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FACT SHEET ON OCEAN DUMPING OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE MATERIALS 



INTRODUCTION 



Low-level radioactive wastes are routinely generated by a wide range 

 of military and non-military operations, including nuclear powerplant 

 operations, commercial manufacturing processes, and research and medical 

 institutions. When we say low-level radioactive wastes, we generally 

 mean all those materials not directly resulting from the processing of 

 spent reactor fuel. Low-level wastes defined in this way may be 

 hazardous, depending upon their concentration and their proximity to man 

 or other organisms. The bulk of these low-level wastes are by-product 

 materials, especial ly materials such as equipment, tools, and lab 

 clothes which have become contaminated by exposure to or contact with 

 radioactive materials. Some examples of by-products materials are 

 radioactive cobalt, strontium, americium, and cesium. At times, they 

 also may include small quantities of "source materials", such as uranium 

 and thorium, or traces of "special nuclear materials" such as plutonium 

 or enriched uranium. 



From ic)46 through 1P70 the United States disposed of these 

 radioactive waste materials either by shallow land-burial at 

 government-owned sites, or by ocean dumping at AEC-approved sites. 

 Because the materials were potentially hazardous, they were given 

 special attention in transport and handling. But because they were 

 regarded primarily as garbage, precise records apparently were not kept 

 of the disposal operations. Materials for land burial were packaged in 

 a wide variety of containers, while materials for ocean disposal were 

 encased primarily in concrete-filled steel drums. 



Today, the records of the ocean dumping activities consist primarily 

 of licenses issued by the Atomic Energy Commission to private 

 contractors and of logs indicating the approximate locations of disposal 

 sites. In most of the cases the records do indicate the nature of the 

 materials, the quantities, the estimated radioactivity, and the 

 approximate coordinates of the dumping location; unfortunately, they do 

 not indicate the specific isotopic content, and neither the content of 

 the containers nor the precise dumping locations can be verified. 

 Records of military operations and government contractors (such as the 

 national laboratories) may also still exist, but are not currently 

 avai lable. 



