106 (1972) have measured the 2289, /226p, concentration ratio in a coral at (as high as) 0.2. Thus, the maximum alpha radioactivity contribution from members of this decay chain is in the neighborhood of (0.2 X 1,06 x 5)=1.06 pCi/g. The most likely candidate for the majority of the measured excess total alpha radioactivity, assuming that these numbers are real, are artificially concentrated and/or bomb produced radionuclides. contributors is large. The list of potential The approximately 16 pCi/g values which can be attribu- ted to these "unknown" radionuclides is a significant (13%) portion of the alpha radioactivity burden which was measured spectrometrically in this sediment and should be investigated further. 5.5 Reliability of the Data The degree which the radionuclide concentrations measured are representative of the true areal distribution of radionuclide concentrations measured in the sediments are dependent on several considerations, including: (1) the error in the analytical measurement, (2) the reliability of the laboratory (within sample) subsampling procedures, and (3) the field sampling "bias" or error. parts. In this study, the field sampling error consists of two One is the (within station) variance introduced by sampling from the distribution of concentrations present in the small area designated as a “sampling station.” This problem was viewed as the jn situ homolog to the laboratory subsampling problem noted in No. (2) above. The second field sampling uncertainty concerns completely missing larger areal concentration distributions by inadequate sampling. In this regard, the 30 stations sampled in the lagoon were certainly not enough to detail all the Jocal variations and more sampling is necessary to adequately evaluate the several bio- erentmma geochemical problems of interest. The error in the analytical measurement was dealt with in sections 4.2-3