Page:Operation Crossroads 1946.pdf/136

 scraping ships' bottoms or working on their evaporators. Arrangements were being made for radiological monitors to be available at naval shipyards and principal ports on the U.S. west coast and Pearl Harbor. Commanding officers of the ships involved were to request these monitors before having evaporators opened, having work done on other contaminated machinery, or entering drydock (Reference C.9.185, pp. 144 and 145).

After further study, the task force radsafe and safety advisors decided the precautions set forth in the letter of 19 August were inadequate to protect personnel from alpha emitters associated with the detected radiation. Moreover, considerable cleaning would be required to eliminate radioactivity, and the cleaning itself and the wastes created would pose yet another problem. After a conference with the safety advisors, the ComServPac on 29 August issued special precautions to be applied to all vessels that had spent more than 10 days in Bikini Lagoon after 25 July (Reference C.9.185, p. 21). In summary, the precautions were as follows:


 * 1. Avoid drydocking until further notice


 * 2. Avoid opening saltwater plumbing


 * 3. Avoid exposing the external surface of the hull below the waterline


 * 4. Avoid exposing personnel to fumes or dust from welding, cutting, or other work on contaminated saltwater surfaces.

He also recommended the ships be examined at San Francisco or Pearl Harbor to determine their exact radiological status and to indoctrinate crews in proper radsafe procedures (Reference C.10.5).

CJTF 1 concurred with ComServPac, but argued that ships in the western Pacific should return to Guam for radiological monitoring. He advised that JTF 1 was organizing a monitoring group for use at San Francisco, Pearl Harbor, and other ports as required. He recommended that docking or yard work on the affected ships be avoided until they had been monitored and declared radiologically safe. Finally, he suggested that the precautions applied to the ships also be applied to the small boats they carried (Reference C.9.185, p. 22). On 28 August CNO directed compliance with these recommendations and two days later ordered all small boats found radiologically unsafe sunk in deep water (Reference C.9.185, pp. 22 and 23; Reference C.10.4, p. 1).

RADIOLOGICAL CLEARANCE OF NONTARGET SHIPS

CJTF 1 dispatched his Chief Medical Officer to head the program for giving radiological clearance to nontarget vessels. On 26 August the medical officer established his headquarters in the offices of the 12th District Medical Officer at San Francisco Naval Shipyard. He encountered immediate difficulties. Radsafe monitors were not available at San Francisco in numbers sufficient to check the many ships expected to arrive during the coming weeks. Monitors were drawn from the ranks of those who had served during CROSSROADS and from the radsafe organization at Kwajalein, but at some cost to operations there. The first graduates of the JTF 1 radsafe school became available for duty by mid-October. Although some were assigned to Kwajalein, most were assigned to

131