595 



Again, the importance of understanding whether or not this ra- 

 dioactivity gets into the food chain is one that is, to me, of prime 

 concern. Does any of your field research attempt to trace the move- 

 ment of radioactivity through the marine environment, and if it 

 has done so, what has been the findings? 



Mr. Sjoblom. Let me answer that in two aspects. 



First of all, the EPA has, as I indicated, done surveys right in the 

 immediate area of the waste, in all of the major sites. 



And the second is that there is a quite extensive body of meas- 

 urements that has been made over the last 30 years, indicating the 

 degree to which radionuclides are assimilated from the marine en- 

 vironment into the marine life, and so we do have, though imper- 

 fect, but we do have a set of what we call concentration factors 

 that can allow us to calculate what degree of uptake can occur, and 

 this 



Mrs. Boxer. What does that mean, degree of uptake? 



Mr. Sjoblom. In other words, if at the ocean bottom, let us just 

 suppose that radionuclides in the seawater are there in the vicinity 

 of the dumpsite, marine organisms then that live in that vicinity 

 do tend to pick up and in some cases concentrate those radionu- 

 clides and much is known about that relationship, and what we 

 call a concentration factor is the ratio of the concentration in a 

 marine organism to the concentration in the water. 



That is based on internationally reported literature and there 

 are standard values used in the assessment of effects on the food 

 chain. 



Now, again, there does need to be a continuing effort in this 

 area. I might point out that this concept is not just used in assess- 

 ing pickup in the marine life, in the ocean, but on land as well, in 

 the vicinity of nuclear power stations. 



Mrs. Boxer. Let's not get on the subject of the land. 



Mr. Sjoblom. It is the same relationship. 



Mrs. Boxer. We are running out of time and I am a little frus- 

 trated with your answer. I wanted to know whether or not your 

 people in the field specifically attempt to trace this movement, and 

 you say, I assume you say they do, that you had people in the field 

 at all these various dumpsites and that there is uptake at various 

 concentration levels, so that in fact the radioactivity is getting into 

 the fish in certain concentrations, is that what you have said? 



Mr. Sjoblom. What I said is that you can make calculation of 

 what you think might get into marine life. We are not actually 

 able to measure it or trace it because the levels are so low. 



Mrs. Boxer. So, your studies show no radioactivity in fish. 



Mr. Sjoblom. There is, of course, radioactivity in all fish 

 throughout the world, much of it and most of it is from natural ra- 

 dionuclides that have been present on the Earth since it began. 



Mrs. Boxer. Your studies don't show any more radioactivity in 

 fish that are found near dumpsites? 



Mr. Sjoblom. Generally no, that is correct, that has been the 

 case in the European studies as well as the U.S. studies. 



Mrs. Boxer. And you are satisfied with the amount of study that 

 we have done on this, or do you feel we should continue? 



Mr. Sjoblom. I think we should continue these kinds of things. 



