WASTES IN THE SEA — WALLEN 383 



Likewise, three committees of the National Academy of Sciences 

 considered sea disposal of nuclear wastes and came to different con- 

 clusions concerning allowable disposal limits. Two of the reports 

 discussed packaged wastes from nuclear land facilities; the third was 

 concerned with disposal of wastes from nuclear merchant vessels. 

 Since they made different approaches to the problem and different 

 assumptions, based on plausible guesses, the result was no surprise. 

 The development of nuclear industries has been rapid, and none of the 

 three reports is adequate to apply to all mechanisms under active 

 consideration to release radioactive material to the sea. 



HAZARDS OF OCEAN DISPOSAL 



Three types of hazards may be considered in oceanic disposal of 

 radioactive wastes : 



1. Direct hazards, in which a sufficient concentration of radioactive 

 material exists to injure anyone in contact with it. 



2. Indirect hazards, from the concentration of radioactive wastes by 

 organisms living in the sea and their subsequent use as human food. 



3. Ecological hazards, that may produce unpredictable changes in 

 the biological communities in the ocean. 



Although the disposal of wastes ultimately is either through per- 

 manent containment or by dispersal and dilution into the environ- 

 ment, the nature of wastes can be varied by the type of treatment 

 given to them. Waste-treatment systems may include filtration, 

 evaporation, ion exchange, gas stripping, chemical precipitation, 

 coagulation, incineration, and dilution. 



The decisions on method of treatment and whether to contain or 

 disperse the final product may vary depending on such influences as 

 public health, commercial or sports fisheries, and the location of cables, 

 buoys, channels, or other marine facilities. Since tlie ocean is inter- 

 nationally shared beyond accepted continental limits, possible inter- 

 national problems may be considered when disposal sites are being 

 selected. 



SOURCES OF NUCLEAR WASTES 



Nuclear wastes enter the ocean from at least four major sources: 

 nuclear power plants; research, military, hospital, and industrial lab- 

 oratories; experiments to determine various oceanic physical charac- 

 teristics; and nuclear explosions. 



Nuclear power plants may use the ocean or its tributaries as a source 

 of cooling waters, returning the coolant with a higher temperature 

 and, in certain cases, substantial amounts of induced radioactivity. 

 Nuclear power plants may propel military or private vessels, and 

 through leakage or deliberate disposal, release wastes to the sea. 

 The power plants for certain airborne and space vehicles are expected 



