518 



Dr. Shipp Thank you very much. Because I would like to spend 

 the rest of my time talking about the direct application of the ap- 

 proach that we are talking to. And the issue before us is not the 

 accumulation of more data. The task before us is the shortest route 

 to the solution of the problem, and the problem is the mitigation 

 and remediation of the environmental insult that is in the Arctic 

 region. We have heard numerous testimonies today about the ex- 

 tent of that contamination. I could substantiate a number of those 

 viues but I won't, for the sake of brevity. 



Let's assume, for the most part, that the information is correct 

 and the extent of the contamination is in the order that we have 

 stated. The long-term approach to this set of problems obviously in- 

 volves source term characterization, assessment, definition assess- 

 ment of remedial measures, of a very large scale. But, sir, any sci- 

 entist can write that statement. That's the what of the problem. 



The issue before us is the how of the problem. And this organiza- 

 tion before you today is bringing you a solution to that. And it is 

 represented a great deal by Professor Bolshov to my left, who rep- 

 resents an independent scientific organization, a very well world- 

 renowned reputation in Russia. 



The commitment of my colleague to my left, and he will talk 

 about this in a moment himself, but the commitment of my col- 

 league is to get the information that we have been talking about. 

 And I would like to draw a distinction between information and 

 data, sir. Everything that we have heard today has been data. Data 

 is not — we cannot draw conclusions or make recommendations or 

 form remedial actions based on data. We must have information. 

 So, I would also like to draw a distinction between inventory and 

 source term. We have heard today a lot of requests for information 

 on inventories, ^ain, my colleague to my left has made the com- 

 mitment to make the appropriate connections within Russia, and 

 he has made many of them already, to develop the inventory that 

 we need in order to gather the — I mean, yes, to gather the data on 

 which we can determine the inventory. And the inventory then 

 with the application of good science. And again, I'd like to acknowl- 

 edge your statement early on, Mr. Chairman, is that science is the 

 root of the solution to this problem. And we must do directly to the 

 root of the problem, and that is the appUcation of the knowledge 

 base within Russian, with the science appHed to that. And that 

 science is very, very difficult. I'd like to acknowledge what Dr. 

 Pfirman said a moment ago here. It's not just oceanographic infor- 

 mation. It's nuclear engineering information. It is the high whole 

 of scientific and engineering disciplines that must be brought to 

 bear to solve this problem. 



As an example, if we have a reactor core sitting on the ocean 

 floor, simply sitting there tells us nothing. We must know the in- 

 ventory of that and we must know the bum-up. We must be able 

 to calculate the fission product inventory of it. And that in itself 

 is not enough. We must then imderstand the mechanism by Avhich 

 that can be released to the environment. We are dealing with a 

 risk-based approach. We must make a risk-based approach in 

 which to prioritize the limited resources that are going to be avail- 

 able to us. 



