36
bulldozing.” On Runit there is plutonium well below the surfa
which would be difficult to remove without scraping off the so
to bedrock. The seriousness of the quarantine has been made v
to the people of Enewet2 and they so far have respected it.
mittee strongly endorses their determination to retain the qua
of the entire island of Funit. |
6.2
Enjebi Island
As explained in the Preface, the principal mission of the
ttee
is to "assess the effectiveness of the Cactus Crater structure In preventing harmful amounts of radioactivity from becoming availablB for
internal or external human exposure.”
In addition, the committ¢e
also
was instructed that its assessment of the Cactus Crater structuje wes
to be “set against an understanding of the expected living pattdrns of
the people of Enewetak in terms of their degree of contact withjRunit
Island and their exposure otherwise to residual radioactivity on the
atoll." Cons-quently, the committee believes it must comment ¢«
radioactivity hazard on Enjebi since it probably is inevitable
that the
Dri-Enjebi will return tc that island to live and grcw at least
of their food.
6.2.1
Radioactivity on Enjebi
The soil removed contained about 5 Ci of transuranics.
However,] there
are only localized areas (about 3 percent) that do not satisfy
transuranic habitation standard of 40 pCi/g soil (U.S. Departme
Energy 1980).
Thus, transuranics are not a problem on Enjebi.
toward the fission products, especially °*Sr and '*’Cs.
they were leached out of the top several inches of
concentrated at depths not feasible for excision.
products are particularly troublesome because they
crops, especially coconuts, and, hence, are easily
As mentioned
topsoil and
These fission
concentrate i
ingested.
6.2.2
Dose Assessments
An extensive dose assessment study utilizing data collected
Bikini and Enewetak Atolls over a period of many years has been
"An exception may be Lujor, near Enjebi, where it has been s
‘letter from W. J. Bair, Chairman, U.S. Department of Energy Ene
Northwest Laboratories, Richland, Washington, April 28, 1978) tha
soil profile on Pearl [code name for Lujor] is anomalous since th
concentration of transuranics appears to be uniform with depth.”
final island certification survey after the cleanup, however, re
that Lujor meets the criterion for an agricultural island and tha
there are no known or suspected radiological burial sites.