Hot Cargo

Ever since Russia resumed nuclear testing, both U.S. and European airplanes, particularly high-flying jetliners, have been bringing home unwanted cargoes of radioactivity. Such hot cargo was a recognized problem in the late 19505, but during the nuclear-test moratorium that began in 1958, the radiation level of the high atmosphere gradually decreased, and most airlines stowed their Geiger counters in mothballs. Recent Soviet tests have started the trouble all over again, and this time it is expected to grow worse and last longer. Jetliners of the 19605 fly well up in the stratosphere, where radioactive fission products linger for years.

The Dutch airline KLM now checks its airplanes regularly, and issues maps to point out the position of known masses of radioactive air. If a flight plan promises to take an airliner through too many contaminated clouds, a safer course can be chosen. Soon KLM will have radiation detectors riding in its planes to make sure that passengers and crewmen do not get dangerous doses of radiation.

Other European airlines are taking similar precautions. In the U.S., Pan American has had the closest contact thus far with the high-altitude fallout, because its several near-polar routes take its planes through fresh radioactive clouds from the Russian tests. According to the Public Health Service, which checks Pan Am's planes, they are already ten times as radioactive as before the Russian tests started. The radioactive material does not cling to smooth, clean surfaces. It nestles in places where the air stream makes abrupt turns. Oily spots, which are sometimes unavoidable, catch the hot particles, which also lodge inside jet engines.

So far no passenger or crew member has been endangered in the air. The chief threat of radiation is to ground crews that service the planes. Crewmen are required to wear gloves and check them frequently. The airplanes are washed down with special detergent solutions, and the mops used in this process are also checked. They sometimes prove notably hot, and from them PHS has extracted the 25-odd radioisotopes that make up the most dangerous debris in a cloud of fission products.

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