The historical background related to the establishment of the Nevada Applied Ecology Croup (NAEG) is described in the preface of the first NAEG report entitled "Dynamics of Plutonium in Desert Environments" NVO-142 edited by Dunaway and White (1974). This report states that the Planning Directive NVO-76 established the NAEG under the Office of Effects Evaluation, whose responsibility includes the determination and prediction cf effects of radioactivity on biota, particularly with respect to food chains and other environmental factors affecting man. The stated purpose of the NAEG is " ...to coordinate the ecological, radiation monitoring and other environmental programs necessary to support continued nuclear testing activities and to provide the mechanism to effectively comply with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969..." An early concern of ment Administration for nuclear weapons handling, transport the former AFC, currently the Energy Research and Develop(ERDA), and the U.S. military organizations responsible was for the safety of these devices with respect to storage, and accidents. This, in turn, ted to a number of experi- ments désigned to test for "safety against fission reaction." Basically, these experiments consisted of detonating a chemical explosive in close proximity to an assembly of plutonium and/or uranium and were appropriately called "safety shots."' These tests have resuited in the local distribution of plutonium and/or uranium at specific sites located at such areas as the Nevada Test Site (NTS), Tonopah Test Range (TTR) and the Pacific Proving Grounds. The wisdom of carrying out these tests was demonstrated by accidents near Palomares, Spain, Thule Air Force Base, Greenland, and elsewhere. To date, intensive studies on the transuranium nuclides carried out at specific “safety shot" areas at the NTS and at the ITR have been a principal function of the NAEG since its inception. Much of the historical background for these studies is described in the preface to NVO-76 mentioned previously (Dunaway and White, 1974). However, during the past year or so, increasing attention has been directed toward extending these studies to include areas in the immediate vicinity of old nuclear test events which were associated with Plowshare cratering tests, surface shots or accidental ventings. iy As a result, both large and small animal studies have been incorporated into this program in the form of field and laboratory studies. The large animal studies are carried out by the Environmental Monitoring and Support Laboratory of the Environmental Protection Agency at Las Vegas (EMSL-LV), ‘These studies are concerned primarily with the transfer of plutonium and other transuranium nuclides to man via the food chain, with special emphasis on milk and meat. The principal animals used in these studies include dairy cattle, dairy goats, and beef cattle (specifically the NTS range herd}. The objectives of the laboratory experiments conducted at EMSL-LV include determining: (a) the transport of plutonium and other transuranic elements from orally administered doses to milk and tissues (or meat products) and the excretion rates of these materials in urine and feces; (b) the transfer of transuranics to juvenile animals via in vivo labeled milk; (c) transfer of ingested plutonium and americium to edible tissues and eggs of domestic fowl. chem forms of transuranic elements, as (d) solubility studies of known chemical in an artificial rumen-simulated forage, on ls materia d eposite field-d well ag y to the solubility and subsequent gastrointestinal system which relate directl In general, the field absorption of radionuclides in the intact animal. (a) beef cattle placed to forage on studies conducted by EMSL-LV involve: steers used as sample collectors contaminated rangeland along with fistulated ous wildlife such as deer, coyotes for forage, and (b} the collection of indigen anic nuclides in their tissues. and jackrabbits for the analysis of transur on sample collectors have a The fistulated steers which are used as vegetati ingested samples can be surgically placed "window" to the rumen from which grazing cattle have for local retrieved in order to determine the preference to determine In addition, such rumen samples may aiso be analyzed vegetation. radionuclides associated with the qualitative and quantitative makeup of the red Selected animals from the range herd are slaughte the ingested forage. examined for abnormal pathology on a semiannual schedule and their tissues are 1975). and are analyzed for specific radionuclides (Smith, s vertebrates have been carried In ettu ecological studies of stall indigenou y of Nevada-Las out by Drs. Bradley and Moor of the Universit population, and Moor, 1975). These studies include ecology, in contaminated studies of small mammals, birds and reptiles Tissue samples from these animals are analyzed and the TTR. contaminants in content in order to relate these to existing especially plutonium and americium. Vegas (Bradley and reproduction areas of the NTS for radionuclide the environment, animal programs indeed develop Thus it can be seen that the large and small cal radiation monitoring in both large ecologi for tion informa mission d require nce and are a The domestic animals are of economic importa and small animals. the small indigenous vertebrates are direct link in the food chain to man, and information is used as input a part of local ecosystems. Much of the derived anium radionuclides on man for modeling the potential impact of the transur ecosystems. through food chain transport and on local to the nuclear testing programs, transuranic nuclides are also In addition via fission reactors and it produced in the generation of electrical energy approximately one quarter century the of end the by that d estimate has been have been generated, including of a million tons of radioactive wastes will Thomas and Perkins nium elements. approximately 2 x 10% curies of the transura this material; for example, they (1974) have presented an excellent review of of 242/244cm in nuclear wastes show that the activities of 241 pyf24lam and Pu, However, e greater than range from two to three orders of magnitud the ratios of transplutonium they also mention that it is obvious that es will be much less than those elements to 239Pu in nuclear fuels themselv reprocessing, these wastes could in the nuclear wastes. During transport oT in a variety of chemical or physical ent environm the to released ally accident be nics in the environment The information gained from the study of transura forms. It is toward in such an event. and food chain of man could be of great benefit of DBER support, through the this end that we have also had a certain amount neptunium in the cow-milk/meat Link NAEG, to study the transport of curium and