Kenneth Lafler
The Enewetak Atoll is a coral atoll consisting of about 40 islands in the Marshall island group. It is located southwest of Hawaii and is near the equator. The islands were the site of violent allied amphibious assaults in 1944 and also the site of atomic and hydrogen bomb tests between 1947 and 1952 while under United States trusteeship.
The weapons tests were part of the nuclear arms testing done by the United States after world war II , Altogether 43 test were conducted, many leaving huge craters 40 deep and 150 yards wide.
Before the restoration program, World War II wreckage remained on all the islands. in the lagoons all that was left of the platforms for the nuclear testing were iron and concrete posts used to support the weapons.
Also old military vehicles used to determine the effectiveness of the blasts were scattered and left twisted and rusting, along with other military transportation vehicles destroyed in the blasts
.
After core samples were taken, it was determined that the radioactivity of the substrate had decreased enough for human habitation. Dosimeter readings (used to detect radiation exposure) also showed little evidence of radiation. But the pieces of metal blasted in to the island during the tests were still contaminated with Plutonium.
The half life of some radioactive isotopes can be several thousands of years. Any scattered material could be potentially dangerous . In 1976 the United States government set aside 20 million dollars for the project. The first phase was begun in 1977 by a joint task force. For over two years scientists and ordinance experts landed on the atoll at 6.00 in the morning every day .
Protective clothing and dosimeter badges were used . The main problems involved in this project were identifying, recovering and removing, dangerous contaminated material well as the non-contaminated debris and unexploded World War II ordinance.
The final cost of the operation was 100,000.000 dollars. Locating the debris proved to be extremely difficult because the material was scattered with a tremendous amount of force by the blasts.
The instrument used to locate the fragments was called a Total Field Proton Magnetometer. It works by measuring variances in the earth's magnetic force field. This involves the alignment of magnetic lines of force emanating from the earths poles. It is a passive instrument able to read the distortion in the earth's lines of force created by an iron object without itself sending out a signal.
Once the material was located it was moved to a small uninhabited island called Runit Island.
After the project was completed the island was declared off limits. The radioactive material was dumped into a huge bomb crater on the island, which had been widened
by mining some of the dead coral which was killed by the original nuclear blasts. The mined coral was mixed with cement and used to pave over the site to create a permanent seal.
Another part of the project was the replanting of 80,000 coconut trees. All the original trees were killed by the nuclear tests. The natives had used the dried coconuts to make oil, which was part of the economic system of the atoll.
The atoll ecosystem seems to have recovered with marine life in all but the immediate blast area's.
The cement alone cost 6,000,000 dollars. About 4.000 workers were involved in the projects and approximately 110,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil and 5,000 cubic yards of contaminated debris were removed and permanently sealed.
By
Kenneth Lafler
Bibliography
The Internet
The History Channel
The Discovery Channel
Declassified Department of Defense video - America's Atomic Bomb Tests - DOD Files.
Documents- Declassified
Sea Frontiers - May , June by John C. Fine
Video - Trinity and Beyond - Declassified
The effects of atomic and thermonuclear detonations - Glasstone
To be continued
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