MARINE SCIENCE 31 



what extent the sinking of a nuclear-powered vessel, with rupture of 

 the i-eactor, Avould limit further uses of any one of the major harbors 

 of the world. 



Although special precautions are taken in controlling the move- 

 ments of nuclear powered vessels, it seems to me to be inevitable that 

 some kind of accident involving one of these ships will occur. The 

 question has been asked, "Suppose the A'tidrea Doria had been nu- 

 clear powered?" 



Similarly, we have been asked for advice in connection with the 

 possible establishment of near-shore disposal areas to receive pack- 

 aged, low-level wastes. Is the procedure feasible ? 



Wliat limitations should be placed upon such an operation ? 



During the past year two proposals have been presented for so- 

 called atomic parks which would be centered around chemical plants 

 for the processing of partially expended nuclear fuel elements, from 

 which some level of release of activity during normal operation is 

 inevitable, and massive releases would occur in cases of accident or 

 malfunction. Both of these plants, according to the proposals, would 

 be placed on the Atlantic coast near existing population centers. 



In answering questions that arise from such operations we realize 

 that we cannot treat the problems in a purely academic fashion. Our 

 answers literally will affect t\i^ lives of large portions of the world's 

 population, to say nothing of possible involvement with our Nation's 

 prestige. Consequently, our answers have intentionally been con- 

 servative. 



We now believe that we understand the basic framework within 

 which answers to these kinds of questions must be developed. Chapter 

 5 of the NASCO report contains an outline of the programs that will 

 furnish the information needed to fill out that framework, and in 

 addition gives a reasonable estimate of the costs of such studies. 



The division of the marine environment into two broad classifi- 

 cations, estuarine and coastal, and the open seas is a natural divi- 

 sion based upon our present understanding of these areas. Estu- 

 aries and coastal areas are regions in which changes in properties 

 occur much more rapidly and over greater ranges than in the open 

 oceans. They are more closely linked to man geographically and 

 economically, and they produce the major fraction of man's harvest 

 of marine food products. Consequently the methods used to study 

 these areas are not identical. 



Basically chapter 5 outlines studies in (1) physical oceanography, 

 which will lead to an understanding of transport and dispersion of 

 a contaminant by the currents and mixing processes in the oceans, 

 (2) biological oceanography, which will provide information con- 

 cerning the accumulation or rejection of various waste elements by 

 the plants and animals of the oceans and so enter the food chain 

 that ends in man, and (3) geochemistry, which will show under what 

 conditions suspended materials and bottom deposits may act to alter 

 the distribution of waste components from those deduced solely from 

 physical and biological transport. 



The information leading from these studies is essential to an ac- 

 curate prediction of the fate of wastes dumped, either intentionally 

 or by accident, into many parts of the oceans, and consequently to 



