DISCLAIMER

The following is a staff memorandum or other working document 
prepared for the members of the Advisory Committee on Human
Radiation Experiments.  It should not be construed as representing
the final conclusions of fact or interpretation of the issues. 
All staff memoranda are subject to revision based on further 
information and analysis.  For conclusions and recommendations of
the Advisory Committee, readers are advised to consult the Final
Report to be published in 1995.






                þþþDRAFTþFOR DISCUSSION PURPOSESþþþ
MEMORANDUM

TO:       Members of the Santa Fe Small Panel

FROM:     Mark Goodman

DATE:     1/10/95

RE:       Summary of Operation Roller Coaster


Attached are pages 1195-1207 of J. Newell Stannard, Radioactivity and 
Health: A History (Pacific Northwest Laboratory, 1988).  These pages 
describe several series of plutonium safety tests and related 
biomedical and environmental studies.  The known biomedical studies in 
these series involve animals, not humans.


The first tests were done in conjunction with one-point safety tests 
of fission warheads.  These are tests designed to see if an accidental 
detonation of the high explosive at one point would produce a 
substantial nuclear yield.

 
The last test series was Operation Roller Coaster, a joint operation 
between the United States and the United Kingdom to better understand 
the possible hazards from an accidental non-nuclear detonation of a 
plutonium warhead.  The information was to be used to develop 
standards and procedures for the transportation and storage of nuclear 
warheads.  Operation Roller Coaster is described in detail on pp. 
1203-1207.