-38-
(Table 6) show that the plant tissues concentrated the longlived isotopes cst37 and Sr 90, which
amounts in the soil.
were present
Ce 144_p,144 present in high
in low
amounts
a
in the soil, accounted for only a small
radioactivity in the plant samples.
percentage
of the
Analyses were not made
of the radioisotopes later shown to be present commonly in
plant samples
from this
area.
These isotopes,
gr2>-Nb?9 , Rut06_pp106 , Co? 769 ana gn©?,
such as
may account for
the radioactivity that was not determined in the analyses.
Radioactive decay curves of individual
samples
of
these tissues show that the radioactivity was decaying at
a very Slow rate.
radiochemical data,
and Csi37
This observation is in accord with the
since both sx 20
(half life 27 years)
(half life 28 years)
accounted for the major
portion of the radioactivity analyzed.
DISCUSSION
Previous studies to evaluate the
recovery and rein-
vasion of the flora at the Eniwetok Proving Ground,
approxi-
mately fifteen months after Operation Sandstone, were made
in 1949 by St.
gohn '22)
and Biddulph (©) ,
They reported
morphological abnormalities in ten species of plants growing