- 2 « As a result of some recent discussions with Ed Wrenn (NYU), I am convinced that we should look for americium in Marshallese whole hody counss, Making inferences ebout Pu from Am data can be pretty tenuous, but Am uptake data would be useful in establishing conservative upper limits on Pu body burdens. Besides that, the present state of the art allows us to see a small fraction of a maximum permissible body burden for * lam, and the incremental cost of adding this specific analysis to the present whole body counting program should be small; I am strongly encouraging the addition of Ed Wrenn's resources to the whole body counting program tentatively scheduled for next spring. I hope to arrange a meeting soon between Ed Wrenn, Stan Cohn, Bob Conard, and myself to discuss the details. JIf additional costs are identified beyond our budgets, I may have to talk to you about the possibility of additional funding from BER or OS. As a follow up to our discussion about the Utirik thyroid cancer cases, I spoke with Bob Conard about the dose estimates. He substantiated our surmise that the estimates were based on rather tenuous and late (post-exposure) urine analyses, and external exposure rate measurements. Evaluations of environmental levels of 1297 may prove helpful in shedding more light on thyroid dose estimates (at least in establishing a dose ratio between Rongelap and Utirik). However, preliminary attempts at activation analysis by the BNL Chemistry department “have indicated a total soil iodine level of ~ 10 ppm in samples from Rongelap. This is near the limit of detection, and the 1497 level is yet to be established. We will continue to look into this approach, however, because larger samples and preliminary chemical separation of iodine may increase the sensitivity of the technique. The following approximate schedule may slip a week depending on interface requirements with Battelle's marine sediments program at Bikini. Fri. Sun. Wed. September 17 September 19 September 22 Hono Kwaj Wot je ~ Kwaj Wot je Ailuk Mon. Fri. Sun. Mon. September 27 October 1 October 3 October 4 Utirik Rongelap Bikini Kwaj - Rongelap Bikini Kwa j Hono Thurs, September 23 Ailuk - Utirik I will keep you appraised of any new developments. Best regards, Ast N. A. Greenhouse sls ec: t C. Meinhold J. Naidu R. Conard ? °