INITIAL LAND RECLAMATION PROCEDURES RELATED TO POSSIBLE Pu-CLEANUP ACTIVITIES AT THE TONOPAH TEST RANGE A. Wallace and E. M. Romney University of California, Los Angeles ABSTRACT If areas of the Tonopah Test Range (TTR) are to be used for experimental tests of procedures for cleanup of Pu contamination, there are experiences in the Great Basin Desert portions of the Nevada Test Site (NTS) which can serve as guides to reclamation and revegetation of such arid lands. Procedures which will encourage development of the grasses Atlaria jamestt and Oryzopsts hymen- otdes, as well as the perennial shrubs Furotia lanata and Atriplex canescens, would greatly improve the area as rangeland. FIELD OBSERVATIONS It is possible that small portions of areas which have been contaminated with 239py during testing activities at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) and the Tonopah Test Range (TTR) will need to be subjected to cleanup procedures. Disturbed areas are also possibly subject to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, Executive Order 11514, and ERDA Manual Chapter 0510 regulating posttreat- ments of any areas disturbed by activities of man. The best procedures for handling contaminated land areas under desert conditions are not yet known (Wallace and Romney, 1974), nor are the problems relative to potential hazard fully understood (Stannard, 1973). Consideration is being given to at least some experimental cleanup of study sites at the TTR which are located in the Great Basin Desert at an elevation of about 1,958 meters. Average annual precipitation over a 9~year period is 13 cm (Schaeffer, 1970). Precipitation usually occurs during every month of the year. Peak temperature conditions are milder at TTR than in the Mojave Desert where the elevation is typically less than 1,000 meters. This results in lower evapotranspiration rates at TTR. Summers are cooler and winters are colder with more snow and freezing in the Great Basin Desert as compared with the Mojave Desert (Table 1). 65