EB ET Ee rm pe we re re ee pote ee;

mee

found was 14 pCi/ml, or 4300 tritium units (at Nam Island) whereas at Bikini

and Eneu Islands, the concentration was 2 pCi/ml, or approximately 600 tritium

units.

(See Figure 3 for well point locations on Bikini.)

These values fall

within the range of tritium concentrations in surface waters of the United

States in 1966. It has been shown that there is approximately 10,000 times
more tritium in "bound" water than in "free'' water in soils at Eniwetok Atoll,
however, there is little exchange of the bound water with the free water.
(Free water is that released or extracted by freeze drying.

Bound water

represents additional water which could be released upon combustion of the
sample.)
Hence it is probable that there will be no major changes in the
tritium concentration of well water at Bikini Atoll.

4,

RADIONUCLIDES IN FOOD

The values of radionuclides observed in food items other than land

plants are presented in Table 3.
4.1

EDIBLE PLANTS
Coconut, arrowroot, and pandanus samples were collected in 1967 and 1969

and analyzed (Table 4).
Coconut samples were collected from 13 different
locations on Bikini in 1969.
Green coconuts were used for almost all samples

and the meat and milk were analyzed separately.

Only 137¢s and 9%Sr were

detectable in any of the samples.
Tritium analyses were performed on the
milk from selected coconuts but all results were below the lower limit of

detection (0.4 pCi/ml).
4.2

FISH

The fish collected and analyzed are in two main categories:
reef fish
and pelagic fish.
The reef fish, an important item in the Marshallese diet,
are caught by throw net while the pelagic fish are caught by trolling.

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