~&7-
The interwal of 20 days after Nectar, before the firat
leray collections of Halimeda, vould sllow time for the
currents in the lagoon to transpurt products of the detonation
to the vicinity of Leroy.
Prom earlier, unpublished data on
tne detay CuF¥es POF Collactions cf merine crebe, anatla, eoral.
and sea cucumbers from Leroy on Nowember ©, 1362, four days
after the Nike shot, it was clear that decay slopes vere no
steeper at Leroy than at other islands.
Assuming similar spectra of half-lives from Mike and from
Nectar, this four-day interval is believed to have permitted
fallout, but to have been insufficient to allow such selective
transporting by water, of short-lived products to,
or of long-
lived products from Leroy au may have occurred by the 20th day
following Nectar.
Through some unknown mechanism the long-lived residual
products from earlier detonations tended to remain in the
marine life close to the site of detonation at the northern
islands, while shorter-lived products tended to dominate in
marine organisms at the greater distances represented by the
southern islands within the confines of the atoll.
The distribution and uptake of short-lived materials at
Leroy should be made the subject of further study because of
their bearing upon the duration of radioactive contamination
of marine habitats.