Chapter 6 OTHER ISSUES 6.2 Island Although Runit Island is to be off-limits forever, it is possible that the Enewetak people and others believe this prohibition to be related to the dome. This, however, is not the case, and the committee emphasizes that its conclusions regarding the safety of the containment structure should not be interpreted to mean that it believes there is no possible hazard on: Runit. The surface of Runit Island was cleaned up to below the °agricultural" level of 40 to 80 pCi/g of soil and the southern part of the island satisfied the residential criterion of less than 40 pCi/g (U.S. Department of Energy 1980). However, there were some 14 detonations on or near the northern part of Runit, two of which are thought to have distributed fragments of metallic plutonium on the island and in the lagoon. Thus, there is a hazard of uncertain magnitude on Runit from fragments of plutonium and plutonium dust in subsurface pockets where concentrations of several thousand picocuries per gram have been found. It is possible that undiscovered pocketa contain particles of metallic: plutonium that accidentally could be picked up and carried off the island. In addition, there was a great deal of earthmoving on Runit during the years of testing with buried plutonium being mixed up with general debris and so there are areas that could become exposed by action of,rain, wind, ‘and waves where concentrations are more than 160 pei/g. It is estimated that, exclusive of the contents of the dome, there might be about 10 Ci of transuranics on Runit (i.e., nearly as much as there is sealed inside the dome) (Committee briefing by R. Ray, Deputy Director for Pacific Operations, Nevada Operations Office, U.S. ' Department of Energy, May 28, 1980). For these reasons the island has been quarantined since the cleanup operation. Thus, it seems to the committee that although the hazard presented by the dome is negligible, the same cannot be said for Runit Island as a whole. On the other islands the transuranic contamination was very near the surface, consisted mainly of oxides with very low rates of movement through soil, and could be removed fairly easily by " wn 2 toed my > 659 35