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On a blackboard in the ghost of an
office, the faint code names of other
blasts—"'Butternut,”’
“Holly,”
“Olive’—can still be read. Order
forms blown from their cubbyholes
by the Northeast Trades litter the
floor of yet another building. And in
the remnants of some workshop, on
a shelf is a 1950 vintage Dixie Cup,
tection
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with an ashtray at its side. in it lays
the cold butt of a cigar.
Little by little, all over the atoll,
mute monuments to the early days
of nuclear testing are failing to the
dozer blades of the Army's 84th Engineering Battalion.
Yet, Enewetak remains a frontier.
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Checking soll samples for radiation
contamination, gathering World War
ordnancefor tater disposal, and hacking
through the jungles searching for radioactive
debris are all In a day's work. But there are
pleasurable activities, too, Including sailing.
instruments—modern
day
Geiger counters of sorts—are being
used there, some for the first time.
They include everything from hand-
held devices to huge self-contained
computerized vans that can analyze
jarge areas of soil in minutes. And
in the words of one particpant, ‘we
are learning to clean up a proving
ground,.and hoping we never have
to use what we learn to clean up a
battleground.”
The master plan, a two-inch-thick,
three-pound volume, before amend-
ments, basically calls for the 84th,
with its trucks, tractors, and cranes,
ite
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point to the once highly secured
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compound where Pate had worked.
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to scrape much of the radioactive
and other hazardous debris and soil
from the atoll.
The radioactivity can't all be eli-
minated because it contaminateseverything, from the land to the wildlife, Department of Energy officials
have pointed out. But they are cénfi-.
dent that parts of the atoll can be
made safe once again.
Radioactive earth and debris are
shipped to Runit Island, there to be
mixed with cement and dumped into
a large, water-filled, moon-like crater
called “Cactus” on the island's
northern tip. At the finish of the
project, the crater tomb—namedfor
the May 1958 blast that created it—
will be sealed with an 18-inch lid of
concrete. Even so, Runit, site of 18
of the 43 nuclear tests, could be un-
inhabitable for at least the next 125,- > ~
000 years, according to Department
of Energy experts.
While 84th engineers are saddled
with most of the actual cleanup, the
vital life support services are being
provided by the Air Force, according
to Army Col. Edgar J. Mixan, Joint
Task Group Commander.
On the main base camp island of
Enewetak—a ghost town revived—
blue-suiters are operating an airfield
and a communicatons center, the
atoll's only expedient links with the
outside world. They are also provid-
ew et ee