Aleutian/Pribil of Islands Association
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Document Type
Article
Date
2-15-2007
Description
Derivation of dose estimates from subsistence food such as fish require that the concentrations of radionuclide are precisely known. The safety of subsistence food and the ecosystem in areas adjoining Amchitka requires that the radionuclide concentration of anthropogenic radionuclides, potentially released from the three nuclear tests between 1965 and 1971 at Amchitka Island in the central Aleutian Archipelago, in subsistence food. The total yield of these detonations (6.08 million tons) is estimated to be about 15% of the total yield of all US underground nuclear explosions {Long shot: 80 kton at 690 m below the island’s surface; Milrow: 1 million ton, 1969 at 1200 m below surface; and Cannikin: 5 million-ton, 1971 at 1763 m below surface (the world’s largest underground test). The Department of Energy has conducted monitoring of this site for a number of years and has found little evidence of radionuclide leakage (Sibley and Tornberg, 1982; Burger et al., 2006). We collected a suite of fish samples from areas adjoining Amchitka and tested it for natural and anthropogenic radionuclides. In this report, we report the concentration of gamma-emitting radionuclides (40K, 137Cs, 226Ra, and 226Ra) from a suite of fish samples that we obtained from our collaborators.
This research was completed money allocated during Round 5 of the Citizens’ Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund (MTA Fund). Clark University was named conservator of these works.
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Publisher
Aleutian/Pribil of Islands Association
Format
Keywords
nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons testing, environment, non-governmental organizations, United States Department of Energy, tribal governments, environmental cleanup, radioactive fallout, radioactive waste, Amchitka Island
Rights
Copyright belongs to the authors. Clark University was chosen by the non-profit peace and environmental groups as the conservator of these reports; our right to distribute these works ensures they remain available to the public in perpetuity as intended. Reuse at your own discretion with with due deference to copyright holders.
Location
Anchorage, AK
Recommended Citation
Aleutian/Pribil of Islands Association and Baskaran, Mark, "Radionuclide Data Analysis of Marine Subsistence Food from Amchitka and Adjoining Areas" (2007). Aleutian/Pribil of Islands Association. 2.
https://commons.clarku.edu/aleutian/2
