400 



5 

 Figure 5 shows the heavy concentration of corrosion products just to the 

 lower right of the letter "A" in Figure 3b. By the time this picture was 

 taken, some of the corrosion product had been scraped off into sample 

 bottles. Other portions of it had rubbed off against the nylon webbing, 

 visible in Figure 5, which had been installed as an additional aid to handling 

 shortly after the picture in Figure 3b was taken. There was no attempt made 

 at this time to scrape all the way through the corrosion product layer to 

 determine the condition of the underlying metal as this was planned for 

 subsequent laboratory operations. 



The outer steel container was in the worst condition around the rim at 

 the concrete end as shown in Figure 6. There was no marked difference in the 

 condition of the rim above as opposed to below the mud line. A sample of the 

 corroded edge of the metal was clipped off with metal shears for later 

 examination at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. 



When the container first arrived at the surface, it was apparent that 

 there was a perforation in the metal drum as a stream of seawater was observed 

 coming out as if under pressure. The stream can be seen just below the letter 

 "B" in both Figures 3a and 3b. The area from which the stream came was below 

 the mud line and is shown close up in Figure 7. By the time this photograph 

 was taken, the pressure had nearly equalized and the remaining liquid was 

 seeping out as shown. Some of this liquid was collected by the EPA Project 

 Officer for subsequent laboratory analysis. Upon further examination with a 

 probe, it became apparent that the perforation was not due to corrosion but 

 was a recent puncture. It is suspected that this occurred as the drum was 

 being dragged along the bottom as related above. 



