NHOU-@2-1998

14:12

FROM

ANTS-DOENY

Ta

DOE HQTRS EH-“41

P.Q3

Additional dose rate measurements were available in the
scientific literature for a number of locations throughout

the Trust Territory.
These were cbtained during visits by
scientist using portable ingetruments.
These data showed

radiation levels in the rest of the Trust Territory no higher
than would be expected from worldwide fallout.
The object of the literature search was to identify those
locations that most likely received the intermediate range

fallout deposition from tests with the higher yields.

We

examined fallout patterns for all tasts, but considering the
distances between Bikini and Enewetak Atolls and other
islands and atolls in the Marshalls and the large areas

impactad by megaton yield tests, only tests with a yield
above 100 kilotons gave fallout patterns of sufficient
dimensions that they could add any additional locations for
this survey. While on this subject, I should point out that
there was one series of tests where yields had not been
published in the open literature at the time of this review.
While falloutfrom the Redwing series was included in the
evaluation of which atolls to survey, you will not find tests
from this series listed in the Table we developed showing
which tests may have impacted which atolls.
See attachment.

Out of this review thirteen islands and atolls were
identified, all in the Northern Marshalls.
These lie along a
track East and West of the test atolls that is about 500
miles long.
Why this would be so is due to efforts by the
Joint Task Force conducting these tests to direct fallout
away from populated areas.
This would preclude selecting a

shot day where meterological data indicated fallout would be

carried to the South.

Planning for a screening survey called for measurements to be

made in each quadrant of an atoll, for the largest islands,
and for any village island. Not every island in a atoll was

included in the survey plan. In addition to aerial
measurements, the survey included collection of environmental
samples to support estimates of radiation exposure through
food intake. The final reports of the survey issued by the
Lawrence Livarmore Laboratory contained estimates of
projected (future) radiation exposure for a resident
population far the islands and atolls surveyed.

90042351

rth

My observations of the radiological data collected during the
Northern Marshalls Survey, and I was a participant for the
first leg or series of the survey, was that there were no
surprises in the character of the measurements. It was
expected that radiation levela would decrease with distance
from the test atolls. This was observed in the aerial

Select target paragraph3