source for a stream that feeds into a marsh near the North Gate of the Atomic Testing Base. This new group of scientists and technicians is surveying the stream and marsh for effects of the atomic testing on the water table.


As a former LT Commander in the US Navy, Vice-President Nixon has a keen interest in watercraft. As a Californian, he has a great interest in the outdoors and is going along today as an observer of some of this survey work.



The men pack up their gear and their rafts and rubber boats and head out to the hydrological testing site.



Some of the men will test the soils along the banks for a build up in heavy metals and radiological materials. Others will use the rafts and rubber boats to survey the deeper waters, islands and far bank of the stream.


Despite the apparent confusion, all is going well as the men load up to go to the testing site. Rafts are a low technology watercraft but all that is needed to test this most highly sophisticated of weapons fallout. No detail is too small or unimportant and the effect of atomic weapons on the water is very critical for planning an atomic war.

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