494 



ocean, and with their possible harmful impact on the health and safety of the 

 people of the San Francisco bay area, the nation, and indeed all humanity. 



Much of the testimony that will be presented today to this subcommittee will 

 address itself to the question of whether or not there is a problem at the dump site 

 off the Farallon Islands. Expert testimony will claim or disclaim potential health 

 hazards for humans who consume fish from the local area. I will leave the argu- 

 ments about the significance of these facts to others more qualified to discuss them. 

 However, recent information has been released to the public about some fifty dump 

 sites on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, locations on the west coast from 

 Mexico to Canada, air drops from military airplanes at undetermined locations, 

 scuttled ships from atomic bomb testing now lying off San Diego, radioactive levels 

 in locally caught fish, ruptured barrels and concrete blocks that were never intend- 

 ed to maintain structural integrity, and health problems in humans exposed to 

 supposedly harmless testing in Utah, and military personnel exhibiting unexpected 

 diseases from exposure to atomic bomb testing. It seems obvious that elaborate 

 assurances of safety from the laboratories who dumped their garbage at the Faral- 

 lons and elsewhere will not suffice in the face of the growing evidence of long-term 

 and potentially lethal poisioning of the oceans. It also seems absurd to suggest that 

 these hearings are concerned with matters that are "trivial" and "insignificant" as 

 has been reported by media accounts of researchers from the source of the problem 

 that we must deal with. Therefore, I will present some data on potential solutions 

 that should be implemented as soon as possible. 



As a result of my research and my attendance at various governmental hearings 

 on nuclear waste management, it is apparent that "official" federal efforts are being 

 directed towards disposal of radioactive wastes in the earth, space, or oceans. 

 Numerous scientific studies (referred to in the appendix to this statement) indicate 

 that none of these approaches are acceptable from a primary standpoint of environ- 

 mental safety. 



From my experience as a systems engineer, I have determined that another entire 

 method of dealing with these toxic materials is now available, but has been virtual- 

 ly ignored. Specifically, I refer to what has been termed, "transmutation". It in- 

 volves procedures that recycle radioactive substances into inert material, with the 

 potential release of extremely large amounts of safe, useable energy. This approach 

 has been given almost no mention in federal waste management discussions and 

 documents, and is currently receiving little, if any, funding. Dr. Edward Teller, the 

 well-known expert in the nuclear field, has said that if we bury atomic wastes now, 

 we may have to mine them in years to come to utilize their vast energy potential. 



I believe that for scientific, legal, and political reasons, disposal of radioactive 

 materials in the earth, air, or water, will prove to be unsafe, and impossible to 

 implement successfully. Therefore, it is necessary to direct our efforts to invent and 

 carry out methods of deactivating and neutralizing atomic wastes. This will prob- 

 ably require large scale research and funding, on the order of the original Manhat- 

 tan Project, to solve the global problem of what to do with some five billion gallons 

 of deadly posion. 



With respect to the question of radioactive wastes already in our oceans, I suggest 

 that attention be given to a method recently discussed in the IEEE Journal of 

 Oceanic Engineering, July 1979, Volume OE-4, Number 3, (ISSN 0364-9059), "Elec- 

 trodeposition of Minerals in Sea Water, Experiments and Applications" by Dr. W. 

 H. Hilbertz (page 94). The subject is also presented in the March/April 198(5 issue of 

 NEXT magazine. Dr. Hilbertz, of the Marine Resources Company (2812 Hemphil 

 Park, Austin, Texas 78705, 512-478-7164) has developed a method of creating artifi- 

 cial structures in the ocean that might be used to contain radioactive wastes already 

 on the oean floor. 



On page 62 of the NEXT article, it says that: "Fortunately, others are beginning 

 to see merit in Hilbertz's basic idea, and some are actually experimenting. At the 

 State University of New York's Department of Material Science and Engineering at 

 Stony Brook, the department head, Dr. Herbert Herman, is growing structures in 

 aquariums and outdoors in water taken from Long Island Sound. Dr. Herman is 

 enthusiastic. '* * * You can use it perhaps to cocoon disposed waste you don't want 

 to leach out. Possible nuclear waste. We're testing the material's reaction to radi- 

 ation in seawater by bombarding it with gamma rays.' Although his experiments 

 are in the early stages. Dr. Herman is very optimistic." 



