as wall as

combine to make evaluations of local fallout contriou-

tions from U.

S.

Pacific tests indistinguishable from the

contributicens of the world-wide

Many small-scale radiological
*

>

fallout.

survevs were

.

°

conducted during

n

areas,

the greater distance of th

o

the 1950's and 1960's at or near the Pacific testing areas in
the northern Marshall

Islands;

nowever,

definitive evaluations

of the impacts of residual fallout radicactivity were not made

wn or suspected to be contaminated by tropo-

o.
J
oO

those island

"

(1-3).

ot]

until the 1970's

These evaluations were conducted on

spheric fallout from the tests at Bikini and Enewetak Atolls.
Environmental studies of peripheral areas

in the central Pacilic

were conducted on a small scale during the testing years
1958) by the University of Washington,
1979,

(1945-

and thereafter in 1975,

and 1980 by Brookhaven National Laboratory as well.

Those

studies vielded significant data on background radiation levels

in these areas, and form the basis for this report.
The Marshall Islands are all comprised of coral atolls or
partially drowned atolls formed by coral limestone accretions
on subsiding volcanic bases.

rilling studies at Enewetak

established that the limestone cap may exceed 1280 meters in
As

and thorium series

the contributions of the uranium

to the radiation environment in the Marshalls

i es are dominate

a.

st

ct

+

from th

ented by small contributions

ea]

rv

QO

&.

i
Oo
So

ye

Go
a

by cosmic rad

@
ot
he

<

those islands which are remotes

wa

External background radiation levels on
cb

are virtually nil

a result,

ct

(6).

fv

thickness

fron °°K,

Select target paragraph3