352 OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 



Dr. Seymour. May I make one comment? I know the committee 

 deliberateLy asked for the guidance of the Fish and Wildlife Service 

 in selecting these sites, and the reasons for giving specific localities 

 were that these were selected as being places where there was not 

 supposed to be either sports fishing or commercial fishing. Evi- 

 dently they made a mistake. 



Mr. Casey. I shall be glad to show them the map. 



Mr. Lennon. I wonder if the gentleman contacted the North Caro- 

 lina Department of Conservation and Development, particularly the 

 bureau of commercial fisheries, before they reached a decision with 

 respect to the site off Morehead City, N.C. 



Dr. Seymour. I do not know, sir. I know that they contacted the 

 Fish and Wildlife Service people. I cannot speak firsthand. I have 

 no firsthand information as to that. It is evident that they should 

 have. 



Mr. CuRTiN. That is all, Mr. Chairman, 



Dr. Lieberman. Just one other point, Mr. Chairman, which I 

 might mention here. As most of you gentlemen know, hearings 

 were held on the disposal of industrial radioactive wastes befoi'e the 

 Joint Committee on Atomic Energy earlier this year. I understand 

 that they are now in print. There are four volumes on this whole 

 subject of waste disposal. Perhaps, Mr. Chairman, you and the other 

 members of the committee would be interested in obtaining copies 

 of this report. 



Mr. Miller. I am conscious of them. I have not read them. 



Dr. LiEBERMAN. I do not think they are out yet, sir. 



Mr. Miller. I asked Mr. Holifield about them, and he suggested 

 that he might come over here. Whereas we recognize their authority 

 in this field, I want to point out that we also in the Committee on 

 Merchant Marine and Fisheries have a very definite responsibility, 

 and we are not going to surrender that responsibility to the Joint 

 Committee. We ai'e not jealous of them, but in these fields we are cer- 

 tainly going to look vei-y carefully before anything is done. 



Of course, I realize this is something new. The AEC has been 

 a sort of "untouchable" around here, but as far as we are concerned, 

 this committee will accept its responsibility in this jurisdiction. We 

 may have you up here again. 



Counsel has one question, I believe. 



Mr. Drewry. Just one question. Dr. Lieberman. If this radio- 

 activity we are discussing is artificial, do we have the means or knowl- 

 edge to eliminate the radioactivity, to recombine these poisonous mate- 

 rials into some other form which would be nonradioactive, to I'everse 

 the process? 



Dr. Lieberman. Theoretically yes, but practically no. 



Mr. Drewky. Is work being done on that ? 



Dr. Lieberman. I cannot say that work is being done on this. In 

 order to transmute these radioactive elements and turn them back to 

 sometliing which is nonradioactive, you would be ])roducing other 

 radioactive elements. It would be like the dog chasing its tail or 

 trying to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. So it looks as if it 

 is not a reasonable "or even pei-haps theoretical hope that vou could 

 take the radioactive materials and turn them into sometning else. 



Mr. Drewry. That is all, Mr. Chairman. 



