As a result of some recent discussions with Ed Wrenn (NYU), I am
convinced that we should look for americium in Marshallese whole body
coungs. Making inferences about Pu from Am data can be pretty tenuous,
but “tam uptake data would be useful in establishing conservative upper
limits on Pu body burdens. Besides that, the present state of the art
allows_us to see a small fraction of a maximum permissible body burden
for 24h am, and the incremental cost of adding this specific analysis
to the present whole body counting program should be small; I am strongly
encouraging the addition of Ed Wrenn's resources to the whole body counting program tentatively scheduled for next spring.
f£ hope to arrange a
meeting soon between Ed Wrenn, Stan Cohn, Bob Conard, and myself to dis-
cuss the details.
If additional costs are identified beyond our budgets,
I may have to talk to you about the possibility of additional funding
from BER or OS.
As a follow up to our discussion about the Utirik thyroid cancer
cases, I spoke with Bob Conard about the dose estimates.
He substantiated
our surmise that the estimates were based on rather tenuous and late
(post-exposure) urine analyses, and external exposure rate measurements.
Evaluations of environmental levels of 1291 may prove helpful in shedding
more Light on thyroid dose estimates (at least in establishing a dose rétio
between Rongelap and Utirik}).
However, preliminary attempts at activation
analysis by the BNL Chemistry department have indicated a total soil ilocine
level of ~ 10 ppm a samples from Rongelap.
This is near the limit of ce-
tection, and the 1297 jevel is yet to be established.
We will continue to
look into this approach, however, because Larger samples and preliminary
chemical separation of iodine may increase the sensitivity of the technique.
The following approximate schedule may slip a week depending on interface requirements with Batelle's marine sediments program at Bikini.
Fri.
Sun.
Wed.
Thurs.
Mon.
Fri.
Sun.
Mon.
September 17
Hono
==
September 19
September 22
Kwaj
Wotje
September 27
October 1
October 3
October 4
Utirik
Rongelap
Bikini
Kwa j
September 23
Ailuk
Kwaj
~
Wotje
Ailuk
-~
Rongelap
Bikini
Kwaj
Hono
~
Utirik
I will keep you appraised of any new developments.
Best regards,
ALst—
N. A. Greenhouse
5
C. Meinhold
ro
J. Naidu
a
R. Conard
1 rw
sls
ce: