Assessment of the Current Day Impact of Various Materials Associated with the U.S. Nuclear Test Program in the Marshall Islands.

Robison, W. L. ; Noshkin, V. E. ; Hamilton, T. F. ; Conrado, C. L. ; Bogen, K. T.

Technical Information Center Oak Ridge Tennessee

关键词: Radionuclides;    Radioecological concentration;    Nuclear explosions;    Marshall Islands;    Environmental exposure pathway;   

RP-ID  :  DE200515013358

学科分类：工程和技术（综合）

美国|英语

来源: National Technical Reports Library

【 摘 要 】

Different stable elements, and some natural and man-made radionuclides, were used as tracers or associated in other ways with nuclear devices that were detonated at Bikini and Enewetak Atolls as part of the U.S. nuclear testing program from 1946 through 1958. The question has been raised whether any of these materials dispersed by the explosions could be of sufficient concentration in either the marine environment or on the coral islands to be of a health concern to people living, or planning to live, on the atolls. This report addresses that concern. An inventory of the materials involved during the test period was prepared and provided to us by the Office of Defense Programs (DP) of the United States Department of Energy (DOE). The materials that the DOE and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) ask to be evaluated are--sulfur, arsenic, yttrium, tantalum, gold, rhodium, indium, tungsten, thallium, thorium, uranium, polonium, curium, and americium-241. The stable elements were used primarily as tracers for determining neutron energy and flux, and for other diagnostic purposes in the larger yield, multistage devices.