355 



in a facility for reprocessing irradiated reactor fuels, or irradiated fuel from nuclear 

 power reactors." 



We have no program underway for high level radioactive waste disposal in the 

 ocean. We are aware that the Department of Energy (DOE) over the past few years 

 has developed a program to evaluate the technical and scientific feasibility of the 

 seabed emplacement of high-level radioactive waste. We receive published informa- 

 tion from the DOE program and participate in informal information exchanges from 

 time to time. The scientific research performed under the DOE program is of high 

 caliber and provides some useful information for our own studies, and our cogni- 

 zance of the program helps to to avoid duplication of efforts. 



SURVEYS OF OLD U.S. DUMPSITES 



With the passage of the Ocean Dumping Act, the EPA launched a technical 

 program to understand the effects of past dumping practices. The program was 

 designed to reflect what we see as both active and passive roles for EPA under the 

 Act. That is, we must develop the regulatory framework for evaluating permits for 

 ocean disposal of radioactive waste, we must evaluate ocean disposal relative to 

 other methods of disposal such as shallow land burial, and we must impartially 

 evaluate individual permit requests based on the best available scientific informa- 

 tion. With all of these roles in mind we began a series of dumpsite survey oper- 

 ations in 1974. Such work also had been recommended by others. In 1974, an 

 oceanographic assessment of disposal of wastes in the marine environment was 

 performed for EPA by the National Research Council of the National Academy of 

 Sciences. One of the research recommendations that came from the assessment was 

 that, "the most valuable criteria for the establishment of future dump sites can be 

 obtained from monitoring current disposal operations." The Council also recom- 

 mended that "Abandoned disposal sites should be studied to determine long-term 

 chemical transformations and transport of waste materials." 



The results of our site-specific dumpsite survey program have been described in 

 other congressional hearings, including one held by this subcommittee in May, 1978. 

 At that time we provided details of our surveys through 1977, so today I will only 

 summarize those efforts. Mr. Dyer will provide you with technical details of our 

 most recent survey in July, 1978, which was conducted shortly after your previous 

 hearing on nuclear waste disposal. 



In August, 1974, we surveyed at the Farallon Islands 900 meter site. We used an 

 unmanned submersible to locate some of the radioactive waste drums for the first 

 time. This was followed in 1975 by a similar survey at the Farallon Islands 1,700 

 meter location. In both surveys radioactive waste drums were found and samples of 

 sediment and biota were taken. Concentrations of plutonium-238, and plutonium- 

 239, 240 were detected in the sediments near some drums that were higher than 

 what normally would be expected from weapons-testing fallout. 



In 1975 and 1976 we conducted manned-submersible surveys of the Atlantic 2800 

 meter (9300 feet) dumpsite off the Maryland-Delaware Coast. In these surveys we 

 located radioactive waste drums, took carefully positioned sediment core samples, 

 and performed radioactivity analyses that confirmed the presence of elevated levels 

 of cesium- 137 in sediments immediately adjacent to selected radioactive waste 

 drums. We also recovered a drum from the site for detailed analysis to assess the 

 long-term integrity of the standard metal drum and concrete matrix packaging 

 system. 



In 1977, we successfully undertook additional surveys at the Farallon Islands at 

 depths of 900 meters and 1700 meters. The first survey was designed to provide 

 estimates of biological activity and diversity and to obtain samples of water and 

 ocean sediments. The second survey was designed to recover a radioactive waste 

 drum from the 900 meter location for laboratory analysis. Additional biological and 

 sediment samples were collected, and current meters were deployed to measure the 

 speed and direction of the water moving though the dumpsite region. 



The last in our series of survey operations was conducted in 1978 at the deepest of 

 the four major U.S. sea disposal areas, the Atlantic 3,800 meter (13,000 feet) site. A 

 waste drum was recovered from this site also. 



These surveys and the contractor and agency reports which resulted from them 

 are the beginnings of the technical data base for our development of a regulatory 

 program for any future dumping of low level wastes. This information will, in part, 

 provide the basis for improving the criteria used to pick dumpsites, the criteria for 

 packaging systems for isolation of the radioactive materials, and the criteria for 

 dumpsite monitoring. 



