Chapter 3 THE CLEANUP 3.1 Cleanup Proposals In 1972 the U.S. government announced that it would return the Enewetak Atoll to the government of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and, subsequently, to the people of Enewetak, and an effort to Clean up and rehabilitate the atoll was initiated. Planning extended from 1972 to 1977, and the people of Enewetak were involved in the major decisions. The cleanup operation itself extended from May 1977 to April 1980. A detailed on-site radiological investigation by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), cleanup by the Department of Defense (DOD), and rehabilitation (homebuilding and crop planting) by the Department of the Interior (DOI) were carried out to some extent concurrently. The planning and cleanup operations are described in detail in a lengthy DNA report (1981) and are summarized in a DNA fact sheet (1980). 3.2 - Cleanup Criteria The environmental impact statement (EIS) for the cleanup, resettlement, and rehabilitation of Enewetak Atoll (Defense Nuclear Agency 1975) established a series of standards to be met. Radiation doses to the returning population were not to exceed 0.25 rem per year to. the whole body and marrow, 0.75 rem per year to the thyroid, 0.75 rem per year to bone, and 4 rem over a period of 30 years to the gonads. These "guides for cleanup planning” were follewed in the EIS summary by the - statement: , Cleanup of soil containing plutonium can be handled on a caseby-case basis using the following: (a) less than 40 pCi/g of soil--corrective action not required, (b) 40 to 400 pCi/g of soil—corrective action determined on a case-by-case basis . considering all radiological conditions, (c) more than 400 pei/g of soil—corrective action required. It was recommended that only islands satisfying criterion (a) should be used for residence and subsistence agriculture. Islands satisfying criterion (b) could be used for agriculture (e.g., coconut trees for copra production) and those satisfying criterion (¢) could be visited for food gathering (e.g., fishing and gathering birds‘ ‘eggs). 5008327 9