444 



So when the records of Joseph's indicated that there was a site at 

 3,000 feet that did allegedly contain radioactive waste, we went 

 there in 1974 and did demonstrate that we could go down and find 

 these wastes. This was more of a technology demonstration and 

 evaluation. 



Mr. Anderson. Again, I suppose my feeling is that with the 

 damaged containers that you found there, my feeling is that if you 

 had gone into the actual center of where most of them were 

 dumped you would even have found more damaged containers than 

 the ones that you did. 



Again, so we kind of understand what we're talking about, on 

 the dump sites here, I have a little map that was provided for me 

 that shows we have — on the west coast we have at least 12 dump 

 sites, including the 3, I guess, off Canada, and 7 or 8 off California, 

 and then 1 off Hawaii and so on. And we have about 18 on the east 

 coast and 2 off the gulf. 



Mr. Mattson. Well, sir, I'm not sure what you're referring to. 

 Our factsheet lists 16 dump site areas in the Pacific Ocean, some of 

 which aren't very close to California, and within some of those 

 dump site areas there are as many as eight subsites, like the 

 Farallon Islands, and then Santa Cruz with three subsites, and Los 

 Angeles with two. 



We would need to sit down and, in detail, compare all of these — 

 we also have a list, I believe, of half a dozen other licensed but 

 unused sites. Some of these were sites that the State of California 

 approved and recommended to the Atomic Energy Commission for 

 future low-level waste disposal, of which the AEC only used one. So 

 unless we could compare them point by point, I'm not sure whether 

 we're talking about the same sites or not. 



Mr. Anderson. I don't want this to go too long, either. I would 

 like to get something on this definition. 



The Ocean Dumping Act's definition of high-level wastes refers 

 to equivalent aqueous wastes from operation of the first cycle 

 extraction of solvent systems and subsequent extraction cycles. 



My question to you is, What is equivalent? How do you define an 

 equivalent of that kind of definition in quantitative terms? 



Mr. Mattson. Well, first as a scientist and then as a representa- 

 tive of EPA, let me try to give an answer. 



As a scientist, I think I would try to approach it through a 

 specific activity relationship. I would say if the radioactivity was in 

 isotopes of the same kind that came from the extraction process 

 and in concentrations of a similar sort, then that would be some 

 test of equivalency. 



I think what must have been meant by the Congress in using 

 those words was to give some little bit of flexibility to the use of 

 the words "high-level waste." I can't say today that there has been 

 any flexibility taken. The interpretation that you heard throughout 

 the day by different Federal agency representatives is a common 

 interpretation. It has been the standard usage reflected in AEC 

 regulations and in EPA regulations to define high-level waste in 

 terms of the origin of those wastes with respect to the fuel reproc- 

 essing operations or to the spent fuel. 



Now, we have said in our testimony that you really shouldn't be 

 worried about definitions when you're worried about public health 



