Appendix 10.C SCUBA TECHNIQUES USED IN RISK ASSESSMENT OF POSSIBLE NUCLEAR LEAKAGE AROUND AMCHITKA ISLAND, ALASKA

Amchitka Island, in the Aleutians, had three underground nuclear tests (1965 to 1971) ranging from approximately 80 kilotons to 5 megatons. Initial surveys (1960s-1970s) did not report radioactive contamination in the marine environment. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is moving to closure and Long-term Stewardship of Amchitka Island. Therefore, it is necessary for a reassessment of Amchitka’s marine environment with respect to possible current or future transfer of radionuclides to marine ecosystems, particularly to sensitive or endangered species, and to foods harvested by Aleut and commercial fishermen. The Amchitka Science Plan was compiled by CRESP, a multi-university consortium of researchers, as a guideline for the reassessment. One of the overall objectives of the Science Plan is to evaluate possible contamination of marine organisms of concern to subsistence hunters and fishers in Native Communities, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, DOE as well as other stakeholders, and to provide a baseline for future monitoring. An assortment of marine organisms was collected at Amchitka and at a reference site (Kiska), including representatives of various trophic levels, sedentary/sessile plants and animals, and subsistence/commercial species in the intertidal and subtidal zones. A team of scuba divers from University of Alaska Fairbanks collected shallow (< 30 m) subtidal organisms during July 2004. This paper details the rationale and methods used by the divers to log nearly 93 hours of bottom time collecting thousands of samples of water, sediment, kelp, invertebrates, and fishes for radionuclide analyses