W
Sail Cleanup Planning
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Under the Bair criteria, islands designated for food gathering (used for
infrequent visits to gather food such as coconut crabs, birds, and eggs)
should not exceed 160 pCi/g concentration of transuranics on the surface
(0-3 centimeters) averaged over one-half hectare. On this basis, OPLAN
Condition A would be lowered from 400 pCi/g to 160 pCi/g.
Agriculture islands, to be used principally for commercial crops of
coconuts, pandanus, and breadfruit, should not exceed 80 pCi/g
concentration of transuranics on the surface averaged over one-half
hectare. On this basis, OPLAN Condition B would be lowered from 100
pCi/g to 80 pCi/g.
Residential island criteria remained unchanged, i.e., surface
concentration of transuranics, averaged over one-quarter hectare, should
not exceed 40 pCi/g. This coincided with OPLAN Condition C.
Since the Bair Committee criteria had been endorsed by DOE, the
agency responsible for furnishing radiological advice for the cleanup
project, the Director, DNA believed DOD mustaccept them. However, he
pointed out that, while the 40-80-160 pCi/g cleanup criteria would
henceforth be regarded as policy, their rigid acceptance must not preclude
accomplishing the most beneficial cleanup with resources available.
DOE representatives stated that the Bair Committee had not been given
the entire problem; that is, the Committee did not have access to all the
soil cleanup data and the engineering soil removal and movementfactors
to which this conference had been exposed. Therefore, although the
Committee was proposingpriorities for cleanup, it was not actually trying
to pin down the islands that should be selected by the DOD Project
Manager for cleanup.
The Director, DNA then stated that he was concerned about the
dilemmafaced in the cleanup if he unequivocally agreed to 160 pCi/g as the
criterion for food-gathering islands, as opposedto the originally specified
400 pCi/g. Cleanup of two islands, Boken and Lujor, desired by the people
as food-gathering and agricultural islands respectively, would utilize
approximately half of the soil transport available, thus diverting these
resources from, perhaps, a more beneficial application. He felt that if he
did not do this, the two islands might have to be quarantined, andthis
might be unacceptable for political and humanitarian reasons.
Mr. Roger Ray, DOE-NV,stated that it was important not to get trapped
into believing that an island which did not meet 160 pCi/g would
iutomatically have to be quarantined. He expressed the opinion that the
Bair Committee criteria should not be acceptedin literal interpretation
and that the Committee would expect that sensible trade-offs would be
made to comply with these criteria as closely as possible within available
resources. After that was done, somerestrictions might be required on
islands where work could not be completed.
~@Geeeeee
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