Recommendation 5: Low level liquid effluent iriay be discharged into 

 the waters of the coastal area, between 2 and 12 miles fromi shore, pro- 

 viding that the total activity contained in any single discharge does not 

 exceed 5 x 10"! curies resulting from isotopes with ha If -lives of more 

 than 6 hours. 



The outer continental shelf, from 12 miles offshore to 

 the 200 fathom depth contour (Zones 3a and 3b): 



The continental shelf off the east coast of the United States was 

 employed in the sample computation for the outer continental shelf. The 

 results of the evaluation for a liquid effluent or for the discharge of ion 

 exchange resins are summarized in the following table, which gives the 

 maxiinum permissible total activity for a single discharge as a function 

 of selected values of the ppc value for the environment and the mauximum 

 permissible number of such discharges per month. 



ppc value Permissible Activity in a Single Discharge 



for the For 1 discharge For 30 discharges 



environment per month per month 



([ic/ml) (curies) (curies) 



10-' 23 2.4 



10-3 2.3x10 2 24 



10-7 2.3 X 10 3 2.4 X 102 



This region has a much greater capacity for receiving waste ma- 

 terials than the coastal area, and the release of low level liquid wastes 

 from nuclear -powered ships into waters of the outer continental shelf 

 apparently presents no serious problem. 



For fishing areas of the outer continental shelf (Zone 3a), the 

 weighted mean ppc value for the spent ion exchange resins of the SA- 

 VANNAH is 2 X 10"^ i-Lc/ml. Since as miany as 30 discharges per month 

 onto the continental shelf of the eastern United States could conceivably 

 result from the activity of 300 nuclear -powered ships, the maximum 

 permissible activity per discharge would be about 50 curies. Since the 

 predicted activity on the spent ion exchange resins of the SAVANNAH 

 will be 100 to 400 curies, it is evident that no release of such resins 

 into fishing areas of the outer continental shelf should be allowed. 



XV 



