234 



You told the Army no, we do not want to do this, our political in- 

 terests would be hurt, and you did not have the guts to ]3ut it in 

 writing. 



You did it in a late telephone call one night. 



Thank you. 



ISIr. DiNGELL. Thank you very much. 



Mr. E.AMEY. Mr. Chairman 



Mr. DiNGELL. I think you are entitled to at least say something at 

 this point. 



Go ahead. 



Mr. Lennon. And then that will permit me to say something. 

 (Laughter.) 



Mr. Ramey. Mr. Chairman, I would be glad to provide for the rec- 

 ord a little statement on this. 



This sort of starts us out in the hole, you might say. Of course I was 

 familiar with this problem when it occurred. However, I do not re- 

 collect that, and I would doubt that, the Commission would recom- 

 mend any type of disposal of some other agency's materials. 



One of the things the Commission gets accused of a lot is of not 

 being very aggressive in any of its recommendations. 



I would also point out that the method of disposal of these gases so 

 far as the possibilities of it being done by the Atomic Energy Com- 

 mission through nuclear means, was a type of disintegration using 

 atomic explosives underground. This was a method that some of the 

 laboratory people thought could be eilective, but it w^as one that was 

 essentially untried, and in the required time sequence this would have 

 been a rather difficult thing to have been accomplished. The Com- 

 mission did not believe that it could undertake this — certainly not at 

 that time. 



That is about all I have to say, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. DiNGELL. We thank you very much, Conmiissioner. 



Mr. Pelly. 



Mr. Pelly. I have just one question, Mr. Chairman. 



I would like to ask the Commissioner why is it possible for the 

 Commission to revoke the authority that he referred to in the 

 statement ? 



How can he revoke that authority of other agencies when his own 

 agency is disposing of the same radioactive waste of one university 

 and two agencies that I know of ? 



Mr. Ramey. These are essentially licensees involved in research 

 activities, and the licenses are in the process of being terminated. 



Mr. Pelly. I think for the record, we would like you to name the 

 university and the two agencies. 



Mr. Ramey. One of the agencies is the NIH, and the other is the 

 National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, The uni- 

 versity is the University of Hawaii. 



Mr. Pelly. And then there is one commercial organization, is there 

 not? 



Mr, Ramey. There is one commercial organization, yes, sir. The 

 California Salvage Co. of San Pedro, Calif. 



As I mentioned, they have not engaged in the actual disposal of 

 radioactive waste. 



