184
CHAPTER V, SECTION 1
The earth ramps used by the LSTs at
Elmer and Nan required bulldozing with the
arrival of each ship. Road maintenance consisted
of the occasional use of the motor patrol equipment, especially after heavy storms, in order to
maintain the surface. A water truck was used
to allay dust during prolonged rainless periods.
As a result of the fall-out caused by the Tewa
event, all the base camp areas affected were
decontaminated by grading. This work had to
be accomplished both mechanically and manually in order to bring the radioactivity to
acceptable levels.
The major shops for repairing refrigeration,
power-generating, and water-distillation equip-
ment were located at Elmer. All such equipment
was thoroughly checked through the major shops
before shipment to an off-island camp. Main-
tenance of this equipment at temporary camps
consisted of routine servicing and incidental
trouble shooting.
An unusual maintenance requirement developed due to the accidental shorting of
one of the 1000 KW generators in the CMR
plant. The rewinding of this generator could not
be accomplished with the facilities available at
Jobsite, and it was therefore shipped to Honolulu where the work was
a purchase order contract.
performed
under
The steel tanks installed during Operation
GREENHOUSE for storing salt and fresh
water at Elmer and Fred had to be replaced
prior to CASTLE and again for REDWING.
Because of the relatively short life of steel
tanks and their high maintenance costs, they
were replaced with tanks made of redwood
staves. At first, considerable leakage occurred
at the seams of the wooden tanks; however,
most of the leakage was eliminated by using
seal coat. Due to operational requirements which
did not permit removing the tanks from service,
the completion of this repair work had to be
postponed until the end of the Operation.
Maintenance, though continuous throughout each Operation, will be intensified now that
REDWING has been completed. Due to the
magnitude of REDWING, equipment and facilities could not always be spared for routine
work, and personnel normally engaged in servicing were assigned to higher priority jobs
during the peak of activities; consequently, a
considerable maintenance backlog has developed
which must be accomplished shortly in order
to offset deterioration economically. This ac-
cummulation of routine maintenance plus the
usual post-operational equipment servicing and
preservation will be a much greater job than
previously experienced.
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