MEO ep ee eee terns on outer atolls. SMe ee pee Le Amr rr -----oe- UT wia A plutonium excretion study was also undertaken by collecting pooled large~volume urine samples from three to five families at each atoll except Kwajalein. Early in 1977, the question of the past dose equivalent to the Marshallese who have lived on Rongelap and Utirik, had become an important scientific and health related question with considerable political overtones. Bond, Borg, Conard, Cronkite, Greenhouse, Naidu and Meinhold, all members of BNL, and Sondhaus of the University of California, College of Medicine (UCCM) initiated technical evaluation of the issue. FY 1978 MIRSP funding levels were $207,000 for operating and $10,000 for capital equipment. Staffing levels were 2.0 man years scientific and professional and 2.5 man years technical support. Greenhouse and Miltenberger made up the pro- gram's principle staff, Cua and Knight joined the program staff part time. Major equipment purchases consisted of peripheral alpha spectroscopy equipment for plutonium analyses of environmental and biological samples. As a result of earlier discussions by Bond, Meinhold, Naidu and others of BNL, a proposal for Rongelap and Utirik Dose Reassessment (RUDR) had been forwarded to the De-~ partment of Energy's Division of Biological and Environmental Research (DOEDBER formerly ERDADBER) and the program was funded with an operational budget of $59,000. Staffing levels were 0.5 man years scientific and profes- sional, Naidu and Greenhouse were the RUDR program's primary staff.