-16-
samples from Wotho, Tarawa,
Ponape, and Kapingamarangi, «40
contributed the major portion of the radioactivity.
gamples
collected at the
same time
Other
contained wi61,185,
radioisotopes identified with the 1958 fallout.
Some samples,
Buch as coconut crab abdomen and whole fish from Wotho,
tained gn®>, whereas others,
none,
such as land plants,
Some of the land plants
con-
contained
contained measurable amounts
of the long-lived fission products es?37 ana sr?°,
The high-
est level of sr?° was found in a sample of coconut crab cara-
pace from Wotho
isotope by the
(18 ywuc/g dry).
The concentration of this
carapace of land
crabs at Eniwetok has been
Department of Energy
Historian’s Office
reported by Held (1957).
ARCHIVES
The relatively rapid decay of beta radioactivity in
gome of the samples collected in 1956 at Tarawa,
Wotho (Fig. 2 A-E)
isotopes.
Ponape and
indicates the presence of short-lived
A gamma spectrum analysis of one of the samples
(leaves and stems of a Messerschmidia plant from Wotho)
showed that gr? =Nb?” were the predominant radioisotopes in
this sample.
Thomas et al.
(1958)
found that these isotopes
contributed approximately 84 per cent of the total radioactivity in a duplicate sample.
The presence of short-lived
isotopes in the 1956 samples indicated recent fallout at
these islands.