Marshall Islands nuclear fall out data faulty : report
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/newsdaily/s195120.htm

A new scientific report shows that American researchers underestimated by up to 20 times, the radiation dose for a group of Marshall Islanders during nuclear testing in the 1950's.

Dr Hans Behling, co-author of the report - Reassessment of Acute Radiation Doses Associated with Fallout - says original figures do not correspond with the health problems of the Marshallese.

The study was prepared for the Majuro-based Nuclear Claims Tribunal which is considering a claim from Rongelap Islanders for damages.

Rongelap, was engulfed in a snow storm of radioactive fallout from the 1954 Bravo hydrogen bomb blast -- the largest nuclear weapon ever tested by the US.

Dr Behling said their recalculation estimated that Rongelap Islanders' "whole body" exposure was in the "mid-lethal" range.

He says the implications of this amount of exposure for Rongelap Islanders was a higher cancer rate.