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There have been weapons tests — nuclear devices testing has been 

 by far the greatest input to atmospheric fallout. We also have nuclear 

 powerplants. However, these are engineered situations, which do not 

 release very much radioactivity even though fission products are also 

 produced in the fuel elements. I made a calculation just recently trying 

 to compare the nuclear powerplant fission product production with 

 that of fallout, from nuclear testing. 



The operating history of six powerplants over a 6- to 8 -year period 

 results in the equivalent of about 5 megatons of fission products 

 being produced. 



From nuclear testing, all countries have produced something on the 

 order of 200 megatons, so the nuclear reactors have contributed some- 

 thing like 2.5 percent of the fission j)roducts in existance. 



But these fission products are incorporated in fuel elements, and 

 they are bound with some esoteric alloys like zirconium or stainless 

 steel, which are designed to resist the erosive and corrosive forces of the 

 cooling water. 



The fuel elements then go to chemical processing plants where the 

 fission products are separated from the unburned uranium, and the 

 major part of the fission products go into long-term storage tanks, and 

 Mr. Seiken here, recovers these from the tanks to use in his isotope 

 power systems. 



The direct release of waste from reactors is also under engineering 

 control, and you can look at the summaries of history of monitoring 

 these things and on the order of — I couldn't begin to equate this with 

 the megatons of fission products that have been produced in nuclear 

 explosions, but it is very small. 



The same is true of the nuclear navy. The fission products are under 

 fairly tight controls. There are all sorts of anomalies possible here, 

 and there may be some nominal, small discharges at times. 



The subject that hit the public's interest a few years ago ; namely, 

 packaged waste disposal into the oceans, has been dormant since about 

 1960 or 1961. The United States, per se, has done very little in the way 

 of packaged waste disposal. 



Other sources of activity coming into the marine environment are 

 from the operation of some plants like the special materials production 

 plant at Hanford, which have a unique kind of reactor. i?hese were 

 designed and developed early in the game, back in the 1940's. 



They weren't looking for nuclear power then, so they were running 

 cooling water through the reactors to keep them cool. 



In this system, materials in the water become neutron activated 

 and are carried along with the water, so some of those products are 

 contributed to the stream and carried out to the ocean environment. 

 Mr. Karth. Of what interest is that ? 



Mr. Joseph. We have been following this closely, and the concen- 

 trations, in the Columbia Eiver and the estuary and the ojffshore envi- 

 ronment, have been well below those levels stated by the International 

 Commission on Radiological Protection and our own National Com- 

 mission on Radiation Protection — they have been a few percent of the 

 levels that they have stated are tolerable by man without hazard. 

 Mr. Karth. Is that where it enters into the stream, or is that after 

 it becomes diluted ? 



Mr. Joseph. I would have to say in the vicinity not too f ar_ down- 

 stream from the reactor. Of course, in the pipeline itself, it might be 



