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Project GABRIEL refers to an investigation by the United States Atomic Energy Commission to gauge the impact of radioactive fallout resulting from nuclear warfare. GABRIEL surmised that the radioactive isotope strontium-90 (Sr-90) presented the greatest hazard to life globally. This resulted in the commissioning of Project SUNSHINE, which sought to examine the levels of Sr-90 in human tissues and bones (with a special interest in infants) gathered from around the world. ==Background== During the cold war era, there was an escalation of the atmosphere testing of nuclear weapons. After the atomic bomb in 1945, testing continued and the scale increased with the first hydrogen bomb in 1952. Soon after the United States tested the hydrogen bomb, the USSR followed in 1953. The mushroom clouds that occurred from the explosions released radioactive isotopes in mass quantities. The first comprehensive study of this problem began in the Spring of 1949 with a one-man project called GABRIEL, by Nicholas M. Smith Jr. at Oakridge National Laboratory. Smith produced his first report in 1949. Project GABRIEL was revived in mid-1951 because bombs that were dropped had brought up concerns people had about the dangers of strontium-90. United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was interested by GABRIEL's report though they said it was lacking in hard data and needed independent confirmation of the tests. After reviewing Project GABRIEL in 1953, it was given first priority status. The secret project would define "practical limits" for using atomic weapons. A task team was assembled and the codename used was "Project HORN." In 1954, AEC argued that fallout was harmless because there wasn't enough evidence to prove that fallout would harm humans, animals, or crops. The AEC campaign persuaded the public that the worldwide fallout was harmlessness. This claim was later disputed when scientists announced publicly that there was no safe level of radiation. This was confirmed in a confidential report by a geneticist for the AEC. By 1954 and the Castle Bravo incident, it was obvious that radioactive fallout was dangerous to humans. United States Atomic Energy Commission Division of Biology and Medicine dealt with efforts directed towards experimental and field studies and the correlation of data dealing with Project GABRIEL.〔 The RAND Corporation, Laboratories at Columbia University, AEC 's New York office, the University of Chicago, an exclusive group of scientists, UCLA, and the United States Air Force were all involved in collection and testing of samples from around the world for radioactive fallout. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Project GABRIEL」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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