66
6.12
Rongelap and Ailinginae Atolls,
July 1957.
The
data from this survey confirmed the evidence of the accumulation of the long-lived,
induced,
transition element
|
radioisotopes in the soft tissues of fish from waters contaminated by nuclear test explosions.
nificance was the
Of particular sig-
discovery that in 1957,
the levels of
radioactivity in fish from Rongelap Atoll lagoon were higher
at Kabelle Island than at Rongelap Island.
In 1954, when
Rongelap Atoll was subjected to fallout from the thermonuclear
test at Bikini,
considerably higher levels of radiation were
measured at Kabelle Island in the northern part of the atoll
than at Rongelap Island to the south
(Donaldson,
1955).
This
would indicate that by 1957, radioactivity from the 1954 fallout which had entered the water of the lagoon, had not yet
become uniformly distributed throughout the lagoon, but had
retained a geographic distribution related to the initial fallOut pattern of 1954.
In the light of the rather considerable
circulation of water in the lagoon,
its turbulence and its
extensive exchange with the water of the open ocean
1954),
{Von Arx,
this was remarkable and strongly suggested a holding
Capacity on the part of the lagoon biota for chemical substances
in the water.