Effects of chronic low-level irradiation on Gambusia affinis. [White Oak Lake]

TL;DRAbstract

Since 1944, White Oak Lake (WOL), located on the Oak Ridge Reservation, has served as a final settling basin for low-level radioactive effluents from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Organisms inhabiting the lake have been exposed for many generations to chronic low-level radiation significantly higher than background. During the past decade, studies on Gambusia affinis from WOL have been carried out to relate estimated radiation doses to effects on the fitness of the Gambusia population. Results of studies on fecundity, temperature tolerance, and embryonic mortality have led to the conclusion that the Gambusia population in White Oak Lake has an increased frequency of deleterious and recessive lethal genes which may be attributed to the radiation exposure history. The frequency of nonviable embryos from WOL Gambusia did not change significantly from 1966 to 1978; however, it was still significantly greater than that of a control population. In July 1977, Gambusia from a control popu

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