washing by breaking seas would reduce the radiation levels to a point
where little or no shipyard decontamination would be necessary.
LCUs were required only for roll-up of Bikini and Rongeril,

The

Thay

were deconteaminsted to an aversge reading of about 30 ar/hr, permit~
ting thelr orews to operate them for short periods of time without
acquiring too great dosages,
live aboard.

The crews did act agein move back and

By YANRES plus ten days the LCUs were reading en average

eof 10 mrfhr. Decay during the period from their release from CASTLE to thair resumption of operations elsewhere woe expected to raduce

their contamination sufficiently to preclude shipyard decontanxination,
One was loaded aboard BELLA GROVE for ehipment to Pearl Harbor, three

were left at Eniwetok to owsait lift to the tester Pacific.
7
.
36.

The biggeat deconteminstion problem presented to the task

group was that of the YAéGs,

for experimental purposes they were

parposely exposed to heavy fa)lout on three shota, ACEO, ONION and
+)

YANKES,

YAQ 39 was equipped with washdomn gear, YAQ £0 was not.

By

keeping the two anips in close company and operating the YAO 39 wesh-

down gear, comparicon of contamination levels on the two ships served
te show the wushiom gear's effectiveness.

Deconteminetion after

each ehot wes necessary to permit mamed operstion of the craft up

to shot time minus a few hours on the subseju;nt ehot, ad to get @
true picture of new contasination recelyed.

Initially both ships

were operated as drones maneurered from an airborne control statien

5 \

Select target paragraph3