<p>In 2022, a “gold folding screen” (red copper leaf: copper alloy leaf containing zinc, also called Western gold leaf), which had traces of the "Black Rain" on a metal surface due to atomic bombing in August 1945, was donated to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. With the cooperation of the museum, we collected and analyzed these traces. Although no radioactive particles nor anthropogenic radionuclides were detected, the red copper leaf traces dissolved by the "Black Rain" were found to be diaphanous by an optical microscopic observation. This novel finding led us to explore the "Black Rain" chemical aspect (highly oxidative) with strong “acid rain” characteristics along with presumed charcoal. This finding consists of the extremely rapid biological effects described by several witnesses after the bombings. The "Black Rain" appears to not have been a simple radioactive fallout, but a complex mixture composed of chemically reactive and oxidizing (biologically toxic) species with radioactive materials. Furthermore, the finding indicates a necessity to incorporate chemistry and aerosols into model simulations of the "Black Rain" and for deeper consideration of global environmental change scenarios, such as “nuclear winter”.</p>

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Gold folding screen (red copper leaf) dissolved by the "Black Rain" generated by the Hiroshima atomic bombing

  • Tadashi Mukai,
  • Tomonori Adachi,
  • Jun Inoue,
  • Hiroshi Yashima,
  • Yuji Shibahara,
  • Satoshi Fukutani,
  • Koichi Takamiya,
  • Yuichi Kurihara,
  • Maiko Ikegami,
  • Naoki Toe,
  • Yasuhito Igarashi

摘要

In 2022, a “gold folding screen” (red copper leaf: copper alloy leaf containing zinc, also called Western gold leaf), which had traces of the "Black Rain" on a metal surface due to atomic bombing in August 1945, was donated to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. With the cooperation of the museum, we collected and analyzed these traces. Although no radioactive particles nor anthropogenic radionuclides were detected, the red copper leaf traces dissolved by the "Black Rain" were found to be diaphanous by an optical microscopic observation. This novel finding led us to explore the "Black Rain" chemical aspect (highly oxidative) with strong “acid rain” characteristics along with presumed charcoal. This finding consists of the extremely rapid biological effects described by several witnesses after the bombings. The "Black Rain" appears to not have been a simple radioactive fallout, but a complex mixture composed of chemically reactive and oxidizing (biologically toxic) species with radioactive materials. Furthermore, the finding indicates a necessity to incorporate chemistry and aerosols into model simulations of the "Black Rain" and for deeper consideration of global environmental change scenarios, such as “nuclear winter”.