684 



nc" ^ 3 1S83 



Honorable Norman E. D'Amours 

 Chairman, Subcommittee on Oceanography 

 Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries 

 House of Representatives 

 Washington, DC 20515 



Dear Mr. D'Amours: 



Your July 29, 1983, letter requested information on the Subseabed Disposal 

 Program budget and information on, inter alia , marine research on biology, 

 and physical oceanography, etc. Enclosed is our response in a question and 

 answer format. 



The Department has studied the program and budget requirements for FY 1984 

 related to the overall objective of the program. We can achieve the 

 objectives by increasing the budget of the program from $6.0M in FY 1983 to 

 $7.5M. We believe that this approach will provide the type of researcn and 

 development necessary to support the program. Accordingly, we have scoped 

 the FY 1984 program at $7.5M instead of the $9.6M appropriated by Congress. 

 The biological and physical oceanographic studies are maintained at $0.6M in 

 FY 1984. FY 1984 will be used to assure that appropriate planning occurs for 

 the follow-on years. 



For your information, we have included the planned subseabed program 



milestones for physical oceanography and biological research through 1990 as 



Table I. These milestones are consistent with our objective of achieving an 



assessment of feasibility by 1990 and our fulfillment of the intent of the 

 Nuclear Waste Policy Act. 



I appreciate your continuing interest and your support for the subseabed 

 program. Our continuing to work together is highly important for the 

 assessment of the seabed as a concept for disposal of nuclear waste. 



Sincerely, 



Robert L. Morgan 

 Acting Director 

 Office of Civilian Radioactive 

 Waste Management 



