11

Plankton Data
The high specific activity of plankton compared with sea water makes it a simple
measure of the distribution of activity (see Figure 9). It is not completely quantitative; the amount of water swept out is not accurately known, nor are the source and
history of any sample known. However, thereis definite correlation between the macroplankton and sea water samples.
A comparison between the results obtained on corresponding samples of macroplankton measured at the Applied Fisheries Laboratory and HASL is shown in
Appendix F,

[

Table 2
Macroplankton Activity

Based on one gram wet weight
Total

No. of

A few samples of microplankton

Ave

Station

d/min

Samples

d/min/g

OA-3A
4-154

170
740

7
24

24
31

17-214
22-274
28-31A
32-33A

350
615
288
220

10
ll
7
4

39-40A

48

92
10

3

7
2

3023

85

16-16A

34-3B8A

41-444
45-464

111

379

2

8

Statistical tests show the

two sets of values to be indistinguishable,
Comparison of Troll samples with comparable samples from other areas is
shown in Appendix I.

56

35
56
4]
55

47

16

3
5

35.6

were taken with a 17-cm No. 20 net
dragged from 20 m to the surface. These
samples showed even higher specific activity than the macroplankton, as shown
in Appendix G.
A breakdown of plankton samples by
current region is shown in Table 2, corresponding to Table 1 for water samples.
The only marked change is the drop

after Station 38A; it corresponds more
:

.

os

closely to the change in surface activity
than the depth activity.
Radiochemical analysis of the
plankton showed 80-90 percent of the

activity to be Ce!44 with its Pr144

daughter. The remainder was chiefly
Sr?99, but small amounts of other isotopes may be present. cs!37 should be retained
in the procedure, but was not detected.
Fish Data

None of the edible portions of fish collected on Operation Troll showed activity
levels that would be of concern. In addition, the activity levels were so low that radiochemical analyses were not possible.
The controlling activity in the hazard from mixed fission products is the §r90-y90

pair.

The maximum permissible level for food may betakenas that for drinking water,

8x1l0-? Lc Sr 90_y90 per milliliter or per gram. This is equivalent to 2x10-5 pc MFP/g

at one year, or 45 d/min/g.

For populations, the maximum permissible level is con-

sidered to be 1/10 of the industrial level, or 4.5 d/min/g. Thisis about 500 d/min/g

of ash, the basis of reporting used here.
For the analyses of fish reported in Appendix H, the maximum activity found in
tuna muscle was 132 d/min/g ash. However, these analyses were in error due to incomplete removal of potassium. Table 3 shows comparative values of shipboard and
laboratory analyses for mixed fission products.
The maximum values from the laboratory measurements for tuna fish are
3.5 d/min/g ash, or less than 1] percent of the conservative permissible level.

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