547 



The Convention defines "dumping" as "any deliberate disposal 

 at sea of wastes or other matter from vessels, aircraft, 

 platforms or other man-made structures at sea." Under these 

 definitions , disposal of high-level radioactive wastes upon 

 the ocean bottom falls within the Convention's prohibition, 

 as will disposal under the ocean bottom if it poses a threat 

 of pollution to the marine environment . 



We note that the concept of seabed emplacement is a novel one. 

 No concrete proposal has yet been made for such a method of 

 disposal, and there exists the possibility that new technolo- 

 gies might be developed which would permit the emplacement 

 of wastes in the seabed with little or no danger to the marine 

 environment. The Department would wish to examine the question 

 of applicability of the Ocean Dumping Convention to such a 

 technology if it were proposed. (Emphasis added.) 



NOAA has issued a very scholarly legal opinion on the question of the 



26 

 legality of sub-seabed disposal under the Convention. The NOAA opinion 



concludes : 



Disposal of high-level radioactive wastes through sub-seabed 

 emplacement is not necessarily "disposal at sea" of such 

 wastes, as prohibited by the Ocean Dumping Convention, and the 

 resolution of this issue will depend largely on technical devel- 

 opments. A technically satisfactory showing that such emplace- 

 ment of high-level wastes in the subsoil of the seabed would 

 not lead to release of radioactive materials into the marine 

 environment could be considered to place such disposal outside 

 the operative terms of the Convention. To a significant degree, 

 however, this issue will be resolved by the future actions of 

 States parties to the Convention. 



The Convention also contains other provisions, including a 

 provision allowing for disposal of wastes under "emergency" 

 conditions and a provision exempting placement of materials 

 for purposes other than disposal, that could be construed as 

 allowing limited sub-seabed enplacement under suitable condi- 

 tions. 



Strangely, the "Federal Plan for Ocean Pollution Research, Development, 

 arid Monitoring, Fiscal Years 1979-83" prepared by an interagency committee 

 chaired by NOAA in response to the 1978 act of similar name contains the 

 following contradictory statement. (It is not clear whether or this repre- 

 sents a reversal of position by NOAA or a failure to properly clear the 



