309 



Ms. MiKULSKi. Yes. 



Mr. Meyers. We are looking at a number of container materials. 

 One of them that is the most attractive is a titanium alloy. Wheth- 

 er or not we will need special ships, I just do not know at this time. 

 We have not reached that stage of engineering systems analysis. 

 We are still at the early stages of examining scientific feasibility, 

 but I would not expect that the engineering of a particular contain- 

 er, or ship to carry the waste would be a very difficult engineering 

 problem. 



Ms. MiKULSKi. What is the half-life of, say the kind of nuclear 

 waste that we are considering? 



Mr. Meyers. Well, it goes to thousands of years. 



Ms. Mikulski. How long? 



Mr. Meyers. Thousands of years. 



Ms. Mikulski. How many, 5, 10, 100,000? 



Mr. Meyers. Well, it depends upon the efficiency of the recy- 

 cling, or the reprocessing process, for one thing, whether or not you 

 get all the plutonium out. 



In the case of spent fuel, where you do not get the plutonium 

 out, then it remains in the spent fuel, and I guess the plutonium 

 half-life is something on the order of 24,000 years. 



Ms. Mikulski. 16,000 years, so we are trying to think of some 

 type of container that is going to last 16,000 years, sitting in a rock 

 at the bottom of the ocean? 



Mr. Meyers. No, not necessarily. The container may not have to 

 last that long a period of time. 



Ms. Mikulski. Maybe only 14,000? 



Mr. Meyers. The emplacement in the sediment is such that we 

 would expect that even if the container just dissolved completely 

 the day it was put down, the migration of those nuclides would be 

 no more than 3 or 4 feet from where they were placed. 



Ms. Mikulski. Unless they are in an earthquake zone. 



Mr. Meyers. Again, we are trying to locate stable sedimentary 

 areas of the ocean floor, and there seem to be many that have been 

 literally stable for millions of years. 



Ms. Mikulski. I thank you. I just find it so astounding. I buy 

 cans of string beans, to tell me that they have to be taken off the 

 shelf in 3 or 4 years, and then we think in terms of storing nuclear 

 waste, with the half-life just 16,000 years, and in a container, and 

 putting it in a place that we are not sure it is going to be stable, is 

 just 



Mr. Meyers. Well, that is, again, remember, what the program is 

 about. We are not convinced that it can be done. 



Ms. Mikulski. I know what the program is about. I am just 

 telling you that I really do know what the program is about and I 

 do not like it. That is it. 



You have to know a Polish woman to know something about the 

 curie contact factor. It drives you up the wall. 



Mr. Pritchard. Would the gentlelady yield? 



You do not object to the research in trying to find out the facts? 



Ms. Mikulski. I do not object to the research but I think it is an 

 absolute waste of time. I am someone who thinks that we should 

 ban nuclear to the point of production. It is my belief that if it is 

 something that is not naturally biodegradable, it should not be 



