Project GABRIEL

The first comprehensive study of the problem of radioactive isotope release began in spring 1949 with a one-man project called GABRIEL, conducted by Nicholas M. Smith Jr. at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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.

The 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.

Smith's tests focused primarily on how many atomic weapons could potentially be detonated before radioactive contamination of air, water and soil became a long-term effect on crops, animals and humans worldwide.

[4] In 1949, Smith estimated that it would take 3,000 Hiroshima-sized detonations in a single growing season to see if it have an effect on people who ate crops in affected areas.

[6] Project GABRIEL opened a wide range of questions about formation, transformation, fallout and biological hazards due to bomb debris.

It was the sole support of the major research effort of Project SUNSHINE, which tested biological damage from radioactive fallout of Sr-90.

Two aerial photos of atomic bomb mushroom clouds, over two Japanese cities in 1945.
Atomic bomb mushroom clouds over Hiroshima (left) and Nagasaki (right)