Nuclear Tests

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Adlai Stevenson has recently taken a forthright stand on stopping the tests of multi-megaton weapons. His proposal has been called "dangerous" and "visionary" by the Republicans. In particular, they have scoffed at the threat of radioactive strontium contamination. Even Senator Kefauver is quoted by the New York Times (Sunday, Oct. 21, p. 55) as conceding that the tests could be continued for thirty years at the present rate without damage. However, Ralph Lapp, the eminent nuclear physicist, has recently found an error of a factor of forty in the rate of accumulation of this deadly poison. In an article in the October Bulletin of the Atom Scientists Lapp points out that the government report from which the conclusions of the administration were drawn is in error in two respects:

(1) The concentration of strontium in bones is confused with the concentration in soil. This error contributes a factor of ten.

(2) The estimates of strontium yield from a given fission energy are low by a factor of four, due to the use of older figures; recent, more accurate figures were not available at the time the report was issued.

The consequence of these errors is that enough strotium 90 has already been spewed into the atmosphere to cause eventual contamination (by 1970) of the bones of most of the people in the world to the extent of 15 per cent of the maximum permissible dose. Dr. Lapp pleads for criticism of his conclusions and I am sure we all hope that he is mistaken. If he is right, there is no sane choice but to stop the testing of large atomic weapons immediately. Strontium 90 is no joke--if the tests are continued much longer it could cause many millions to die of bone cancer.

I hope that these sober facts will not become lost in the political hubbub of the present campaign. It is incumbent on both presidential candidates to admit that the danger of continued H-bomb testing may be much greater than has previously been pointed out, even by Mr. Stevenson. Mike Litt 3G.