one fraction and iodate carrier to the other,
The fodide carrier was
oxidized with NaNO. in contact with a CCl, phase to extract iodine as
In. The todate carrier was reduced carefully with an equivalent amount
of NagS03 in contact with a CCl, phase; after separating the phases,
more iodate carrier and then NagS04 were added to the aqueous phases
voth fractions were then oxidized with NaNO» in contact with a CCl,
phase. The iodine was back-extracted from the three CCl, solutions into
the aqueous phase with NaS0,,
Comparison of the iodine activity in the
three fractions was used as &n indication of the oxidation state of
iodine,
A third procedure incorporated the use of ion exchange resins.
For this procedure the original sampls was placed on a cation resin col-
umn at a pH of 5 to 6.
Iodine along with other anions and uncharged
particles was washed out with de-ionized water. The wash-through was
analyzed for iodine. Procedures for the separation d iodide and iodate
on an anion resin column resulted in a good elution of iodide from Dowex 1
resin with 3N-HCl. A number of reagents were tried for an elution of
jodate but no satisfactory reagent was found at that time; iodate was
not removed by 50 column volumes of 3N-HC1.
3.3 e202
3.12.
Results
The results for the analysis of iodine are summarized in Table
The values showing the distribution of total iodine activity in
the solid and liquid phase are accurate to within a few per cent. The
growth in and decay of the different isotopes of iodine complicate the
procedures and the interpretation of the data. The procedures were not
as senaitive nor as satisfactory as those for neptunium to show the
presence of the several oxidation states.
Furthermore, the oxidation
atate of iodine in the criginal fallout probably changed before the
samples were recovered,
The presence of organic bodies, the suscepta-
bility of iodine to air oxidation, possiblities of self-nxidation
reduction, and exchange with sea water carrier would contribute to the
formation of the resultant oxidation state of iodine in the samples at
the time of analysis.
The gamma spectra of the fodine fractions for Shots 2,3, and
4 showed the presence of q131 7132 | ana 1133,
The decay of the early
semple on Shot 4 indicated a large amount of 1132 while the gemma spectra showed also the presence of 1131 ana 1133,
34
COMPOSITION OF THE FALLOUT MATERIAL
The samples analyzed quantitatively consisted of materials collected from the environment of the shot points prior to detonation and
the fallout samples.
Three coral samples each from sites Charlie and
Tare, two surface lagoon sea water samples, one bottom lagoon sea water
sample, and one bottom lagoon coral sample were analyzed, Within the
limite of variation of the major elements in these samples their cheaical
analysis was used to determine the amount of environmental or background
constituents in the fallout samples. Then, if it is assumed thet no
great variation in the constituent elements occurred due to fractionation
58