Measurements mace by y@- §

between March 20-26 are in agreement. It is curious that the Reta~
Gamma ratio is about 1, This would indicate thut the bulk of the ash
had by this time penetrated to the porous wood structure of the deck,

thus absorbing the setas. The Gamma radiation over most of the ship was
approximately 4O m.r. per hour when the ship arrived in port. If we extra~

polate this back to H # 3 hours, the time the ash began to fall, the intograted Gamma dose is about 100 R. Of course, the ash was falling from H

plus 3 hours to about H plus 9 hours.

If we take the mid-point of this

period as the start of exposure we find the expogure is about 70 R.

This,

however, estimates the whole body Gamma radiation from residual debris

still on the ship when the first measurements were made.Theactualdose
could have been 2, 10, or even 100 times higher depending on how much ash
was washed off the ship and at what time.
We have made a number of discreet inquiries in the hopes that
photographic film might have been available aboard the ship and might possi-~
bly be used as a dosimeter.

All efforts to date have been negative.

Deposition of Internal Emitters
”

There was an urgent requirement to evaluate the extent to which
fission products had been absorbed into the tissues of the fishermen.

AS mentioned earlier, Dr. Nakaidzumi had concluded from his mouse experi-

ment that the prognosis for the fishermen was adversely affected by the —
probability of excessive deposition of long-lived bone~seeking isotopes.
The Japanese scientists were desperately looking for an agent to mobilize

these isotopes and Dr. Lewis believes thet they had administered EDTA to

the patients, despite the fact that urine analysis was beyond their
capability and they were therefore unable to determine either the need for
EDT£. or the effect produced by it. /part from the fact that they were
unable to undertake urine analysis at that time, it is also evident that

they did not understand the dynamics of fission product metabolism and were
not used to thinking in terms of urinary excretion levels as an index
of absorption and deposition,

They were anxious to provide me with samples of urine for State-side
analysis. Two samples were delivered on March 26 and five more on March
30. AS yet we have not received samples from the remaining 16 patients.
The samples received were properly forwarded to the Health and Safety
Laboratory and I have hed the results of gross analysis of the first two
samples.

I communicated these results to Dr. Kobayashi in the attached

letter which is self~explinatory.

Dec.

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