Evening star., 1950-07-26
Pathological Warfare
Called Horror of Future
Very Little Told of Potentially;
Physicist Offers Explonotion
By Thomos R. Henry

The horror of Pathological warfare,
with the streets Of cities Strewn with
invisibly thin films of death sands"
looms over the future.
It Is about the most classified subject
In the world, mentioned only in whispers
around the Pentagon Building. Less than
year ago a high-ranking officer let
the term 'RW" slip at a party. Asked
the meaning, he turned pale. A few min
utes later he notioned the questioner
into another room and explained what
RW was, at the same time insisting that
he inadvertently had been guilty Of
bad security breech.
OF late 1t has been mentioned more
freely. But nothing has been released
concerning progress or potentialities.
Article Was Published.
When the hydrogen bomb first was
mentioned the general public was COM
pletely in the dark, but 1t soon developed
that there was an article in print avail
able which gave fair explanation. It
was by DR.. Hans Thirring, professor of
physics at the University Of Vienna, who
was free to speculate as he pleased and
publish his explanations.
DIR. Thirring now has done much the
same thing for the mysterious RW. His
summarized for the Bulletin Of the
Atomic Scientists by DR.. Louis N. Ride
nour Of the University Of Illinois.
RW is the strewing of radioactive
particles over populations, military or
civilian. Such particles are invisible and
odorless. Their presence cannot be de-
tected by any of the senses, but only by
special instruments.
When the uranium atom is split in two,
either in the explosion of an atomic bomb
or in the controlled operation of the great
atomic ovens at Oak Ridge, Tenn, or
Hanford. Wash, the fragments are the
nuclei of lighter elements, themselves
radioactive. Approximately 800 varieties
have been identified, some Of which are
very rare. Now they are almost entirely
waste products and the piles" must be
decontaminated of them at regular in
tervals. 1t is these particles which would
be strewn, presumably from airplanes, in
Pathological warfare.
Thirteen Could Be Used.
Their lifetime as exploding atoms varies
from few millionthS of second to O
billion years. Only those with lifetimes
OF somewhere between ten minutes and
ten days would have any value as war
agents. DR.. Thirring lists 13 Of these.
mostly falling in the center of the atomic
table.
The amount of radiation which the
human system can endure has been cal
culated carefully. An estimate is that q
city strewn with fine sand in which
these exploding atoms were mixed soon
would become uninhabitable, but that
most Of the contamination would be gone
in week.
For day or so there would be prac-
tically no effect. Persons would go about
their daily routines unaware Of the
deadly poison shooting infinite numbers
OF invisibly minute darts into their bodies.
But If they stayed there a week most Of
them would die.
Only the products of the piles would be
used, 1t is calculated. The exploding
isotopeS could be manufactured for them
selves alone, but this would be extremely
uneconomical and would be at the ex.
pense OF primary atom bomb materials.
The effects would be produced by film
weighing less than thousandth of an
ounce per square yard. DR.. Ridenour, US
ing the Austrian figures, calculates that a
sufficient quantity now is being produced
each month in the Hanford piles to con.
taminate IA square miles.
Nothing has been revealed concerning
the difficulties of separating the useful
radioactive isotopes or the methods Of
distributing them. Presumably, however.
the Army has carried on much research
on these matters.