Individual Radiation Protection Monitoring in the Marshall Islands: Rongelap Island Resettlement Support (1998-2001)

The United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) has recently implemented a series of strategic initiatives to address long-term radiological surveillance needs at former U.S. test sites in the Marshall Islands. The plan is to engage local atoll communities in developing shared responsibilities for implementing radiation protection programs for resettled and resettling populations. Using pooled resources of the U.S. Department of Energy and local atoll governments, individual radiation protection programs have been developed in whole-body counting and plutonium urinalysis to assess potential intakes of radionuclides from residual fallout contamination. The whole-body counting systems are operated and maintained by Marshallese technicians. Samples of urine are collected from resettlement workers and island residents under controlled conditions and analyzed for plutonium isotopes at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LNLL) using advanced accelerator based measurement technologies. This web site provides an overview of the methodologies, a full disclosure of the measurement data, and a yearly assessment of estimated radiation doses to resettlement workers and island residents.