nment
Runit ( Yvonne) Cleanup and Crater Contai
a.

b.

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Remove all soil, surface and subsurface, above 160 pCi/g of
transuranics. Estimated volume was over 9,500 cubic yards.

Remove all surface contamination above 160 pCi/g to a maximum

depth of 40 centimeters (16 inches). This would limit the worst-case
volume to 62,920 cubic yards.

Erect a barrier at the hotline and quarantine North Runit. Permit use

of South Runit.

d. Dig a wide channel near the hotline to form two islands and

quarantine the northern one. Permit use of South Runit.
e. Quarantine Runit forever.
The Director, DNA requested more IMP data on South Runit before

making a decision. !09.!10 The matter of Runit soil cleanup, however, was

10 be overtaken by more pressing developments.
At the 12 February 1979 Fission Products Survey Conference, the

Director, DNA reaffirmed that 15 April 1980 was an ironclad end date but

that “If we try to turn away from a job half done, wewill be right back out

there redoing the job with more people and more cost.””!!! A briefing was

presented on the status of the cleanup project which indicated it might

possibly be completed well before the planned end date. Cleanup and
transport of contaminated material from the islands other than Runitwas3
months ahead of the revised schedule. Tremie operations were being
completed 2 months ahead of the revised schedule. Less than 12,000 cubic

yards of contaminated soil remained in the stockpile or to be transported
from the other islands. This would sustain soil-cement operations for
slightly more than 2 weeksat the planned rate of 5,000 cubic yards per
week. Cleanup of Runit, based on worst case estimates of 60,000 cubic
yards, could be completed in only 12 more weeks, or by the end of May
1979, permitting the crater to be capped and demobilization to be started a
month early (i.e., 15 September instead of 15 October 1979). The only

apparent constraint was delivery of cement to sustain the maximum rate of
soil-cement containment.!!2 The USAE representative at the conference

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;

confirmed that USAE could excise and contain 5,000 cubic yards of soil
per week on Runit if they had the cement.
The Director, DNA decided to expedite cleanup of Runit soil and to
expedite delivery of the cement. At the end of the meeting, the discussion
turned to Lujor, which had been cleaned only to visitation level (160
pCi/g), not to agricultural level (80 pCi/g), the use desired by the driEnewetak. The Director then directed the CJTG to develop plans for two

options: Cleanup of Runit to 160 pCi/g and Lujor to 80 pCi/g, or cleanup of

Runit alone.
Theinitial response from the JTG staff and the USAEto the proposed

cleanup of Lujor was pessimistic because of anticipated difficulties with
Lujor; i.e., channel access, poor beach and onislandtrafficability, etc.!'5

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