SESSION V
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259
LANGHAM: So now do you plow a rocky mountain? We went to
the Spanish with another problem, This was a rather big crisis and
- the Spanish replied, "Well, as we recall, plowing was your idea, so
plow!'' [Laughter] [t was finally agreed in this case that they would
elevate their standards a bit and we would resurvey the whole area
and if we found areas contaminated above this newly agreed limit we
would actually work it with pick and shove! and stir it around, the
idea being to get the plutonium beneath the ground so that when it
blew it wouldn't become an inhalation hazard by resuspersion, and
some of there hillsides were pick-and- shovei- worked into the soil
instead of being plowed. They were reasonable people.
Now, this doesn't mean they don't drive a hard bargain,
They
took the recommendations that were first proposed and essentially
divided them by two and made us go to one-half the level we had proposed. That's al) right. Lf you're writing manuals—and i've written
a few—you decide on what the proper standards of cleanup are.
But
it comes aaa bit of a shock to find out that if it's the other fellow's
backyard that you've dirtied up, maybe he has sometiing to say about
the standards,
You dan't come in and teil him you'll clea it up ac-
cording to your standards,
You clean i: up according tu his, and
these people drove a hard bargain, but they were never .heless reasonable.
[had a great respect for the Spanish AEC group.
they have some highly competent peopie.
I think
The whole Spanish AEC
isn't ag big ae the group Dr, Dunham used to have tn the Division of
Biology and Medicine alone, [ mean that's their whole AEC and yet
in it they have a few highly competent people,
WOLFE: Wouldn't it have been much cheaper to haul soil in there
and cover it over than to carry it out?
LANGHAM: Of course. It was carried out and then fresh soil
replaced ontop of it. I think it's just as well, right around the crater areas, that that was removed. At least you know it's no longer
there. They let us plow under, you see, a lot of it and they asked
us to give them a soil followup program because we had plowed 5 me-
thing with a 24, 000-year half-life into their soil and I'm sure they
would have objected if you had just burted it there, too, They felt
happier about having it removed, and so did I, where the levels were
high.
UPTON:
Will there be a followup of some kind?