314 i 



Mr. Meyers, representing a State in the Pacific concerned- about 

 the nation's of the Pacific, I want to ask some questions about the 

 Pacific area, and on page 1, you mentioned the term "geologically 

 stable," that are being conducted, are to determine such areas. 



Can you tell me what geologically stable — have there been earth- 

 quakes? 



Mr. Meyers. Yes, geologic stability means that there has been no 

 seismic activity, no volcanic activity, no disruptive events over long 

 periods of time. 



Mr. Akaka. Can you tell me whether these tests have been 

 conducted in the Pacific? 



Mr. Meyers. Where? 



Mr. Akaka. In areas. No, have these tests been conducted in the 

 Pacific areas? 



Dr. Meyers. Yes, surveys have been made in the Atlantic and 

 Pacific Oceans. 



Mr. Akaka. Can you identify the sites? 



Mr. Meyers. Yes, I can certainly give you an accurate descrip- 

 tion of where they are. I do not have it with me now. The next 

 witness. Dr. Anderson of Sandia Laboratory, will talk about those 

 sites. 



Mr. Akaka. On page 4 you talk about sediment that could pro- 

 vide the effective isolation of radioactive waste. 



Again, the question I ask is what do you mean by effective 

 isolation? 



Mr. Meyers. Effective barriers means that it will retain the 

 radioactive material so as not to adversely affect the biosphere. In 

 other words, when it is put into the sediments, it will essentially 

 stay there. 



Mr. Akaka. And this — I heard you say earlier that that would be 

 forever. 



Mr. Meyers. Essentially. 



Mr. Akaka. I guess the next witness will provide the answers to 

 where the other sediments are found in the Pacific area. We know 

 that all of the discussion and experiments, also research is going 

 on, because there is a buildup of high level waste around the world. 



What is happening to all of this waste at this time? 



Mr. Meyers. It is being stored. 



Mr. Akaka. Is it being stored in areas in our country, is it being 

 stored on land or 



Mr. Meyers. Yes, there are two kinds of high level wastes. One is 

 the spent fuel elements that are essentially being stored at the 

 reactor sites. These are being stored in spent fuel storage basins. 



The other category is waste which evolves from weapons produc- 

 tion. It is stored in tanks at our Savannah River plant, and in 

 South Carolina, and in our plant in the State of Washington. We 

 also have calcined material stored in Idaho, where we process the 

 reactor fuel elements from the naval reactor program. These are 

 the DOE high level waste storage areas. 



Mr. Akaka. Is there a time frame, as to whether we will have to 

 begin storing it in depositories, such as salt seabeds? 



Mr. Meyers. Yes, we have a time frame laid out in the program 

 plan, when the geological repository will need to be available. 



