616 



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The simpler part of such revisions would involve the regulatory 

 codification of international requirements which already are 

 binding upon the United States as a Party to the London Dumping 

 Convention. The more difficult aspects of such revisions, 

 however, are the development of appropriate regula-tions which 

 would take adequately into account the Ocean Dumping Act's 

 Radioactive Disposal Impact Assessment requirements and the 

 results of further research and monitoring during the 

 moratorium. By extending the moratorium, the implementation of a 

 research and monitoring program (and the subsequent report 

 thereon) would provide a much sounder basis for the revision of 

 regulations. For these reasons, the Act also should be amended 

 to specify that revised regulations for radioactive wastes should 

 not be promulgated until after the research and monitoring 

 program report has been submitted for Congressional review. 

 D. Seabed Disposal of High-Level Radioactive Wastes 



The Department of Energy, through its Sandia Laboratories, 

 is engaged in a multi-year research and development program which 

 is investigating sea-bed disposal of high-level radioactive 

 wastes. The U.S. program is part of an international effort to 

 assess the technical, environmental and engineering feasibility 

 of the seabed disposal option. Since 1974, approximately $36 

 million has been spent by the Department of Energy in developing 

 and assessing this high-level radioactive waste disposal option. 



The seabed disposal program is divided into four consecu- 

 tive, yet overlapping phases: Phase I (completed in 1976) was 

 the estimation of scientific and environmental feasibility based 



