504 



adjacent to my hometown on the coast of Marin County, north of 

 the city. 



Among other activities, I have testified in San Francisco at con- 

 gressional hearings in 1976 and 1980 by the Subcommittee on 

 Environment, Energy and Natural Resources of the Committee on 

 Government Operations, at hearings by the Federal Interagency 

 Review Group on Nuclear Waste Management in 1978, and at 

 hearings held in this year by the Federal Radiation Council. 



Radioactive waste management focuses on disposal methods in 

 the Earth, space, and the oceans, and these hearings address them- 

 selves to the subject of ocean dumping of low and high level wastes 

 in past, present, and future. 



Disposal methods follow the old approach of dispersion, which 

 has now been replaced by the concept of containment. Containment 

 must also include retrievability to assure maximum safety for the 

 entire planet. 



It is becoming increasingly clear that there is no safe place to 

 dump any of the toxic wastes produced by our technological society. 

 Dumping anywhere has to be cleaned up later, and only creates 

 more contaminated waste to be dumped somewhere else. 



Radioactive wastes cannot be cleaned up by dumping them some- 

 where else where they will poison more of the environment. We 

 must invent a method of neutralizing and transmuting and recy- 

 cling all toxic wastes, especially radioactive ones which remain 

 deadly for thousands of years. 



In the meantime we must safely contain them so that they can 

 be retrieved later when we have agreement on a correct long-term 

 solution. Therefore, I will present a proposal for a safe, retrievable, 

 containment system that will buy us the time to design and imple- 

 ment a genuine solution to this crucial global problem. 



Project Tektite has received a proposal from the Marine Re- 

 sources Co. in Austin, Tex. for a containment system that could be 

 applicable to radioactive wastes already dumped onto the ocean 

 floor, and that might provide a retrievable containment system for 

 temporary storage in the ocean. 



This is particularly important in view of continued dumping 

 around the globe, such as in the North Atlantic, and intentions by 

 this country to dump high-level radioactive wastes in the ocean off 

 Hawaii or Guam or elsewhere, and the intention by Japan to dump 

 them in the ocean near there next year. 



The proposed system utilizes electrodeposition of minerals in the 

 sea water onto wire mesh structures by charging the wire with low 

 voltage, high amperage electricity. Within 6 months to a year, 

 waste material could be cocooned with any size and thickness of a 

 covering similar to mollusc shells such as clams and oysters. The 

 resulting structures are stronger than concrete, impervious to sea 

 water, last virtually indefinitely, and can be repaired in place, if 

 found necessary, by simply recharging them with additional elec- 

 tricity. 



By making these coverings mechanically retrievable, they could 

 be recovered at a later time if desired, or they might prove to be 

 continuously safe and allowed to remain in place. 



Furthermore, it is theoretically possible that electromagnetic 

 fields within the wire frame might provide a barrier to the radi- 



