54 OCEAN SCIENCES AND NATIONAL SECURITY 



G. RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL 



The oceans have been historically utilized for disposal of conti- 

 nental refuse and the same reasons that have made the oceans at- 

 tractive for ordinary waste products has made them highly useful 

 for disposal of low-level radioactive waste. 



The new problem, however, is the potential hazard to health, normal 

 physiological and genetic processes through the accidental return of 

 radioactive substances from the sea to man or to other biological 

 organisms. 



Great precautions have been taken to stay weU. within the safe 

 capacity of the seas to receive such material and to assiu-e that mixing 

 with the ocean water is at such a rate that even futm-e generations 

 will not be adversely affected. 



Present practices of disposal in the sea involve only low-level waste. 

 These are broadly classified as waste containing up to the equivalent 

 of millicurie quantities of activity per gallon. They are distinct from 

 high-level wastes, such as those obtained from the processing of spent 

 reactor fuels which may contain hundreds of curies per gallon. These 

 low-level wastes are generated in university and industrial laboratories, 

 hospitals, and research institutions licensed by AEC to use relatively 

 small quantities of radioactive material.*^ 



As the industrial and military uses of nuclear processes increase, as 

 is certam to be the case m the futm-e, the problem of disposal becomes 

 increasingly important and is considered, by those responsible for 

 health and safety, to require a great deal of research on the oceans 

 themselves: 



Vigorous programs should be started for the purpose of determining the cir- 

 culation and mixing processes which control the dispersion of introduced con- 

 taminants in coastal and estuarine environments and in the open oceans. * * * 

 A program should be pursued, aimed at determining the inorganic transfer of 

 radioactive elements from sea water to the sediments. * * * Studies should be 

 made of the effects of living organisms on the distribution of radioactive elements 

 introduced in the sea. * * * The genetic effects of radiation upon marine organ- 

 isms should be studied.^^ 



The problem takes on an even different hue when considering not 

 the deliberate but accidental introduction of radioactive substance 

 into the sea through detonation of nuclear weapons for harbor con- 

 struction, or through accidents with nuclear -propelled ships or with 

 artificial satellites mvolvmg nuclear elements which fall into the sea. 

 These same problems are obviously critical on land, but except for 

 material which is distributed downwmd, dangerous radioactivity is 

 likely to be highly localized. In the sea, however, the problem is 

 quite different. Knowledge of currents may permit selection of 

 safety measures in the event of an accident, even if processes of con- 

 tainment are impracticable. 



*> "Radioaotivc Waste Disposal Into Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Waters," NAS-NRC Publication GSri. 

 « NASCO report, eh. 1, p. 20. 



