Semple Processing Procedures and Techniques
The techniques and procedures used in collecting,
storing,
preparing, and counting the Rongelap samples were similar to
those used in former years.
(UWwFL-33).°
For complete details see WT-616
The specimens were put on ice while in the field.
Tissues were dissected, weighed and dried at the Eniwetok laboratory.
At the University of Washington, the dried samples were
&shed at temperatures up to 540%, cooled, slurried, dried, and
then counted in an internal gas-flow counting chamber.
Counts
per plate were converted to disintegrations per minute per gram
of wet tissue as of the date of collection by correcting for
sample weight, geometry, backscatter,
self-absorption, coinci-~
dence, and decay.
For the summary tables as used in this report, the radio-
t
activity expressed in disintegrations per minute per gram (d/m/g)
is
was converted to microcuries per kllogram by
uc/kg = _d/m/g
a
(2.2)(10)3
es
oa
4
Radioactivity and Its Rate of Decline in Food Items
A general survey of the radioactivity of foods is given in
Table I, with the rate of decline of these items shown in Figure
2.
It should be noted that the differences due to species and
*
Radioblological Studies at Eniwetok Before and After Mike Shot,
November 1952, Lauren R. Donaldson, Applied Fisheries Laboratory,
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
** The rate of decline is a phrase coined to express the combined
physical decay and the biological uptake and decayrates.
UN.