OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 323 



STATEMENT OF DR. ALLYN H. SEYMOUR, CONSULTANT, ATOMIC 

 ENERGY COMMISSION, AND ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, LABORATORY 

 OP RADIATION BIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON 



Mr. Miller. Dr. Allyn H. Seymour, consultant, Atomic Energy 

 Commission, and assistant director. Laboratory of Radiation Biology, 

 University of Washington. 



Dr. Seymour, we welcome you here. We are glad to see you. I am 

 certain I am exercising Mr. Pelly's prerogative now. We are happy 

 to see a west coast man here in your capacity from the great university 

 that you represent. 



Mr. Pelly. Mr. Chairman, I think the University of Washington 

 has an actual class and study over in Hanford, Wash., where there 

 are nuclear works. Is that not right? 



Dr. Seymour. Yes, sir, there are studies conducted at the Hanford 

 operations plant in conjunction with the University of Washington. 



Mr. Pelly. I know that in our marine studies in the nuclear pro- 

 pulsion field, often there is occasion to refer to the very fine work 

 which is done at the University of Washington in that connection. I 

 often hear from some of those who are in the shipbuilding field indi- 

 cating that they desire to get it modernized and study nuclear propul- 

 sion, and the University of Washingion seems to be right up in that 

 field. 



I am certainly glad you are here today. 



Dr. Seymour. Thank you, Mr. Pelly. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Before presenting the paper which has been prepared by Dr. I. E. 

 Wallen, aquatic biologist, Environmental Sciences Branch, Division 

 of Biology and Medicine, a word of explanation as to why he is not 

 here is in order. Dr. Wallen is on military leave. Since I preceded 

 Dr. Wallen as marine biologist in the Division of Biology and Medi- 

 cine and served in that capacity from October 1956 to October 1958, 

 Dr. Dunham and Dr. Wolfe of the Division of Biology and Medicine 

 asked me to present the statement of Dr. Wallen. 



I shall now read his statement : 



The Atomic Energy Commission has a limited research program in 

 oceanography and marine biology. Although we have used Navy ves- 

 sels and the ships of oceanographic institutions for limited periods of 

 time, we do not own ships nor do we employ personnel to carry on 

 oceanogi^aphic research. We have not considered this a handicap since 

 it has been the general policy of the Commission to contract for re- 

 search as well as services with other agencies and organizations. 



Under these circumstances the Commission's interest in open ocean 

 research is restricted to such specialized basic problems as (1) deep 

 ocean current as a distributive mechanism for radioactivity, (2) dis- 

 persal and distribution of fallout radionuclides through the ocean 

 layers, (3) food web concentration of radioactive isotopes in ocean 

 waters, and (4) mechanisms for reduction or dilution of possible cen- 

 ters of radioactivity in the ocean. 



I have made some minor corrections in Dr. Wallen's statement, so 

 what I read will not follow exactly the copy that you have at hand. 



The Commission (Manhattan District) has been supporting re- 

 search in oceanography and the marine sciences since 1943 when the 

 Applied Fisheries Laboratory of the University of Washington was 



