General Considerations 



23 



ties which will be required for an adequate 

 attack on this problem. These requirements 

 will, however, be large. The problems outlined 

 above are among the most difficult in the marine 

 sciences. Adequate solutions will demand the 

 collection of much more knowledge about the 

 sea and its contents than the total obtained in 

 the past hundred years. 



Because of the urgency of these problems, 

 and because of the large costs involved, it is 

 essential that research be coordinated on both 

 the national and international levels. Coordina- 

 tion among scientists engaged in these studies 

 should be easier in the future than it has been 

 in the past. 



OTHER BENEFITS OF THE RESEARCH TO 

 MANKIND 



The potential requirement for disposal of 

 atomic wastes in the sea is sufficient reason for 

 pursuit of these investigations. However, man- 

 kind will derive additional, and perhaps even 

 greater, benefits in other ways. For example, 

 the flux of materials through the various trophic 

 levels of the biosphere is the fundamental proc- 

 ess underlying the harvest of the sea fisheries. 

 This process must be studied to provide part of 

 the basis for atomic waste disposal, but its 

 elucidation will also provide much of the scien- 

 tific base for the optimum exploitation and con- 

 servation of the seas* living resources by man. 



IX. Conclusions and Recommendations 



We repeat here the conclusions and recom- 

 mendations that were agreed upon by the mem- 

 bers of the Committee at the time they prepared 

 the Summary Report published by the Academy 

 in 1956: 



1. Tests of atomic weapons can be carried 

 out over or in the sea in selected localities with- 

 out serious loss to fisheries if the planning and 

 execution of the tests are based on adequate 

 knowledge of the biological regime. The same 

 thing is true of experimental introduction of 

 fission products into the sea for scientific and 

 engineering purposes. 



2. Within the foreseeable future the prob- 

 lem of disposal of atomic wastes from nuclear 

 fission power plants will greatly overshadow the 

 present problems posed by the dispersal of ra- 

 dioactive materials from weapons tests. It may 

 be convenient and perhaps necessary to dispose 



of some of these industrial wastes in the oceans. 

 Sufficient knowledge is not now available to 

 predict the effects of such disposal on man's 

 use of other resources of the sea. 



3. We are confident that the necessary knowl- 

 edge can be obtained through an adequate and 

 long-range program of research on the physics, 

 chemistry, and geology of the sea and on the 

 biology of marine organisms. Such a program 

 would involve both field and laboratory experi- 

 ments with radioactive material as well as the 

 use of other techniques for oceanographic re- 

 search. Although some research is already un- 

 der way, the level of effort is too low. Far more 

 important, much of the present research is too 

 short-range in character, directed towards ad hoc 

 solutions of immediate engineering problems, 

 and as a result produces limited knowledge 

 rather than the broad understanding upon 

 which lasting solutions can be based. 



4. We recommend that in future weapons 

 tests there should be a serious effort to obtain 

 the maximum of purely scientific information 

 about the ocean, the atmosphere, and marine 

 organisms. This requires, in our opinion, the 

 following steps: (1) In the planning stage com- 

 mittees of disinterested scientists should be 

 consulted and their recommendations followed; 

 (2) funds should be made available for scien- 

 tific studies unrelated to the character of the 

 weapons themselves; (3) the recommended 

 scientific program should be supported and car- 

 ried out independently of the military program 

 rather than on a "not to interfere" basis. 



5. Ignorance and emotionalism characterize 

 much of the discussion of the effects of large 

 amounts of radioactivity on the oceans and the 

 fisheries. Our present knowledge should be suf- 

 ficient to dispel much of the overconfidence on 

 the one hand and the fear on the other that 

 have characterized discussion both within the 

 Government and among the general public. In 

 our opinion, benefits would result from a con- 

 siderable relaxation of secrecy in a serious 

 attempt to spread knowledge and understanding 

 throughout the population. 



6. Sea disposal of radioactive waste materials, 

 if carried out in a limited, experimental, con- 

 trolled fashion, can provide some of the in- 

 formation required to evaluate the possibilities 

 of, and limitations on, this method of disposal. 

 Very careful regulation and evaluation of such 

 operations will, however, be required. We, 

 therefore, recommend that a national agency, 



