REPOSITORY
THE SECRETARY
2 UEection AG 3
WASHIN
President Robert Gordon Sproul
BOX No. 67
(AN3- 736 ~ 43-009)
FOLDER $00,
92.
© June 1947
University of California
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(4- Y #7)
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408665
Berkeley 4, California
My dear President Sproul:
The Nevy Department, in cooperation with the War Department and the
Atomic Energy Commission, is preparing to send an expedition to Bikini Atoll
in the near future to investigate any possible long term effects of the atom
bomb explosions conducted last summer on the organisms, the reefs or the
islands of the Atoll. Scientists of the U. S. Geological Survey, the Fish
and Wild Life Service, the National Museum, the University of Washington,
Stanford University, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography will
participate in the expedition. It is hoped to carry out a thoroughgoing
investigation of several aspects of the biology and geology of this interesting
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and little known region. It is planned that tne expedition will leave San
Diego about the first of July and will be at Bikini for six weeks starting
15 July.
Radiological measurements made a few weeks after the underwater
burst last summer showed that very large amounts of radioactive materials
has been accumulated by marine plants growing on the reef. These plants
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form the basic food supply for the fish end marine invertebrates of the atoll;
these animals also were found to be heavily contaminated. Available evidence
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suggests that considerable amounts of radioactive materials are still present.
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Presumably, sufficient time has now elapsed to bring about at least partial
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conditions of equilibrium which may make possible quantitative studies of the
processes involved in transfer and acoumultion of radioactive substances from
water and sediment to the plants and hence to the animals. Suoh studies may be
of great importance in future planning for atomic defense. Moreover, the unusual
physiology and environmental conditions of both the land and the marine plants
of the atoll, combined with the presence of radioactive tracer substances in
relatively large amounts, may make possible a unique contribution to basic
problems of plant nutrition.
In order to insure the attainment of these important objectives
radiochemical investigations must be undertaken under the leadership of
scientists oompetent to deal both with the chemistry of radioactive fission
produots and with problems of plant nutrition and soil chemistry. Disoussions
with leaders in these various fields have shown that such a combination of
soientifio abilities im very rare. From these discussions it is evident that
the outstanding specialists in problems of this type are Drs. H. Le Overstreet
and Louis Jacobson of the College of Agriculture of the University of California.
Dr. Overstreet participated in last summer's tests at Bikini and contributed
results of major importanoe,.
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