!Iarshallese:
I have a question.
If I understand correctly the Department
of Energy is the department that is responsible for understanding
about
radiological effects and energy in general, and you have in this graph on
page 12 showed information regarding the duration of radioactivity of
certain elements and some, it is pictured here, as being very short-lived
and some are longer and you gave an example of one which is say 30 years as
a half life so, my question is:
Since you are the ones now that are active
in studying this and understanding
it, why did you make your survey so many
years, like it was done in 78 and you realize though that something such as
the top two elements, they are not present, they do not exist after, in
that period of time and so it seems like you who understand this, delayed
certainly your survey for, it is obvious that you made it after some
elements were no longer even present in the soils?
If this information is
accurate, which we assume it is, then it seems interesting to me that the
surveywas
~:
made years after some of those have dissipated.
That’s a most appropriate question.
In fact measurements
have been made since the first test at Bikini in 1946.
In the
and surveys
locations
where most of the radioactive material fell, these surveys have been made
most frequently and continuously, for example, at Enewetak, at Bikini and
later at Rongelap and Utrik.
This survey and this report were an attempt
to summarize at one time the conditions throughout, whether or not we
expected to find anything significant to health.
As I indicated this
morning we did not have, until recent years, the ability to do as extensive
a measurement
as we have done in this
survey.
(Buck to Ray:
You mean by ability, equipment?)
(Ray to Buck:
That’s right equipment and technology
if you can. .well yeh,
equipment, measuring instruments. )
Marshallese:
It seems like yesterday
a statement was made that would tell
us that a person who lives on a given island that is contaminated,
lived there and did not eat food from that island, that it would be
38
if he