Occurrence of Bismuth-207 at Eniwetok Atoll

Abstract

DURING March 18–30, 1961, 308 samples of soil, water, algae, land plants, plankton, fish and invertebrates were collected at Eniwetok Atoll for assay of radioactivity. Two of the samples, taken from the bottom of the lagoon, contained a γ-emitting isotope not previously reported at the Eniwetok Test Site. One sample, which consisted primarily of radiolarians, foraminiferans, and small sand grains, was collected in a plankton net placed under the outflow of a salt water supply system for marine aquaria in which the intake pipe was located on the bottom of the lagoon near Eniwetok Island. The other sample was a specimen of a brown alga, Dictyota divaricata Lamouroux, collected in three feet of water in the lagoon off Glenn Island on the west side of the atoll.