December 2017 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 19. WHOI S R  P B T Scientists have found lingering radio-


activity in the lagoons of remote Marshall Island atolls in the Pacifi c Ocean where the United States conducted 66 nuclear weap- ons tests in the 1940s and 1950s. Radioactivity levels at Bikini and


Enewetak Atolls were extensively studied in the decades after the testing ended, but there has been relatively little work conducted there recently. A team of scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) reported that levels of radioactive cesium and plutonium have decreased since the 1970s, but these elements continue to be released into the Pacifi c Ocean from seafl oor sediments and lagoon waters. The levels of plutonium are 100 or more


times higher in lagoon waters compared to the surrounding Pacifi c Ocean and about two times higher for a radioactive form of cesi- um. Despite these enrichments, they do not exceed U.S. and international water quality standards set to protect human health, the scientists reported Oct. 30, 2017, in the journal Science of the Total Environment. To determine the source of these ra-


dionuclides in lagoon waters, the WHOI scientists measured the amounts and fl ow of radioactive material entering the ocean from groundwater seeping from the islands. They found that groundwater was a relatively low source of radioactivity. In particular, they found that radioac-


tive groundwater was not leaking much from beneath one suspected potential source: the Runit Dome on the island of Runit—a mas- sive 350-foot-wide concrete lid that covers 111,000 cubic yards of radioactive soil and debris that were bulldozed into a bomb crater and sealed over. It was constructed in the late


1970s by the U.S. government to contain contaminated waste from the nuclear tests. The bottom of the Runit Dome is not lined and below sea level, so scientists and others have been concerned that tidal action could move water through the buried radioactive material and bring it out to sea. Using isotopes of plutonium that act


like a fi ngerprint to pinpoint sources, the WHOI scientists found that the seafl oor sediments around Runit Island seem to be contributing about half of the plutonium to the lagoon. “Additional studies examining how radioactive plutonium moves through the environment would help elucidate why this small area is such a large source of ra- dioactivity,” Buesseler said. The WHOI scientists who conducted


the study and wrote the report included Ken Buesseler, Matthew Charette, Steven Pike, Paul Henderson, and Lauren Kipp. They sailed to the islands aboard the research vessel Alucia on an expedition funded by the Dalio Explore Fund. The team collected sediments from the


lagoon with poster tube-sized collectors that were inserted by divers into the seafl oor’s sediments, fi lled with mud, capped. Back in WHOI laboratories, the cores were sliced into layers and analyzed to reveal a buried record of local fallout from the nuclear tests. The scientists also collected and analyzed samples of lagoon waters. On the islands, they collected ground-


water samples from cisterns, wells, beaches, and other sites. They analyzed these samples for the levels of radioactive cesium and plu- tonium from weapons tests. For the fi rst time on these islands, the scientists also measured isotopes of radium, a naturally occurring


BHM and Otis Enterprises Continued from Page 5.


it well the fi rst time and obviously they did, it is still around.” Travis is fi guring that by the end of the


month he will begin laying up the hull, but fi rst he wants to make sure all the pieces fi t perfectly. This is a one piece mould, but there are three pieces that make up the keel and skeg assembly…“the focus right now is making those pieces fi t real good so we don’t have to use a lot of hammers and chisels and pry bars to get it apart. Once that is done we can compound everything, buff that, wax that, buff that wax that until it is ready for the gel-coat. Once all of that fun is done, we get to bring in the top mold and do it all over again.”


The top will be laid up in the other bay


and then it will be musical chairs getting the deck rolled over, and than brought over and placed on the hull. For power, she will sport an in-line six


Sisu, 250 or 300 hp, the owner hasn’t decid- ed yet. “It is going to be fairly straightfor- ward lobster boat, continued Travis. “Maybe a place for a bucket, just a typical fi shing boat. It shouldn’t be too terrible because she needs to be at the Boothbay races in June.” Another hull that Travis has is the OEM 42, and there are a couple of people getting serious about ordering one. Travis added, “The 42 is a semi-built down, that we have had for some time, but we got so busy fi n- ishing other people’s hulls that we kind of neglected our own. She was designed by Eric White at Northend Marine. Eric White is an actual naval architect and he had the great brainstorm…‘what boats that are out there have been everywhere and done every- thing?’ That would be the Bruno 42 so how can we make it faster, safer, more stable and carry more payload? At the time there were three 42s, ours, the Bruno 42 which would fi t


inside the Duff y 42, which would fi t inside of my 42. For her time she was very big and she is not the big rectangles that you see coming out of some places. She is 42 feet long 14 foot of beam. The engine is under the deck so there is no engine box to climb or trip over. My father built one with a 540-hp 3406 Cat, and he was getting 25 out of it. With today’s engines I would be some excited.” Getting the 28 fi nished will take the


rest of the winter and most of the spring to complete. Hopefully by then there is another order on the books, a 25 or a 28 or maybe even a 42. It would be interesting to see one of these 42s fi nished out with big power as she should go well and be fuel effi cient.


NEED TO MOVE YOUR BOAT? CALL YORK'S BOAT TRANSPORTATION


radioactive “tracer” that give scientists key information to determine how much and how fast groundwater fl ows from land into the ocean. The WHOI research team compared the


radioactive contamination at the Marshall Islands to the contamination found today near Fukushima in Japan in the aftermath of the Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster. The U.S. conducted 66 nuclear weap-


ons tests between 1946 and 1958 at Bikini and Enewetak Atolls, each a ring of low-ly- ing reef islands that surrounds a larger lagoon. Bikini has 26 islands; Enewetak


had 42 islands, but three were bombed out of existence. They became known as the western part of the “U.S. Pacifi c Proving Grounds.” Bikini and Enewetak are among 29


atolls that make up the Republic of the Marshall Islands, located in the equatorial Pacifi c, about 2,500 miles west of Hawaii. The collective land area of the thousands of small islands is equivalent to the area of Washington, D.C. but they are spread across an ocean area that exceeds the size of Alaska. This research was funded by the Dalio Foundation and the Dalio Explore Fund.


YORK'S MARINE 11 Gordon Drive Rockland, Maine 04841 (207) 596-7400 www.yorkmarineinc.com


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