— UNITED STATES ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION WASHINGTON. DC 20545 FEB 24 1971 Chairman Seaborg Conmissioner Ramey Commissioner Johnson Commissioner Larson Commissioner ~ LAN LASS! Cc / THRU:»Renerat Manager Peveexse Ww } Af CLEANUP OF BIKINI ATOLL AND CURRENT STATUS Radiological surveys were conducted at Bikini Atoll] in 1969 in support of cleanup operations and again in 1970 to add to available information on the radiation status of the Atoll. The enclosed report, NVO-97, “Summary Report of the 1969 and 1970 Bikini Surveys," February 1971, contains a sunmary of the information collected during the cleanup and survey activities. This summary report is to be followed by detailed reports by the Southwestern Radiological Heaitn Laboratory (SWRHL), Environmental Protection Agency, and by the Nevada Operations Office within a few weeks. Tnese will be in draft form for AEC review. Briefly, the summary report indicates that during cleanup in 1959 aii scrap meta? or concrete in the Atoll with contact gamme readings creater than 100 micro-Reentgen per hour (uR/hr) was treated as radioactive waste and buried in one of three locations at sea. Sone scrap with contact gamma readings Jess than 100 pR/hr was buried on land but no debris at any level was buried on the istands of Bikini, Eneu, or Aeroxoj. (Housing is to be constructed only in the Bikini-Eneu complex.) Ganma levels on Bikini, the largest island, ranged from 10 uk/nr along the beaches to 120 yR/hr in some areas inland. Levels on Eneu, the second largest island, ranged up to 40 pR/nr. Levels reported in the U.S. have a range from about 10 uR/nr to 40 uk/ar, During the 1970 survey, nine air samplers were operated for two weeks on Bikini and eEneu islands and many soil samples were collected. O07 interrest was the plutonium content of air and soil. On Bikini, the *3°Pu air concentrations 5.4 X 1O74pCi/m3. Alt results for Eneu CONFIRMED *CBE UREE ASSIFIED meant BY AYTHORS V Ht,Hepes 425 lo) a6.178, SATE Ry Ww. Teneh 3/8/87 ranged from 0.6 X 107+ to were 0.4 X 107%pCi/ms.