h

soil Cleanup Operations

341

um time possible for a 30-day period. Thefilters
operat ed for the maxim
hanged at |-week intervals. The main limiting factor to the air

were ©
ling program was the weather. Since rain often damaged thefilters
ae was desired to sample the air during the season when maximum
an ension of beryllium occurred, the beryllium air-sampling program

eogun during the dry season. Approximately 24,000 cubic meters of

sent to the
were sampled. One-month samples were composited and
Texas,
AFB,
Brooks
tory,
Labora
‘ecupational and Environmental Health
per
ium
for gnalysis.? All results were less than 0.001 microgramsof beryll
cubic meter of air, the minimum detectable concentration, well within
. !°
established limits

ENJEBI SOIL CLEANUP
Enjebi is the largest island in the northern portion of Enewetak Atoll,
the political subdivision controlled by the iroij (chief) of the dri-Enjebi.

With an area of 290 acres, it is the second largest island in the atoll.
Cleanup of debris on Enjebi is described in Chapter 5. Soil cleanup work
was complicated by a numberof factors.

Enjebi was the site of the first test at Enewetak Proving Ground, the

X-Ray event, on 14 April 1948. The Easy and Item tests of Operation

Greenhouse also were conducted on this island. During the Hardtack |
Operation in 1958, seven tests were conducted from barges in the lagoon
near Enjebi. The plutonium-239 concentrations found in the 1972
radiological survey ranged from 0.08 to 170, with a mean of 8.5 pCi/g. The
geographic distribution of plutonium-239 did not show any systematic

pattern, and the depth distribution showed considerable variability from
location to location. Most distributions displayed a rapid decrease in

activity within the top few centimeters, with leveling off occurring as depth
increased. Some deviations from this were noted in NVO-140. The
geographical distribution of strontium-90 and cesium-137 did not show a
systematic pattern either. Elevated amounts of radiation from cobalt-60

were evident in one area; however, the level was not alarming.
Records of nuclear test-related activities which affected soil cleanup
were incomplete; however, soil profile samples indicated the same marble

cake effect (swirls of clean and contaminated soil) which appeared on

Aomon and Runit. Some standard assumptions were made; e.g., that

burial of contaminated material occurred at all surface GZs. This was

evidenced by the presence of mixed sand, paving material, and concrete,
as well as by elevated levels of plutonium. Records indicated that some
contaminated areas had simply been paved over with asphalt.

7

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