SOIL SAMPLING PROCEDURE - SOUTHERN ENEWETAK
DOE/ERSP PROCEDURENO.4a

APPROVED:
L

DATE DRAFTED: 10 September 1978

10 October 1978 by Bruce W. Church (ERSP Manager)

Background

In joint session and considering Procedure No.4, the ERSP Manager, ERSP Technical Advisor, and Element
Managers for DRI, EIC and EG&G agreed on 8 September 1978 that the following soil sampling procedure
would be preferred for documenting the final cleanup condition of the southern or uncontrolled islands of
Enewetak Atoll. Additional background may be found in the Element Managers’ and Technical Advisor's log
books for September 1978.
IL

Purpose

To establish a standard soil sampling procedure for use in documenting 241Am, 238py, 239,240py,

137 Cs, and 60¢Co in soil for the smaller islands of Enewetak Atoll; i.e., Sam through Leroy excepting
Elmer which will be measured by the IMP.

Ill.

General

NVO-140 yields informative data for the above islands useful in establishing radiological condition and
designing further sampling.

IV.

A.

NVO-140 information will be used to guide the DRI in selecting 4 or more soil sampling
locations from an island.

B.

EIC soil sampling teams will collect from each location composites A and B as defined in ERSP
Procedure No. 4.

C.

EIC will stake and flag the location for future reference.

D.

Analyses will include the isotopes listed in II above.

E.

Samples from all locations will be archived.

Specific

A.

Procedure No.4 specifies that vegetation and other organic litter should be removed and only
the underlying soil sampled. For some of the southern islands this organic layer may be of
significant depth and may contain materials of interest. Therefore, in locations where the
organic layer exceeds 5 cm in average thickness above mineral soil at the sampling location, A
and B composite samples of the organic layer will be taken. The "cookie cutter" tool will be
used to define the area of the sample and the sample depth will be the total depth to mineral
soil.

B.

A and B composite samples of surface mineral soil will be taken according to Procedure No. 4
regardless of the thickness of the organic layer.

A-4-6

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