FOREWORD 
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL INTO ATLANTIC 
AND GULF COASTAL WATERS 
In January 1958, the Committee on Oceanography of the National 
Academy of Sciences - National Research Council was asked to conduct 
a detailed study of the problems of the disposal of low level radioactive 
wastes into the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coastal waters of the United 
States. This request was made jointly by the three government sponsors 
of the Committee: The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, the U. S. Atomic 
Energy Commission, and the Office of Naval Research.* The Committee 
agreed to take responsibility for such a study, and Dr. Harrison Brown, 
Committee Chairman, asked me, as a member of the Committee on 
Oceanography and Chairman of the Academy's Committee on Effects of 
Atomic Radiation on Oceanography and Fisheries, to call together a 
special working group. This group was asked to consider the levels of 
radioactive wastes that can be disposed of safely, the kinds of packaging 
that should be used, and to recommend specific disposal sites. 
A preliminary draft of this report was finished in May 1958 and 
discussed in detail before a meeting of the Committee on Oceanography 
shortly thereafter. The Committee approved the report and authorized 
its reproduction in mimeograph form prior to a similar review by the 
Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation on Oceanography and 
Fisheries. The latter Committee met in March 1959. At that time the 
report was brought up to date and approved in its present form. 
In its study, the group has taken into account the effects of local 
oceanographic conditions, possible health hazards and the importance 
of non-interference with fisheries, recreational and other uses of the 
oceans, The report makes recommendations as to the amounts of dif- 
ferent radioactive isotopes that can be disposed of safely in any one 
area. Twenty-eight possible disposal sites are listed. Before any one 
of these is finally selected, a pre-use survey should be made. The area 
should be monitored periodically after disposal begins. 
The working group has attempted to make its recommendations 
as precise as possible within the limits of our present knowledge of the 
physics, chemistry, and biology of the oceans. Where uncertainties exist 
because of inadequate knowledge a conservative position has been 
chosen—that is, the calculations underlying the recommendations may 
err on the side of safety. Each assumption and each step in the calcula- 
tions is fully described, however, so that the reader may make an inde- 
pendent evaluation of the degree of conservatism. 
*The National Science Foundation has since become one of the sponsors of the Committee. 
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