5.3.1 Facilities
The on-island electronic equipment for data storage and analysis consisted of a Hewlett-Packard
9831A desktop microprocessor with peripherals, which included a dot-matrix thermal printer, a
four-color plotter, and a flexible disk drive. The microprocessor had a built-in tape drive for
cartridge tapes, and was equipped with ROMs (read-only memories) which drove the plotter and disk
drive, and made matrix operations much easier.
The
microprocessor system
eapabilities.
had
a
wide
range
of
analytical,
data
management,
and
display
The memory size and computing power were adequate to perform almost all the
statistical analyses for the cleanup.
The data base for IMP data was set up on flexible disks, to
which the spectra were transferred from cartridge tape. Programs, data and results could be stored
on disk or tape, and frequently were put on both media to allow more flexibility. Results could be
printed or plotted either as graphic displays or in tabular form.
There were some limitations of the microprocessor system that affected the way data were handied
during the project. The kriging programs were simplified in order to fit in the memory available and
to run in a reasonably short time. Also, the data for the larger island Janet had to be divided into
two subsets when they were run through the kriging programs because of the memory limitations.
Data for all other islands could be handled in a single set per island. Because the simplifications in
the kriging routine precluded analysis of data not on a regular grid, a few experimental data sets had
to be analyzed in Las Vegas.
DRI-Las Vegas had the same equipment as was on-island, plus a tape drive which was used for
transferring data from disk to magnetic tape and had terminals for communicating with a CDC 6400
computer.
The magnetic tapes could be read by the CDC 6400 and is the medium used for
permanent preservation of the data base.
5.3.2 Data Flow and Preservation
The data used during the project eame from several sources and were in various forms depending on
the type of the data. Data from laboratory analyses of surface or subsurface soil samples were
transmitted in hard copy by the EIC lab manager to the statistician. Gamma spectra for Fission
Product Data Base (FPDB) program samples were also transmitted on cartridge tapes, from which
DRI extracted the gamma results to store on disk. The tapes were returned to EIC after the results
were on disk.
Data from in situ measurements with the IMP were transmitted by the EG&G scientist to DRI on
cartridge tapes. The tapes contained the complete gamma spectyyma
as yeh.as
as the extracted 241am
results, identifying information and comments. The data for
“cs and ®%Co and
printouts of relevant sections of the spectra were also available on hard conics which were retained
by the EG&G scientist.
The tapes were copied to flexible disk by DRI, and retained until the
information on disk had been copied to magnetic tape in Las Vegas.
erased and reused.
Then the cartridge tapes were
The accuracy and quality of the data were checked at several stages. The laboratory and in situ
detectors were calibrated routinely, and the calibration procedures were supervised by the EIC
chemist and EG&G scientist, respectively. The laboratory also had both internal and external quality
assurance programs as part of the standard laboratory operations.
The incoming raw data were checked by the statistician or data technician.
Cheeks ineluded
verifying that the locations marked on the samples matched the intended locations and that the data
values were consistent with other information such as known ratios of TRU to 24!am. Any
discrepancies would be referred to the EG&G or EIC managers for resolution. Corrections were
noted on the hard copy of lab data and were made both on hard copy and the flexible disk copy of in
situ data.
Analytical Data Flow. After the raw data had been verified and any errors repaired, the statistical
analyses were performed. Intermediate steps in the analysis of in situ data included making
corrections for detector effective area and for signal attenuation by vegetation, plus any other
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