  We have detected the radio recombination lines H91-alpha and H92-alpha with
rest frequencies of 8.6 GHz and 8.3 GHz from the starburst nucleus NGC 3256 at
an angular resolution of 16.4" x 9.6" using the Australia Telescope Compact
Array and at an angular resolution of 12.0" x 2.9" using the VLA. The line was
detected at ~ 1 mJy/beam peak with a width of 160 km/s with the ATCA and at ~
0.5 mJy/beam peak with a width of 114 km/s with the VLA. Modelling the line
emitting region as a collection of HII regions, we derive constraints on the
required number of HII regions, their temperature, density, and distribution.
We find that a collection of 10 to 300 HII regions with temperatures of 5000 K,
densities of 1000 cm^-3 to 5000 cm^-3 and diameters of 15 pc produced good
matches to the line and continuum emmission. The Lyman continuum production
rate required to maintain the ionization is 2 x 10^52 s^-1 to 6 x 10^53 s^-1,
which requires 600 to 17000 O5 stars to be produced in the starburst.
