which resulted in a decision to plant all of the mines for Shot UNION; the remaining mines were
therefore planted by RECLAIMERand LST-1157 on 25 April.
Recovery of the mines by RECLAIMER was accomplished over a period of several
days, commencing on 28 April. The recovered mines were washed down to reducethe levels of
radioactivity as they were brought aboard. Personnel handling the mines and recovery gear used
special clothing, gloves and equipment. While on RECLAIMERandlater after transfer to LST1157, the mines were kept topside and were constantly checked for radioactivity; those mines with
higher levels of radioactivity were washed or scrubbed down.
The mines and the mine project personnel were transferred from LST-1157 to SHEA on
3 May; SHEAtransported the mines to Pearl Harborfor final analysis.
3.1.2

Project 1.4 - Underwater Pressure Measurements (Reference 12).

This project involved placement, servicing and recovery of several large instrument
buoys (cans) and was conducted at Shots BRAVO and ROMEO(Area Charlie), Shot UNION
(Area Dog), and Shot YANKEE(Area Fox), in Bikini Lagoon (see figure 2.1).

COCOPA,

MENDER and TAWAKONI,along with support barges and several small boats, were involved in
the various project activities. The project was also conducted at Shot NECTARat Enewetak by
contractor personnel from Holmes and Narver (H&N).

After the initia] laying of the buoys for Shot BRAVO, all of the laying, servicing, and
recovery Operations were conducted in radiation-contaminated waters; the buoys themselves were
also contaminated.
COCOPAwasthe principal participant in buoy servicing and recovery operations
throughthefirst three shots. Primarily as a result of recovery operations in Area Dog following
Shot UNION (see figure 2.1), the ambient radioactivity levels aboard COCOPA became higher
than the permissible limit and the mission wastransferred to TAWAKONT forthe remainderofthe
project participation at Bikini. The project report states that protective clothing was worn while
handling the contaminated buoys; the same report indicates that swimmers from the support ships

were also utilized in the recovery operations.

20

Select target paragraph3