405 



10 

 5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 



It is not possible based on the one container that was recovered to make 

 any definitive conclusions about the suitability, from a corrosion viewpoint, 

 of this method of packaging nuclear wastes for ocean disposal. It is possible 

 to say that at least one of the many containers dumped l6 to 20 years ago 

 survived its stay on the bottom with the exterior in reasonably good condition. 



It is also possible to make recommendations for increasing the value of 

 future work of this type: 



1. Determine the dissolved oxygen concentration both in the water column 

 within about ten meters of the bottom and in the upper one meter of the 

 sediments at the dumpsite. This should be done both several months before and 

 again several months after, as well as at the time of the survey (total of 

 three measurements with at least six months from the first to the last), in 

 order to detect if there is any variability. This type of data, which was not 

 available for the work reported here, would have allowed a more meaningful 

 corrosion analysis. The expected corrosion rate could have been estimated 

 more accurately and related directly to other published deep-sea corrosion 

 data. 



2. Retain the services of a qualified marine microbiologist to test the 

 sediment samples for the presence of microorganisms. The sulfate reducing 

 bacteria are particularly important for evaluating the corrosion behavior. 

 Also have this person arrange to test the corrosion products for bacterial 

 activity by culturing techniques as well as by microscopy. 



