MARINE SCIENCE 27 



That choice was lost when we, or in fact any nation, embarked on a 

 program utilizing the fission process as a source of power production. 



Neglecting all considerations of fallout from the testing and use of 

 atomic bombs, we still are faced then with the generation of large 

 quantities of radioactive materials in present and proposed peaceful 

 uses programs. These include the use of radioactive materials in sci- 

 ence and technology, the development of land-based powerplants, and 

 the development of nuclear powered submarine and surface vessels. 



As presently developed, and as far as I can tell there can be only 

 minor changes in the foreseeable future, all of these peaceful uses will 

 result in certain quantities of radioactive waste materials that must be 

 released to our environment and which will inevitably find their way 

 into the oceans. To be sure, the massive quantities of so-called high 

 level wastes are and can be contained on land and so kept out of man's 

 immediate environment. 



Nevertheless, there remain rather large quantities, so far as bulk is 

 concerned, of so-called low-level wastes that cannot be handled as are 

 the high-level wastes. It is, I believe, safe to predict that regardless 

 of all the safety precautions taken, accidents will happen in land- 

 based powerplants, and nviclear powered vessels will be involved in 

 collisions and sinkings, all of which will contaminate the world's 

 oceans. 



The Chairman. I might say to the committee, we have a model of a 

 ship over there, one of the old Savannah, and the new Savannah and we 

 still have a problem in fixing the liability in case something does hap- 

 pen. We still don't know what to do with it. 



Go ahead. 



Mr. Caeritt. I am firmly convinced that the basic question that 

 must be answered is not shall we or shall we not release radioactive 

 wastes to the sea, but rather how much can be safelj'' released to the 

 sea without jeopardizing our present and planned uses of the marine 

 resources. 



I am also firmly convinced that if for some reason or other it became 

 necessary to prevent the release of radioactive materials to the sea, 

 our program of peaceful uses of radioactive materials would be so 

 curtailed as to make in insignificant. 



In answering the question, "How much activity can we safely 

 release to the seas without curtailing our use of the marine environ- 

 ment?" the basic problem is that of protecting mankind from hazards 

 that might result from those operations. Here we immediately are 

 faced with two problems. 



First, we must know the extent of damage that may result to man 

 by various quantities of radioactive material in his environment. 



Secondly, we must know enough about the marine environment to 

 be able to predict the rate of return of radioactive materials back to 

 man for various rates of disposal into the sea. We are asking ques- 

 tions here then in two broad fields of scientific endeavor: First, in 

 medicine as it relates to radiation damage to man ; and, second, in the 

 earth sciences and especially oceanography, for it is from these latter 

 studies that we will learn the capacity of various parts of the marine 

 environment to receive radioactive wastes without returning them to 

 man at hazardous levels. 



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