70 BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ATOMIC RADIATION 



Industrial Radioactive Waste Disposal. The record of these hearings appears in five volumes 

 of 3 142 pages, much of which is concerned with disposal to the oceans. 



In September 1959, Senator Magnuson of the State of Washington and other members 

 of the Subcommittee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries of the Senate Committee on Inter- 

 state and Foreign Commerce introduced a bill (S. 2692, 86th Congress, 1st Session) which, 

 if enacted, would authorize an increase in Federal support of oceanography along the lines 

 recommended in the Academy's report: "To advance the marine sciences, to establish a 

 comprehensive ten-year program of oceanographic research and surveys; ... to assure sys- 

 tematic studies of effects of radioactive materials in marine environments; to enhance the 

 general welfare; and for other purposes." 



A companion bill (H. R. 9361, 86th Congress, 2nd Session) was introduced in the 

 House of Representatives by Congressman Pelly of Washington. 



Considerable experience has been gained concerning disposal of relatively large quanti- 

 ties of low-level wastes in the Irish Sea off the British Windscale atomic power plant and in 

 the Columbia River near the Hanford Works of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission. The 

 results, which are summarized in this report, give a valuable confirmation of the computations 

 in the reports on low-level waste disposal and wastes from nuclear-powered ships. It seems 

 evident that with careful control and monitoring, rather large quantities of radioactive wastes, 

 possibly several thousand curies a month of certain isotopes, can be disposed of safely in some 

 coastal waters or in large rivers. 



When our first report was written, fallout from weapons tests was the principal source 

 of artificial radioactive materials in the sea. Although this is probably still true of the oceans 

 as a whole, radioactivity from the peaceful uses of atomic energy will probably overshadow 

 the amount from fallout in the future. Even at the present time, these sources predominate in 

 certain areas. 



The radioactive pollutants with which we are concerned may come from the following 

 sources : 



A. Nuclear power plants {on land or at sea) 



1. Low-level liquid wastes due to induced activity in cooling water, or due to leakage of 

 fission products from damaged fuel elements to cooling water. 



2. Accidents to the reactor system. 



3. Designed disposal of radioactive materials, either packaged or not. 



B. Laboratories, hospitals, industrial plants, and military installations. 



1 . Packaged, low-level wastes and contaminated refuse. 



2. Discharge of low-level waste solutions either directly or indirectly into the sea. 



C. Experiments — large scale experiments in physical, chemical, and biological oceanography. 



D. Atomic explosions — release of relatively large quantities of radioactive materials. 



1. Experimental — weapons tests. 



2. Peaceful uses — harbor construction. 



3. Warfare. 



