Research Council to study the feasibility of disposing of low level, 
packaged, radioactive wastes into the on-shore waters of the Atlantic 
and Gulf of Mexico coasts of the United States. The areas of special 
interest are closer to shore than the present designated areas now 100 
and more miles out. 
The objectives of the study are to recommend locations that can 
be used safely as disposal areas, together with the limitations on quan- 
tity and kinds of radioactive materials, rates of disposal, and other 
pertinent factors necessary to keep the concentration of radioactive 
substances within permissible levels. 
Of special interest is the use of near-shore regions as disposal 
areas for the low level radioactive wastes generated in university and 
industrial laboratories, hospitals, and research institutions licensed 
by AEC to use relatively small quantities of radioactive materials. 
We emphasize here the term low level wastes. These are broadly 
classified as wastes containing up to the equivalent of millicurie quan- 
tities of activity per gallon. They are distinct from high level wastes, 
such as those obtained from the processing of spent reactor fuels which 
may contain hundreds of curies per gallon. The present study is not 
concerned with the disposal of high level wastes. 
PRESENT SEA DISPOSAL PRACTICES 
With the increasing quantities of radioactive materials that have 
been used in peacetime applications by both AEC and non-AEC institu- 
tions there has been a corresponding increase in the quantities of low 
level wastes that have no further usefulness, but because they do repre- 
sent a potential health hazard cannot be disposed of by conventional 
methods (municipal incinerators, sanitary dumps, etc.). In the past, 
much of this waste material has been packaged and dumped into desig- 
nated areas approximately 200 miles off the Atlantic Coast in approxi- 
mately 1000 fathoms of water. Much of the material has been carried 
to the disposal areas by naval vessels during scheduled disposal of 
non-radioactive wastes. In addition, civilian waste disposal concerns, 
licensed by the AEC, have dumped small quantities of low level wastes 
into coastal waters in areas normally used as receiving areas for non- 
radioactive wastes. Recently AEC received several new requests for 
the licensing of civilian marine disposal concerns, 
Table I and figure 1 summarize the sea disposal operations that 
have been conducted along the Atlantic Coast from 1951 to 1958. (1) 
It should be emphasized that the quantities of activity listed were not 
measured at the time of disposal to the sea. At best, they were meas- 
ured at the time of packaging of the wastes, and frequently the values 
reported are estimates made by the users of the material who listed 
the total amount of activity shipped to them, with no allowance made 
for losses during use and for radioactive decay. The quantities listed 
are therefore, unquestionably, larger than the quantities actually depos- 
ited in the disposal areas. 
