calculations, it is assumed that the diet remains constant, and that the loss

of radioactivity in the diet is by radiological decay only.

The 30-year cumulative doses of Table D.7 apply to the period 1987-2016.
In the next 30-year period the doses from cesium-137 and strontium-90 would be
no more than half of these. The transuranic dose continues to increase with
time but the dose due to the transuranics would be less than 3% of the total
dose over 50 y.
Of the principal contaminating radionuclides, cesium-137 is, therefore, the
most important (Table 0.8).
It ac€counts for 93 per cent of the 30-y integral

bone marrow dose and practically 100 per cent of the dose to most other
tissues. Strontium-90 contributes 7 per cent of the 30-y integral bone marrow
dose while the contributions of the plutonium and americium are less than 1%.
Of the foods, coconut products supply some 83% of the cesium intake
(Tables 0.3, 0.4) and Pandanus fruit and local meat (but not fish) supply about
12%.

Coconut, therefore, is responsible for about 83% of the whole-body dose.

The preponderance of cesium-137 in determining the dose is the result of a

much larger intake of
7Cs than of other radionuclides, amplified by
much greater absorption from the gut, so that the cesium-137 entering the
circulation is about 300 times that of strontium-90, and more than one million
times that of the transuranics combined.
4.

Leeway

An additional margin of safety (in addition to the factor of 1.75 already

applied) is implicit in these calculations, which optimistically take 1987 as
the year of resettlement and assume. that coconut and other crops will be
immediately available. A more realistic timetable, allowing for plans,to be
drawn and approved by all concerned, contracts let, a work force assembled,
and the Congressional appropriation of funds, would forsee 1987-88 as a very
early date for starting the work, and 1990 as an early date for resettlement
of Bikini Island. To this must be added 8 years for the coconut plantations
to become significantly productive, j.e., in 1998. This 10-year delay will
ensure an additional loss of 20% in cesium-137 and strontium-90 by spontaneous
decay. There may also be a continual, albeit small, loss of radionuclides
into the groundwater and thence into the lagoon.
In addition, the doses reported here are calculated using the average
value for all of the parameters in the dose model. We have shown that the

data for almost all of the parameters are log-normally distributed and,

therefore, so is the final distribution of estimated doses(5).

The doses

calculated using the average value for the model parameters then fall between

the 65-70th percentile so that about 70% of a returning population would be
expected to have a dose less than or equal to the listed doses. The doses

calcualated using the median value for all model parameters would fall at the

midpoint of the distribution, that is 50% would be expected to have doses less

than and 50% doses more than those listed. These "median" doses way td be
about 40% less than the doses listed here and in the LLNL report
.

5.

Dose and Soil Specific Activity

The internal dose is calculated from the amount of radionuclide ingested

in food; it is thus directly proportional to radionuclide intake. How, then,
does the magnitude of dose change when the specific activity of the soil
changes; for example, when decontamination is carried out or when one goes
from island to island?

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D-4

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