318 



capability of long-term cracks developing. That is the positive 

 aspect. The negative part is that under low loads the sediments 

 and the cansiter may move. 



Figure 10 is a picture of the results of first calculations that we 

 have made using a new predictive mechanical mode. The canister 

 is placed 30 meters into the plastic sediments. Estimated material 

 property laws and properties were used. The displacement of the 

 canister has been calculated as a function of different viscosity 

 laws. In no case, however, does the can breach the sediment bar- 

 rier. 



The research that will be done in the next 3 years will be to 

 show whether these estimates were correct. 



In the biology and physical oceanographic sections the subsec- 

 tions of the model that are being developed are the ones that 

 address the dose to man and the dose effect to the fauna. Our 

 approach to the effects on the fauna is to try and find species that 

 are from shallow water, that are analogs of the deep water ones 

 and test them as to their radiation sensitivity. If we find that there 

 are none, then we will use the data already available for the 

 shallow water analogs. These studies will take several years. 



The areas of the ocean that we are looking at are shown in 

 figure 15. We have focused down from the large oceanic basins to 

 these using criteria developed by the program. Due to economics 

 we have not looked at the southern hemisphere. 



In the figure the Hawaiian Islands are at the bottom left hand 

 below the center square in the Pacific. The three areas in the 

 Atlantic span the mid-Atlantic ridge. During the next 6 years, the 

 regions will be decreased to approximately 1- by 1-degree squares of 

 approximately 60 nautical miles on a side the size of the area we 

 think is adequate. 



Finally, the international program — the Seabed Working 

 Group — which has been mentioned earlier today is a restricted 

 subcommittee under the Nuclear Energy Agency's Radioactive 

 Waste Management Committee. 



Mr. Glen Boyer of the United States is the chairman of that 

 group. Six nations are members. Two more have indicated that 

 they plan to join next year. There are seven task groups — see 

 figure 14 — the left-hand side, which address the many phases of the 

 seabed research program, are the nations and below their task 

 group representatives. There are two reasons why some of those 

 nations do not have individuals in every group: One is that the 

 countries have just recently joined and their programs have not yet 

 developed. The other is that in some instances, their primary inter- 

 ests are in other areas such as low-level waste disposal. Participa- 

 tion is then only in areas where high-level waste studies are com- 

 plementary to low-level studies. 



I would like to terminate my testimony at this point. Dr. HoUis- 

 ter and I will try to answer any questions. 



Mr. Studds. Thank you gentlemen, very much. 



We will keep you folks in place. 



We will be going for a few moments and then break. 



You are trying to do research on phenomenon which could occur 

 tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years from now; can 

 we do such research? 



