N < 

 (1) 



AT2s 



ppc 



200 t, ,„ t A 



i // _ ppc - ppc 



/ / 



5clAdt 



This relationship is utilized in subsequent sections of this report 

 to determine the limits of activity which may be introduced into the 

 various segments of the marine environment without undue risk to man. 



EVALUATION OF HARBORS, ESTUARIES, AND OTHER INSHORE 

 ENVIRONMENTS (ZONE 1) 



In this section the question of whether harbors, estuaries, and 

 other inshore environments may serve as suitable receivers of any 

 radioactive wastes from nuclear-powered ships is investigated. For 

 the present purpose, inshore areas are those coastal regions within 

 two miles of the shore. 



Harbors, estuaries, and other inshore environments are regions 

 of high human waterborne activity. This fact, coupled with the normal 

 relatively shallow depths in such environments, argues for a relatively 

 high probability of accidental recovery of any solid wastes introduced 

 there. It is therefore concluded that no solid wastes, packaged or other- 

 wise, should be released in harbors or other near shore environments. 

 Our attention is then confined to liquid wastes which might be discharged 

 in such waters. 



The potential sources of low level liquid wastes which would 

 occur under normal operation of a nuclear-powered ship using a water 

 cooled reactor have been described in an earlier section of this report. 

 The fate of such wastes introduced into the marine environment will 

 depend upon the following three processes: 



(1) Initial dilution , resulting from the mechanical mixture of 

 the effluent with the receiving waters. This initial mixing depends 

 upon the manner in which the effluent is introduced into the receiving 

 waters. Thus a strong jet of effluent introduced below the surface of 

 the receiving waters would result in a mechanical entrainment of the 

 diluting waters until the energy of the jet was dissipated. A gentle flow 

 of effluent at the surface of the receiving w^aters would result in rela- 

 tively little initial dilution. 



(2) Advection of the effluent with the currents in the harbor or 

 harbor approach and simultaneous turbulent diffusion leading to further 

 reduction in concentration. 



(3) Concentration of activity from the water to the suspended 

 silt, the bottom sediments, and the biota. 



29 



