RE: Compensation of survivors -- bomb test exercises -- uptake of radionuclides

["Franta, Jaroslav" <frantaj@AECL.CA>]

Dukelow, James S Jr wrote:



If I am remembering correctly, soldiers who participated in bomb test

exercises

were never monitored for internal uptake of radionuclides.  How can you know

that exposures were small?

<><><><><><><><><><><><>



Comment: 



In at least some cases, internal uptake of radionuclides can be estimated

from environmental radiation surveys of bomb test sites.

For example, in the case of the British H-bomb tests on (above) Christmas

Island (Kiribati), extensive environmental radiation surveys  were conducted

by an independent laboratory hired by the Kiribati Government in March 1981,

three years after they gained independence from the United Kingdom. 

Forty-eight gamma monitoring sites were set up all over Christmas Island,

and various foodstuffs and drinking water sources were sampled and tested by

scientists from the National Radiation Laboratory of New Zealand. 

As it turned out, NO RADIOACTIVE FALLOUT in excess of the very low levels

found everywhere else in the world were found. Average radiation exposure

levels to residents were found to be LOWER THAN MOST OTHER COUNTRIES,

including New Zealand, due to lower natural terrestrial radioactivity of the

soil on the atoll (a typical feature of coral atolls). 

The 22-page report was published as "NRL Report No. 1981/9" and is available

free of charge on request from NRL. 

Nevertheless, veterans of those & other tests (often w. similar

circumstances) continue to make compensation claims, often supported by

wildly fanciful stories propagated by antinuclear activists.



Jaro

frantaj@aecl.ca

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