333 



Tliey said, we have a place, where it can be done, but it will inter- 

 fere with — if you gentlemen want to read the record, I will not mis- 

 state anytlmig, but it will interfere with our on-going projects. 



We suggest you ship it out here. This is a reconunendation of your 

 laboratory, ship it out here, and we will store it in a safe isolated spot, 

 and in time we Avill, dispose of it. 



I recall in those hearings, some of them were held in the evenings, 

 nighttime, and we confinned this, and the Commission made a deci- 

 sion that tliis was not politically the smart thing to do for the Atomic 

 Energy Commission, instead of writmg to the Army, and puttmg it in 

 writing, saying, we do not want to do this, because of the problems we 

 are havmg around the comitry with atomic energy reactor power, we 

 suggest you move it from Alabama, out of Blue Grass Kentucky, down 

 to a point in !N"orth Caroluia, and ship it to Cape Kemiedy, and dump 

 it in the ocean, but you did not put it in writing. 



I'ou called the Army late one night, and you told them you just 

 could not get involved in it, and the Army did not have the uitestinal 

 fortitude 



We call it guts in my part of the country, to take that decision to 

 the President, and let him resolve it, and I lost most of the respect 

 I ever had for the Atomic Energy Commission, because of your un- 

 willingness, or gutless attitude in that resi3ect, and as much as I 

 love the services, and I am on the Armed Services Committee, I lost 

 a great deal of respect for them, that they did not have the courage to 

 take that decision to the President. 



I am sure he would have followed the recommendation of your 

 laboratory, the Lawrence Laboratory. 



Now, you have moved right far, and I am delighted to see it. 



If you gentlemen do not believe what I said is the truth, all I 

 ask you is to do is to take the record and read it. 



It is all in there. 



That is the reason I am delighted that you have finally accepted the 

 fact that Government agencies should be as responsible for ocean 

 dumpmg as private enterprise. 



I am pleased to see the change in attitude, but having lived with 

 this thing between the Federal district court, and North Carolina 

 was a trying experience. We brought the Surgeon General here be- 

 fore the coromittee, and he having just made a public statement that 

 they were giving every hospital in the entire area some sort of anti- 

 dote to be injected in case anybody inhaled this gas. We asked him, 

 how long it took him to park his car, and get to his office, and he then 

 said you would take this injection of antidote within 2 minutes, from 

 the time you inhaled it, or within 10 minutes, or it was lethal. When he 

 came here, I asked him the question if he drove to work occasionally. 

 He said he did. I said how long does it take you to get from your 

 car where you park it in the office, and he said about 10 or 12 minutes. 



I said then the only way this antidote would avoid a lethal dose, of 

 this gas would be to be fortunate enough, unfortunate enough to be 

 sitting in the emergency room of a hospital, but not for that purpose, 

 and after you inhaled the gas that came through the window, you 

 might avoid it b}^ getting an immediate injection. I want to make that 

 crystal clear to you gentlemen, it was your decision which caused 

 those coffins to be dumped off the Florida coast. 



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