SLIDE 44
Environmental levels of radioactivity. BNL personnel commenced limited
environmental monitoring of the Marshall Islands for radioactivity in April
1974.

Since then, members of the staff have made a number of field trips to

the Marshall Islands to collect a representative cross-section of vegetation,

animals, fruits, soil and water found on the inhabited islands for the purpose

of assessing the activity intake by people.

The surveys covered Kwajalein, Wotho, Bikini, Rengelgg,and YRgrik
Atolls. In general, all samples were analyzed for
~“Sr
Pu,
Pu and any
gamma emitters which may have been present at the time of analysis.
The specife activity per unit dry weight 9f foods ,,hrush and soil are
given here.
The predominant activities were
Sr and
Cs.
The activity
ratios between islands were based on thousands of measurements and apply to
all nuclides.

ENVIRONMENTAL LEVELS OF
RADIOACTIVITY MID 1970's

Bq g' Dry Weight
Description

Sy

239Dy

BIC,

Co

241 Am

Bikini
PandanusFruit
Scaveola Leaves
Soil
Coconut Meat

8.7
3.4
2.0
_

0.019
0.0093
0.052
_

15
14
2.9
38.6

0.61
_
0.048
_

_
—
0.27
-

Activity Ratio

2

oor

Bikini / Rongelap
Bikini / Utirik

tae

47

4
20

997

Select target paragraph3