FRONTIERS IN OCEANIC RESEARCH 75 



Dr. Lipp. My reaction is the same as Dr. Wakelin's. We need to 

 know more about this before we start getting careless with it. 



Mr. Miller. Do you think we have gone off a little bit halfcocked, 

 when you take ships loaded with mustard gas out to sea and sink them 

 to get rid of them, without knowing where this gas may go ? 



Dr. Lipp. I really don't know enough about mustard gas to answer 

 that question. 



My impression of the atomic wastes that have been dumped so far 

 is that they are allowed to cool off very greatly, so there is not much 

 radioactivity that has been thrown into the ocean up to now. 



Mr. Miller. But you know there have been plans, and there are 

 plans to put high-level waste into the ocean ? 



Dr. Lipp. Yes, and I would go slowly with that. 



Mr. Miller. In your own committee, or the Committee of the Na- 

 tional Academy of Sciences, released in its report — its report on the 

 disposal of waste on the east coast and the gulf coast was released. 

 It wasn't too well received in Congress. They are making additional 

 studies on the west coast before they are going to do this, a study that 

 was supposed to be in 6 months ago, but hasn't been filed as yet with 

 us. 



Dr. Lipp. I have not been very close to that particular panel. 



The Chairman. I will say this if the gentleman will yield : It seems 

 to me more and more you are going to have to be more guarded in 

 using the seas for a dumping ground. 



I wonder whether it was advisable for our people to take the silt 

 out of the bed of the Mississippi River and dump it there into the 

 Gulf of Mexico. 



Mr. Miller. You ought to make a bigger State out of the State of. 

 Louisiana. 



The Chairman. It is a small, relative amount, but we lost that silt 

 forever, perhaps, and it does affect the fishing generally in that section 

 of the gulf, doesn't it ? Don't you think so ? 



Dr. Lipp. I would guess so. An oceanographer could answer that 

 question much better than I, however. 



The Chairman. Doctor, we certainly thank you for coming here 

 this morning and I want to remind members of the committee still 

 here of the briefing at 2 o'clock if you can possibly make it. Dr. Lipp, 

 I have some additional questions I want to leave with you which can 

 be included in the record at this point, together with your answers. 



(The questions and answers referred to are as follows:) 



1. Q. What are the special difficulties of engineering operations under the sea 

 as compared with those on the surface of the sea and how do these problems 

 compare with those of, for example, establishing a manned station in space? 



A. Operations under the sea are governed primarily by the great pressures and 

 by the vulnerability of humans and devices to those pressures. Supplying air 

 to people underwater would be relatively simple except that the human* body is 

 vulnerable to the "bends," to oxygen poisoning, and to narcosis when breathing 

 air under pressure. Therefore all human operations more than a few feet below 

 the surface must be protected structurally so as to approximate sea level con- 

 ditions for the operators. 



These problems are similar to those of operating in outer space, where protected 

 breathing is likewise the most important problem. In outer space, the operator 

 is also endangered by wide temperature changes, high energy radiation, and 

 small meteors — hazards which are not found in the sea. 



2. Q. The program recommended by the Committee on Oceanography visualizes 

 financial support primarily from Government sources. Do you believe that oce- 

 anographic research can attract private venture capital? 



