379 



ar waste. Two of the site selection recommendations were that the 

 minimum acceptable disposal depth should be 4,000 meters or 

 greater, and the geographic restriction should be between 50° north 

 latitude and 50° south latitude. 



Coincidentally, this U.S. 3,800 meter Atlantic disposal site comes 

 very close to fulfilling these requirements for the depth and does, 

 of course, fit into the latitudinal restrictions. 



Mr. Studds. Are you close to that microphone or as close as you 

 can properly be? 



Mr. Dyer. I hope so. 



Mr. Studds. That seems to be a little better. 



Mr. Dyer. The IAEA in its recommendations talked about four 

 major objectives for monitoring. One of them was to make an 

 estimate of exposure. A second reason was scientific investigations. 

 A third reason was improved public understanding. A fourth was 

 conservation of ocean resources. 



While we have been concerned with all four of these objectives, 

 our primary focus has been on dumpsite specific surveys for scien- 

 tific investigations. 



Between 1974 and 1977 the initial activities that this office par- 

 ticipated in were surveys in the Atlantic and Pacific at depths 

 ranging between 900 and 2,800 meters. This particular 1978 survey 

 at 3,800 meters was a real stress on existing technology. It was the 

 deepest site of the United States' major dumpsites and required 

 fairly rigorous technological applications. 



What I will do now is to run through a series of slides represent- 

 ing interesting aspects of the 1978 survey. 



(Slide No. 1.) 



TABLE I.— PRIMARY U.S. RADIOACTIVE WASTE DUMPSITES 



Estimated 

 ni^tanrp frnm Ypar^ Estimated No. activity in 



Site Coordinates Depth (m) "KmT dumosieused "' 55-Ballan drums at time 



lana (Km) aumpsite usea ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^, pacltaging 



(Ci) 



» This does not include the pressure vessel of the N/S Seawo/f reactor with an estimated induced activity of 33,000 Ci. 



The first slide we see here is of a prepared table listing the four 

 major U.S. dumpsites based on the most recent information we 

 have obtained. We can see here that three of the sites are in the 

 Atlantic, and one, with a series of subsites, is in the Pacific. 



Focusing on the Atlantic for just a moment, there are two col- 

 umns: One is the estimated number of 55-gallon drums dumped at 

 the site, and the other is the estimates of radioactivity, in curies, in 

 the drums. About 10 percent of all the drums dumped into the 



