420 



second, corrosion is mimimal. The upper one-quarter of the drum 

 in this photo was in contact with the sediment and shows no 

 evidence of corrosion. One of the things we are very interested in, 

 especially if we look at sealed emplacement of low-level waste in 

 the future, is whether there are differential corrosion rates be- 

 tween what is actually in contact with or under the sediment 

 versus that part of the drum directly exposed to seawater. 



What we have found in the past is that there is retardation of 

 corrosion to that part of the drum which has been buried in the 

 sediment. 



Next slide, please. 



(Slide No. 15.) 



SUDE No. 15 



I should add we were rather fortunate in this survey. 



If, I could just go back for a moment to the previous slide — 



There is one aspect of these surveys that I don't want you to 

 overlook, and that is the weather and sea state. The sea here is 

 relatively calm. These kinds of operations are extremely weather 

 dependent. On both the drum search and recovery the ALVIN 

 cannot be launched in a sea state greater than about four, which 

 means that if you have any bad weather, which is very common in 

 the Atlantic, you can sit on station for the duration of the survey 

 mission and not get an3^hing done. 



We were very fortunate. Again, you could not recover this drum 

 unless the seas were relatively calm. 



Now, to the next slide. 



(Slide No. 15.) 



The recovered drum which was stored in a jet-engine overpack 

 purged with argon was brought back to Port Jefferson, New York. 

 It was off-loaded and transported to Brookhaven National Labora- 

 tory (BNL) for analysis. BNL has just completed the analysis on 



