314

RADIOLOGICAL CLEANUP OF ENEWETAK ATOLL

The Director, DNA requested that DOE examine thepossibility of not

cleaning Boken and Lujor to 160 pCi/g and identifying patterns ofliving
that could be adopted for those islands other than quarantine. DOE
representatives agreed to have this done.
Dr. W. P. Wood, of EPA’s Radiation Programs andits representative at
the conference, pointed out that DOE/DOD acceptance of the 40-80-160

pCi/g criteria should not imply EPA approval and that, once the plan for
soil removal was established, EPA would desire to examine that plan. The
Director, DNA stated that he understood that there was no EPA blessing,

but he also pointed out that Enewetak really did not come under the draft

EPA guidelines.
The Director, DNA decided to accept the criteria recommendedby the
Bair Committee and DOE asthe standards for contaminatedsoil cleanup.
This acceptance was contingent upon the Bair Committee and DOE
developing more precisely the status of islands (e.g., Boken or Lujor)

which might end up being cleaned to below 400 pCi/g, but not down to the
160 pCi/g criteria recommended by the Bair Committee for food-gathering
islands. 104

The criterion for subsurface contamination was not discussed at the
conference. That criterion, OPLAN Condition D, was the most stringent
and difficult to achieve. Subsurface concentrations of transuranics were
not to exceed 160 pCi/g averaged over one-sixteenth hectare on anyisland
to be used by the dri-Enewetak.

NORTHERN ISLAND RESIDENCE DECISION
The issue of possible residence on one or moreofthe northernislands
was raised during the discussion on soil cleanup criteria because the new
criteria were based on a dose assessment model which assumedsoil
contamination levels that would occur only in the northern islands. The
dose assessmentindicated that living on islands having surface transuranic
levels which averaged 40 pCi/g, growing crops on islands which averaged
80 pCi/g, and visiting islands which averaged 160 pCi/g could result in a
dose of about 13 millirads for transuranics alone, over four times the

proposed new EPA guideline of 3 millirads per year for the U.S. Doses

from strontium and cesium in the drinking water, coconuts, and other
local food were not considered since it was assumed that no one would be
permitted to live on Enjebi until after those elements decayed to
acceptable levels.
By this time, everyone was awareof the Bikini cleanup and resettlement

problems. Mr. McCraw, of DOE, stated that Bikini was typical of what

could happen in the Marshall Islands. Bikini had suffered a drought and

y

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