589 



national Atomic Energy Agency specifies a concentration of radio- 

 activity per unit of mass of dumped material. Now, that was de- 

 rived with certain assumptions, one of which was that the dumping 

 would go on basically indefinitely. I think they assumed 40,000 

 years. 



Another one was that once the waste reached the bottom it 

 would immediately disperse, in other words, taking no credit for 

 any containment provided by the packaging. Credit was taken for 

 the radioactive decay that occurs with all radionuclides. In other 

 words, with time the amount of radioactivity is reduced in any ma- 

 Mr." SuNiA. In 40,000 years? 



Mr. Sjoblom. There is decay of radioactive materials all the 

 time; they decay constantly. That is one of the basic principles. 

 Now, your question was whether low-level radioactive waste could 

 ever become high-level waste. Based on what I have just said the 

 short answer is no. The total amount of radioactive material in a 

 dumpsite would tend to increase as dumping proceeded. It, howev- 

 er, would reach an equilibrium because, of course, there would be 

 radioactive decay as well as an increased amount of material 

 dumped. At some point in time it would, the total amount of radio- 

 active material in the dumpsite would then tend to level off. 



Mr. SuNiA. Mr. Lawrence, does the Department of Energy agree 

 with that? 



Mr. Lawrence. Yes sir; we are operating our program for high- 

 level waste disposal under the assumption that it would either 

 result from unreprocessed spent fuel from commercial power reac- 

 tors or the resulting waste product of the spent fuel which is re- 

 processed and then solidified into a form suitable for disposal. But 

 regulatory agencies such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or 

 EPA can also determine that other materials constitute high-level 

 waste requiring geologic disposal in some other form suitable for 

 high-level waste disposal. 



Mr. SuNiA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



I realize my 5 minutes are up. I have one more question. 



Mr. D' Amours. If there is no objection and you only have one 

 more question, I suggest you go ahead with it. 



Mr. SuNiA. Thank you. This question relates to the market sea- 

 food survey procedures. 



EPA, could you describe in further detail EPA, and FDA's 

 market seafood survey procedures? I understand samples were col- 

 lected from the Atlantic City area. What procedures are undertak- 

 en to assure that the samples tested are taken from an area close 

 enough to the radioactive dumpsites to assure that scientifically 

 valid test results are achieved? Does the migratory nature of these 

 fish make it virtually impossible to use this type of sampling to de- 

 termine the extent to which radioactivity has been released into 

 the marine environment from these waste materials? 



Mr. Sjoblom. Well, let me point out a few facts. 



Basically, commercially marketed seafoods do not live at the 

 bottom of the ocean. What we are attempting to do is basically pro- 

 vide some information to verify indeed that there is no impact 

 from these old dumpsites. 



