1000

supplied a mumber of portable G-M counter survey meters plus a large number of

These instruments and their calibration are described in HASL-190, (2)

Dietoalt

gitBe

Bikini
This the largest island in the atoll is about 4 kilometers long and 0.8
kilometers wide.
It is heavily overgrown with scrub vegetation, primarily
scaevola. This vegetation is quite impenetrable having a height of about three
meters.
The former Bikini village site is located mid-island and a short distance inland along the lagoon shore, While somewhat overgrown, the village
road was passable and the initial gamma and beta-gamma measurements, gamma
spectra determination, and TLD emplacements were made here while other team
menbars and workers cut the first trail across the island from the lagoon to
the ocean shore.
This trail, which took one whole day to complete, was known
ae the O Transect. As to the level of monitoring effort, portable scintillation counter readings were made every 15 meters along the O Transect. Geiger
counter readings were made and TLD's emplaced every 45 meters. At each location, four measurements of gamma and four of beta-gamma were made sround a
point at a height of about | meter and again at ground level. These values
were averaged to obtain the ganuma and beta-gamma level at one meter and at
the surface for that location.
Similar measurements at increments of 45 meters were made and TLD's emplaced along 640 meters of the village road, along the 869 meters of a second

lagoon to ocean trail known as the 1 Transect, and along the much shorter

North End and South End Transects.
_

Tonization chamber and spectrometer measurement were made at locations

on the 0 Transect and on the village road.

Figure 2 shows a plot of the average of G-M counter gamma measurements
made along the O Transect.
The scintillation detector and spectrometer
méssurements show a comparable picture, namely, low levels near the lagoon
and ocean shores and higher levels in the interior. The dashed lines enclose
most of the measurements.
The levels along the 1 Transect show a similar
pattern:

The spectrometric results as developed by HASL staff indicated that the

predominant gamma emitter in Bikini soil was

37Cs with lesser amounts of

700
600
500
400

External Radiation Measurement Results

300

,

200

’

100

imized and the TLD's would be emplaced for an exposure time of maximum duration.

Segments of the shore party carried portable two-way radio equipment and there
was a base station operator on duty in the ships communication room throughout
the day.

12

Team members plus workers who cut

trails through the heavy vegetation went ashore with their equipment in the
early morning.
Except for a mid-day rest period, work continued until dark,
A daily log of each team members activity was prepared and the evening critique
and planning session developed the schedule for the following day.
In this way
the impact of the time consuming and strenuous trail cutting operation was min-

Figure 2. EXPOSURE RATE ON “O” TRANSECT
GM COUNTER

checked daily using a small button source.

800

+ Field Operations
The dase of operations for the team was the M.S. Militobi, a U.S. Trust
Territory ship. Under the conditions for this survey, the monitoring instruments and equipment were transported repeatedly from the ship in small boats,
through the surf on foot, and back again.
The portable instruments were

=

8

8

&

IWYW-3LVY FYuNSOdX3

DISTANCE FROM LAGOON SHORE-METERS

900

TLD's.

Select target paragraph3