- ee he fi | bo4 ™ } / . F : : _ :. f | ams. Mo ~ 6.31. 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 2 Be 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. A whole new family of radiation de= etl pe Pa ae ay tes Qe ~~" ee <~tane ae Ponfinthiveet “a Nee T a ¥? * y . ° 4 f ‘ wt ” oe fg oy Ce =" if ; . fi ~" e f - a ; ee 3° oO For fT agt ~ 7a etme Fa os f‘ a ty a wf , ~ ;. = a c %lC* 3a i LAS Sf po2 be wana’ws i : : ca ¢. os 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 ' c iY. © : we %, a, ht. ; bil: f WR ? H point to the once highly secured 5 poe — . as j compound where Pate had worked. NS ‘ wan we . 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