554 



'27 



NEA Dumps Lte Monitoring 



The Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organization for Economic 

 Cooperation and Development (OECD) has been responsible for monitoring 

 radioactive waste disposal operations at the Northeast Atlantic 

 dumpsite since 19b 7. Periodically the NEA reviews these operations to 

 determine the suitability of the site for continued use. The last 

 review in April 1980 concluded that the site would be suitable for 

 another five years and recommended that investigations be conducted 

 during that time to improve our knowledge of transport processes in the 

 North East Atlantic. A program plan for such studies was adopted by an 

 NEA Executive Group in September 1981, under the title of Coordinated 

 Research and Environmental Surveillance Program (.CRESP). As of 1983, 

 CRESP is supported by 12 NEA member countries and three international 

 organizations including the NEA, IMO, and IAEA. EPA is sponsoring the 

 chairman and a U.S. representative to the Executive Group that 

 supervises tne program and we also support technical experts for three 

 of the five tasks groups which are implementing the program. Other 

 U.S. experts are provided by NOAA, and by DOE through their Sandia 

 National Laboratory. 



About 35 to 40 scientists are contributing to the task groups with 

 five areas of research emphasis: model development, physical 

 oceanography, geochemistry, biology, and radiological surveillance. 

 The modelling efforts include a description of release rates from waste 

 packages in the deep ocean, dispersion of radionuclides in ocean waters 



