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in an environment where £065 is available, the more
60
Co it
accumulates in the kidney, if 6 °G0 has a long biological halflife.
This is not a concentration through the food web since
the clams are filter feeders.
The radionuclide content of bird species presents a sharp
contrast, both qualitatively and quantitatively, associated with
feeding habit
(Table 8 and Appendix Table 10).
The fairy terns
and noddy terns feed mostly at sea outside the lagoon and contain
small amounts of fallout radionuclides,
naturally occurring 40,
‘of
137
Cs.
The curlew,
less than the amount of
They contain barely. detectable amounts ©
on the other hand,
feeds on the reef and
on Scaevola sp. seeds, and consequently contains relatively large
amounts of 13705,
@s much as 2,300 pci/g dry in muscle.
The
turnstones also feed along the beaches and on the reef, and
contain both 6066 and 137 a5,
stones is not known,
of sand particles.
The source of 13765 for the turn-
although it could be by direct ingestion
The yellowfin tuna, which are feeding on
essentially the same organisms as the terns, contain about the
same levels of 6066 as the fairy terns.
The 600, levels in the
noddy terns are somewhat higher but still are of the same order
of magnitude.
Thus the area in which an animal is feeding is
a factor affecting its radionuclide content, as expected, in
relation to the distance from the source of the radionuclide.
9001388
nepartment of Energy
Historian’s
Office
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