reactor wastes brings about a modification of that environment.
The distribution of radioactive elements and their stable isotopes in the organisms from a contaminated marine environment
should,
therefore,
yield useful information with respect to the
fate of radioisotopes introduced into the sea.
The value of using the specific activity of a radioisotope in a marine organism,
as a measure of its distribution in
the environment of the organism,
factors:
ism;
is dependent upon several
(1) the availability of the radioisotope to the organ-
(2) the radioactive half-life of the isotope;
(3) the
residence time of the element in the environment; and (4) the
residence time of the element in the organism (biological halflife).
For any given radioisotope existing in a condition in
an environment which renders it available to some organism in
that environment,
its biological half-life in the organism
should be no more than a small fraction of the residence time
of the element in the environment.
of the isotope should be,
The radioactive half-life
at least, an appreciable fraction of
the biological half-life of the element in the organism under
study.
the radioisotope zinc-65,
an induced product of nuclear
detonations and a common component of reactor wastes,
has the