497 



Statement Made Before the Interagency Review Group on Nuclear Waste 

 Management on August 3, 1978 



summary 



The Farallons Islands Radioactive Waste Disposal site near San Francisco pro- 

 vides a prime example of the radioactive waste problem facing the world today. 

 Nuclear Waste Management in this country focuses on permanent disposal methods 

 in the Earth, the Oceans, and in Space. Available technical data indicates that all of 

 these methods are now unacceptable from a primary consideration of environmental 

 safety. 



Instead, management should be directed to cease further production of such long- 

 lived and deadly poisonous wastes, and to acquire a scientific method of deactivation 

 of radioactive substances. 



Public input must be utilized by means of extensive information, education, 

 debate, and voting on the basic questions involved. Public monies must be trans- 

 ferred from continued pollution to safe solutions. 



introduction 



The Farallons Islands Radioactive Waste Disposal site lies some 22 miles offshore 

 of my home town in Marin County, just north of San Francisco California. Under 

 approximately six thousand feet of water, lie nearly 50,000 metal drums and 150 

 concrete blocks containing some of this country's first radioactive wastes from as 

 early as the nineteen-forties. They contain irriadiated organic materials such as 

 discarded laboratory clothing and experimental animal remains, and parts of dis- 

 carded prototype reactors, respectively. 



As a result of three years of investigation, some facts have emerged which bear 

 directly on the question of nuclear waste disposal in the oceans, and on the overall 

 nuclear waste problem. While a discussion of the moral, political, social, economic, 

 and legal aspects of nuclear weapons and energy is essential to an overall solution 

 to this global problem, my technical background leads me to a problem solving 

 approach. The Nuclear Problem invokes such scientific controversy and political 

 hysteria, that we must attempt to achieve some concensus based on commonly agree 

 upon principles. Consequently, I will base my discussion on existing information in 

 the public and private sectors. Hopefully, as scientists are fond of saying, "the facts 

 speak for themselves." 



Included in this submittal are a number of reprints from San Francisco bay area 

 newspapers. (See Appendix A) They show some of the media response to the studies 

 made by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at the Farallons in the last 

 few years. In addition, references will be made to government and other documents 

 to substantiate observations and conclusions made in this report. 



The definitive report at the Interagency Review Group (IRG) hearings in July 

 1978 in San Francisco was the U.S. Department of Energy draft "Report of Task 

 Force for Review of Nuclear Waste Management, February 1978" (DOE/ER-0004/D), 

 the "Deutch report." It states in the Overview (page 2) that "Public health and 

 safety must be the primary consideration, and the policy and programs must be 

 credible to and accepted by the American public." And under Fundamental Princi- 

 ples (page 5), Design Criteria, it reaffirms that "The paramount consideration 

 should be safety." 



I completely agree with these statements, and will confine this discussion to the 

 question of safety as it pertains to the Farallons, the oceans, and nuclear wastes in 

 general. The Deutch report also says that "The emphasis of this report is on the 

 ultimate disposal of these wastes." For reasons have to do with safety, I do not agree 

 with this premise, as will e fully explained in the following discussion. 



the farallons fish story 



First then, is the specific example of the Farallons Islands ocean 'dump site. It is 

 obvious to all that, in retrospect, it was a bad idea. Done under security conditions, 

 the operations took place before much data about low-level radiation hazards was 

 available. The ordinary 55-gallon drums ruptured by implosion, some immediately, 

 and the concrete blocks' materials have leached into the water. Consequently, 

 radioactivity has contaminated the ocean floor under the islands' National Wildlife 

 Sanctuary, amidst abundant marine life, and in the immediate proximity to a major 

 metropolitan area. 



An extensive analysis of this situation is contained in Appendix B to this report. 

 The crux of the matter, however, is possible danger to public safety from any 

 retention of radioactivity in the marine environment, which could lead to contami- 

 nation in seafood consumed by humans. At Congressional hearings in San Francisco 

 in 1976 (Government Operations, Conservation, Energy, and Natural Resources 

 subcommittee), EPA officials said that there was "probably no uptake" of radioactiv- 



