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UNITED STATES
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ENERGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION
WASHINGTON, 0.C. 20545
SEP 8
1976
James L. Liverman
Assistant Administrator
for Environment and Safety
STATUS OF THE EVALUATION OF PLUTONIUM IN THE MARSHALLESE
Following Dr. Conard's letter of July 23, which you brought to our
attention, staff of SSC dnd this Division discussed the findings of
the HASL group with Dr. Conard and with Roger Ray. Roger Ray and
Tom McCraw were in Hawaii in early August and discussed the matter
further with Oscar deBrum, District Administrator, Marshalls
District of the Trust Territory.
Prior to their visit, Nat Barr,
Bruce Wachholz and Tom McCraw prepared a statement to be used at
the meeting.
The statement was reviewed by Drs. Harley, Conard, and
Voelz, OGC, and OPA.
See Enclosure 1.
As it turned out, it was not
necessary to make this statement public at the Hawaii meeting. However, in responding to a specific request from Mr. deBrum, a letter
was provided.
See Enclosure 2,
Subsequent to the meeting, Dr. Barr, Dr. Albers, George Magin, Tom
McCraw, Dr. Bruner and I have held further discussions regarding
additional measurements to be made.
Tom McCraw met with Nat
Greenhouse on August 18 to discuss the additional samples to be
collected during the September Brookhaven visit to the Marshalls.
Urine samples will be collected from residents of Wotje, Ailuk,
Utirik, Rongelap, and Bikini Atolls and from U. S. residents and
residents of Ebeye at Kwajalein Atoli.
Pooled and individual samples
will be collected for adults and for those 17 years old and younger,
These will be returned for analysis in October.
Containers provided
for additional collections will be picked up during a December visit.
-We also feel that it would be useful to bring this matter to the
attention of the Transuranium Technical Group or a subcommittee of
that group for their review of what has been done to date, what is
pianned and for any suggestions they might wish to make,
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Enclosures:
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Burr,
Jr.,
Deputy Director
fo.
Division of Biomedical and
Envirentwental Researchne
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