30
plutonium in the containment structure simply is not sufficient to

sustain any significant increase in the level of activity in the waters

of the lagoon. To take an extreme example, if as much as 1 Ci/yr of
plutonium were being remobilized to the lagoon now, the average concentration in the lagoon would increase only by 33 percent and the

effective half-life of the plutonium in the structure would be about 8

years. Since the levels of plutonium in the waters of the lagoon would
have to be increased by several orders of magnitude to exceed international standards for drinking water, leaching from the dome is not
likely to create a hazard.
An upper limit for the radiation dose caused by leaching from the
dome can be estimated by simply assuming that all of the transuranics
are rapidly remobilized to the waters of the lagoon (i.e., in a time

less than 30 years so that all effects would occur within one genera-

tion).

As already noted, about 3 Ci of plutonium need to be remobi-

lized annually to maintain the present concentration in the water
column, and the estimated dose rate to bone marrow (for all transuranics) from the ingestion of marine foods is 0.26 mrem/yr (section
5.5). If the concentrations of transuranics in marine organisms are
proportional to the concentrations in the water column (which is the
assumption behind the use of the usual “concentration factor"), then
the total additional dose from the remobilization of 12.6 Ci to the

lagoon's water column should be approximately 4.2 times (12.6 divided

by 3) the estimated annual dose due to the present concentration, or
1.1 mrem.
In other words, the dome at.most could sustain the present
levels for about 4.2 years.
This upper limit of 1.1 mrem for the total dose due to remobilization of the dome's transuranics to the waters of the lagoon is independent of the exact mechanisms by which it might occur. A dose of 1.1
mrem to bone marrow also is small compared to doses that can be
expected from other causes at Enewetak.
Por example, cosmic rays in
the Marshall's produce a dose to bone marrow of 1.1 mrem every two
weeks.
Thus, even a relatively rapid remobilization of all the transuranics contained in the dome to the waters of the lagoon would not be

‘expected to create a significant new radiological hazard.

A simple model can be constructed to estimate the increased 30-year
dose to bone marrow through the marine food chain if leaching from the

dome to the lagoon took place with an effective half-life of T (see

appendix A). If all 12.6 Ci in the dome were available for leaching
and eventually went into solution in the lagoon (certainly an overly
conservative assumption), the estimated increased dose as a function
of the effective half-life in the dome would be:
Effective half-life
in dome (years)

10
20
50
100
~~

200

>
F

7

cs}

.

400
1000

,

Extra 30-year dose
to bone marrow (mrem)

"
,

0.95
0.72
0.37
0.20

0.12

0.05
0.02

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