weight of the total pooled samples, wet/dry weight ratios, and the
concentration of plutonium in the tissues are shown in Table 2.
Unfortunately the mullet muscle and gill samples were inadvertently lost
during processing.
Recent concentration data and concentration factors of
plutonium determined in mullet tissue from several islands of Enewetak
Atoll (No 78b) will be used to estimate the expected concentration in the
missing tissues from Kwajalein fish.
997, was detected by gamma spectrometry only in the mullet viscera and
stomach contents.
The 952r in the mullet gut probably originates from
recently ingested material contaminated with fresh fallout debris from the
Chinese atmospheric nuclear test conducted on 26 September 1976.
The
concentration in the viscera and stomach contents were 68.5 + 13.0 and
307 + 32 pCi/kg wet weight,
respectively,
on the day of collection.
137¢. was above detection limits only in the snapper muscle tissue and it's
concentration was 11.9 + 1.5 pCi/kg wet weight.
Grab samples of lagoon reef sediment (0-11 cm) off Enewetak Island,
Kwajalein Atoll were obtained in early 1976.
The average concentration of
23942405, in 9 sediment samples was 6.2 + 1.3 pCi/kg dry weight and the
mean 2385, 239240,
u ratio was 6.032 + 0.008.
The estimated quantity of
2394240, in this sediment to a depth of 1l ecm, is 1.4 + 0.5 mCi/lan?.
This value falls within the range of fallout plutonium inventories (1.4 -
3.0 mCi/ kn”) that we have determined in water columns from samples
collected during 1973 in the north equatorial Pacific between 4° and 16° N
latitude.
4 CAVES
Ach
DOF *