RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS REGARDING THE DOE 1982 RADIATION REPORT by W.J. Bair, Pacific Northwest Laboratory February 20, 1990 The following is in response to your request of January 12, 1990 to answer questions ’regarding the Department of Energy (DOE) publication, DOE1982, “Melelen Radiation Ilo Ailifi ko Itui6fi Ilo Maj61, ko Rar Etali Ilo 1978” (The Meaning of Radiation for Those Atolls in the Northern Part of the Marshall Islands That Were Surveyed in 1978). Before addressing the questions, it might be helpful to explain the relationship of the DOE-1982 publication to the radiological survey of the northern Marshall Islands, which preceded the publication. The radiological survey was undertaken by DOE using its contractors, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and EG&G Inc.; the results were published in two reports: UCRL-52853, Pt. 4, “The Northern Marshall Islands Radiological Survey: Terrestrial Food Chain and Total Doses,” by W.L. Robison et al. and dated September 30, 1982, and the EG&G report, dated June 1981, “An Aerial Radiological and Photographic Survey of Eleven Atolls and Two Islands Within the Northern Marshall Islands,” by W.J. Tipton and R.A. These reports constitute the official documentation of the results Meibaum. of the radiological survey. I was asked to work with Mr. John Healy, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Dr. Bruce Wachholz, DOE, to help communicate the technical information documented in UCRL-52853, Pt. 4 to the Marshallese government and people so that they might have a better understanding of the radiological conditions in the northern Marshall Islands. The method of communication was to be a booklet, written in Marshallese with an English translation, much like those we had prepared for the people of Enewetak, “Ailin in Enewetak Ratnin,” and of Bikini, “Melelen Radiation Ilo Ailin in Bikini.” We were assisted by a renowned Marshallese language translator recommended to us by the Republic of the Marshall Islands and two English-speaking Marshallese. It may help readers of the English text to understand that, in these booklets, the Marshallese text is the authentic text. This is noted on page 1 of “The Meaning of Radiation for the Atolls in the Northern Marshall Islands that were Surveyed in 1978”: “The Marshallese text is a dynamicequivalent translation of an original English draft, and the English text is a modified literal translation of the Marshallese text.” Since the English text, like all translations, cannot reflect exactly what is said in theoriginal text, the English may, in some places, give a generic rather than This is especially true because precise translation of the Marshallese. Marshallese, in comparison with English, has considerable linguistic and grammatical limitations that inhibit precise, unambiguous communication of scientific and medical concepts.