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Soil Cleanup Operations
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in the debris, such as the metal matting, or in the soil which had been
windrowed with the brush in devegetating the area. No further action was
taken on Lujor until February 1979.
At the [2 February 1979 meeting on the Fission Products Data Base
survey, conferees were briefed thatsoil excision was almost 90 days ahead
of schedule, and crater containment was 45 to 60 days ahead of schedule.
{n light of the advantageous situation, consideration was given to
accelerating the cleanup of Runit. However, Mr. Thomas Jeffers, head of
DNA’s Logistics Directorate, raised the possibility of using the available
time to undertake Lujor soil cleanup and thereby reduce the
contamination to a level which would meet the criteria for agriculture use.
VADM Monroe directed the JTG to develop plans for the options of
cleanup of both Lujor and Runit, or Runit along.67
The JTG staff and Service element commanders reacted somewhat
pessimistically to the prospect of a Lujor soil cleanup. As had been
discovered during debris cleanup on the island, the soil was so fine that it
could only be traversed by tracked or four-wheel drive vehicles. Boat
access was extremely difficult and tide constrained. Lujor and Aej, the
next island north, formed a funnel, with the wide end toward the ocean
and the narrow end exiting to the lagoon at the only possible access
channel to Lujor (Figure 7-49). The channelitself was crooked and dotted
FIGURE 7-49. LUJOR/AEJ ACCESS CHANNEL.