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5.12 Radiobiological studies of fish collected at
Rongelap and Ailinginae Atolls,
by Welander
July 1957.
The data presented
(1958) on radioactivity in the fishes of Rongelap
and Ailinginae Atolls has considerable relevance to the present
study in that measurements of gross gamma radioactivity and .gamma spectrometric analyses were available for the study of
fish collected
in the location with which this thesis is pri-
marily concerned.
these data,
The following factors, made evident from
seem particularly pertinent to the problems con-
sidered here:
(1) Radioisotopes of Mn, Co and Zn were prevalent in the
soft tissues of the fish examined, whereas only Mn and Zn were
found in the bone.
Using a mass absorption technique,
Fe? was
found in the livers of Ailinginae fish.
{2) As in the case of the Eniwetok fish,
the levels of
radioactivity were consistently higher in the liver than in the
muscle tissues,
(3) The geographical diatribution of the radioactivity in
the lagoon of Rongelap Atoll suggested by the levels determined
in fish collections from Rongelap and Kabelle Islands indicated
higher levels in the vicinity of Kabelle Island,
eastern part
of the atoll.
in the north-
It was the area which sustained the
heaviest fallout contamination from the 1954 tests.