24 



Atomic Radiation and Oceanography and Fisheries 



with adequate authority, financial support, and 

 technical staff, regulate and maintain records of 

 such disposal, and that continuing scientific and 

 engineering studies be made of the resulting 

 effects in the sea. 



7. We recommend that a National Academy 

 of Sciences — National Research Council com- 

 mittee on atomic radiation in relation to ocean- 

 ography and fisheries be established on a con- 

 tinuing basis to collect and evaluate informa- 

 tion and to plan and coordinate scientific re- 

 search.* 



8. Studies of the ocean and the atmosphere 

 are more costly in time than in money, and time 

 is already late to begin certain important studies. 

 The problems involved cannot be attacked 

 quickly or even, in many cases, directly. The 

 pollution problems of the past and present, 

 though serious, are not irremediable. The atomic 

 waste problem, if allowed to get out of hand, 

 might result in a profound, irrecoverable loss. 

 We, therefore, plead with all urgency for im- 

 mediate intensification and redirection of scien- 

 tific effort on a world-wide basis towards build- 

 ing the structure of understanding that will be 

 necessary in the future. This structure cannot 

 be completed in a few years; decades of effort 

 will be necessary and mankind will be fortunate 

 if the required knowledge is available at the 

 time when the practical engineering problems 

 have to be faced. 



9. The world-girdling oceans cannot be sepa- 

 rated into isolated parts. What happens at any 

 one point in the sea ultimately affects the waters 

 everywhere. Moreover, the oceans are interna- 

 tional. No man and no nation can claim the 

 exclusive ownership of the resources of the sea. 

 The problem of the disposal of radioactive 

 wastes, with its potential ha2ard to human use 

 of marine resources, is thus an international one. 

 In certain countries with small land areas and 

 large populations, marine disposal of fission 

 products may be essential to the economic de- 

 velopment of atomic energy. We, therefore, 

 recommend: (1) that cognizant international 

 agencies formulate as soon as possible conven- 

 tions for the safe disposal of atomic wastes at 

 sea, based on existing scientific knowledge; (2) 

 that the nations be urged to collaborate in 

 studies of the oceans and their contained organ- 



* The President of the Academy, Dr. Detlev W. 

 Bronk, has requested that the present committee 

 undertake to develop and carry forward this con- 

 tinuing program. 



isms, with the objective of developing compara- 

 tively safe means of oceanic disposal of the very 

 large quantities of radioactive wastes that may 

 be expected in the future.** 



10. Because of the increasing radioactive con- 

 tamination of the sea and the atmosphere, many 

 of the necessary experiments will not be possi- 

 ble after another ten or twenty years. The recom- 

 mended international scientific effort should be 

 developed on an urgent basis. 



11. The broader problems concerned with 

 full utilization of the food and other resources 

 of the sea for the benefit of mankind also re- 

 quire intensive international collaboration in the 

 scientific use of radioactive material. 



REFERENCES 



Anon. 1956. Report of a meeting of United 

 Kingdom and United States scientists on 

 biological effects of radiation in oceanog- 

 raphy and fisheries. Nat. Acad. Sci. — Nat. 

 Research Council, Oct. 31, 1956, 8 pp. 

 (mimeographed) . 



BowDEN, K. F. 1954. The direct measurement 

 of subsurface currents in the oceans. Deep 

 Sea Research, Vol. 2, pp. 33-47. 



Culler, F. L. 1954. Notes on fission product 

 wastes from proposed power reactors. 

 ORNL Central File No. 55-4-25. 



Dietrich, G. 1957. Selection of suitable ocean 

 disposal areas for radioactive waste. (A 

 preliminary report with 6 charts.) M.S., 

 10 pp. 



Food and Agriculture Organization of 

 UNESCO. 1957. Yearbook of fishery 

 statistics. FAO, Rome, Vol. 5 (1954-55). 



Goldberg, E. and Arrhenius, G. O. S. 1957. 

 Chemistry of Pacific pelagic sediments. In 

 press. 



Greendale, a. E., and N. E. Ballou. 1954. 

 Physical state of fission product elements 

 following their vaporization in distilled 

 water and sea water. USNRDL Document 

 436, pp. 1-28. 



Harley, John E. (Editor). 1956. Operation 

 Troll. U.S., A.E.C., N.Y. Operations office 

 1956. 37 pp. 



** As a first step in this direction an informal dis- 

 cussion was held by members of this committee with 

 scientists from the United Kingdom at North Fal- 

 mouth, Massachusetts, on September 27 and 28, 1956. 

 A brief summary of the meeting was published by the 

 National Academy of Sciences (Anon., 1956). 



