431 



waste contents, thus perhaps reducing the potential impact of the 

 dumping operations. 



Important questions remain unanswered, however, and further 

 sampUng to obtain the answers is warranted. 



This concludes my prepared statement. 



We will be happy to answer any questions you may have on all 

 aspects of our surveys. 



[The prepared statement of Mr. Dyer follows (the slides referred 

 to in the statement were included in the preceding text):] 



Prepared Statement of Robert S. Dyer, Senior Staff Oceanographer, Office 

 OF Radiation Programs, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 



Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee, I appreciate this opportunity to 

 present to you some of the details of our site-specific survey work at abandoned U.S. 

 nuclear waste dump sites in the Atlantic Ocean. Since we last appeared before you 

 in 1978, we have completed a survey at the deepest of four major U.S. nuclear waste 

 dumpsite areas, a site located approximately two hundred miles east of the Mary- 

 land-Delaware coast at a depth of 3800m (approximately 13,000 feet). 



I would now like to describe to you in more detail the results of this survey effort, 

 for two reasons: (1) We have not had the occasion until now to present this informa- 

 tion before Congress, and, (2) This site comes closest to fulfilling the minimum 

 disposal depth requirement of 4000m and meets the geographic restriction to the 

 area between 50° south and 50° north latitude as established by the International 

 Atomic Energy Agency (lAA) in 1978. These requirements were set pursuant to the 

 London Dumping Convention for the siting of any nuclear waste dumpsites now, or 

 in the future. As a signatory to the Convention, the U.S. is bound by these require- 

 ments. Therefore, any information obtained from this 3800m dumpsite should be 

 directly applicable to future U.S. deep-sea siting considerations. This 3800m site 

 raises a basic site selection question, which I shall discuss in more detail later: Once 

 a radioactive material is released into a deep-sea environment is it better for it to be 

 rapidly diluted to lower concentrations over a wider area, or localized to keep the 

 radioactivity at higher concentrations within a narrow region? 



Dr. Roger Mattson has briefly discussed the specific objectives of our past survey 

 activities as well as recent considerations we have given to the question of monitor- 

 ing. By way of introduction I would like to put this site-specific survey into perspec- 

 tive with both Dr. Mattson's remarks and the general objectives of environmental 

 monitoring as presented by the IAEA in their recommendations for controlling sea 

 disposal of nuclear waste (INFCIRC/205/Add.l/Rev.l, August 1978). 



The IAEA has set out four basic objectives for environmental monitoring of deep- 

 sea disposal sites: (1) Assessment of actual or potential exposure of man and other 

 sensitive elements of the biosphere, or estimation of upper limits of such exposure; 

 (2) Scientific investigations; (3) Improved public understanding; and (4) Conservation 

 . of ocean resources 



While our past survey activities have been concerned with all four of the IAEA 

 objectives, our focus has been on dumpsite-specific scientific investigations in accord- 

 ance with EPA regulatory responsibilities under the Ocean Dumping Act (PL 92- 

 932). Althrough there are different kinds of monitoring activities with different 

 specific objectives, they are all related to a better understanding of what happens to 

 the radioactive material after disposal in an ocean dumpsite. Our overall concern 

 has been on the general monitorability of a site. Unless the technology exists to 

 allow direct investigation of a dumpsite to verify scientific assumptions made re- 

 garding the site suitability, then the site should not be used. 



The initial activities engaged in by this office from 1974-1977 demonstrated that 

 techniques exist for actually performing certain dumpsite-specific monitoring activi- 

 ties. Using both manned and unmanned submersibles we evaluated the conditions of 

 radioactive waste drums in situ, recovered such drums for laboratory analysis of the 

 metal container and concrete matrix, and collected precisely-located sediment sam- 

 ples to determine if, and to what extent, radioactive materials had been released 

 from nuclear waste packages at dumpsite depths ranging between 900m to 2800m. 

 Our 1978 survey at the Atlantic 3800m site, however, represented the strongest 

 challenge to date for available deep sea monitoring technology. The site contains the 

 fourth largest inventory of radioactivity, based on the most recent information 

 reported to us (see Fact Sheet submitted by Roger Mattson). But it is the most 

 distant from shore (200 miles) and of the greatest depth (3800M, or approximately 

 13,000 feet). 



