Past and present levels of some radionuclides in fish from Bikini and Enewetak atolls
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States); and others
Bikini and Enewetak were the sites in the Northern Marshall Islands that were used by the United States as testing grounds for nuclear devices between 1946 and 1958. The testing produced close-in fallout debris that was contaminated with different radionuclides and which entered the aquatic environment. The contaminated lagoon sediments became a reservoir and source term of manmade radionuclides for the resident marine organisms. This report contains a summary of all the available data on the concentrations of {sup 137}Cs {sup 60}Co and {sup 217}Bi in flesh samples of reef and pelagic fish collected from Bikini and Enewetak Atolls between 1964 and 1995. The selection of these three radionuclides for discussion is based on the fact that these are the only radionuclides that have been routinely detected by gamma spectrometry in flesh samples from all fish for the last 20 y. Flesh from fish is an important source of food in the Marshallese diet. These radionuclides along with the transuranic radionuclides and {sup 90}Sr contribute most of the small radiological dose from ingesting marine foods. Some basic relationships among concentrations in different tissues and organs are discussed. The reef fish can be used as indicator species because their body burden is derived from feeding, over a lifetime, within a relatively small contaminated area of the lagoon. Therefore, the emphasis of this report is to use this extensive and unique concentration data base to describe the effective half lives and cycling for the radionuclides in the marine environments during the 31-y period between 1964 and 1995. 26 refs., 4 figs., 5 tabs.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 543354
- Journal Information:
- Health Physics, Vol. 73, Issue 1; Other Information: PBD: Jul 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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