lb. 



Committee, to see how many of you responded to our request to 

 participate in this conference. I know it is a serious matter to leave 

 your normal activities and devote several days to our problem, and 

 I am delighted to see that so many of you have come. 



The problem we have to deal with is a very complex one. This 

 first day will be spent determining what the components are: they 

 change rather rapidly; the whole problem has changed since our first 

 meeting of last spring. We will have to get the necessary background 

 to know what sort of a problem we are dealing with, and I hope before 

 the meeting is over there will be some specific suggestions that can 

 be looked into and that will lead at least in the direction of the solu- 

 tion or several solutions, however it may develop. 



Mr. Gorman, of the A.E.C., has agreed to make the introduc- 

 tory remarks describing the Reactor Division's concept of the problem. 



Mr. Gorman! 



Mr. A. E. Gorman, 



Reactor Development Division 



U. S. Atomic Energy Commission, 



Building T5, 



1901 Constitution Avenue, 



Washington 25, D. C. 



MR. GORMAN: On behalf of the Reactor Division of the A.E.C., 

 I want to take this occasion to thank you all for giving us your time 

 and valuable assistance to discuss one of our acute problems, and 

 also to thank the University for its courtesy in providing such excel- 

 lent accommodations for us. 



The Reactor Division is sponsoring the contracts with the 

 National Academy of Sciences and Johns Hopkins University to evalu- 

 ate problems connected with the disposal of high and low level radio- 

 active wastes . 



At this conference we are confining our attention to disposal of 

 the high level wastes, which in A.E.C. we feel is a real serious 

 problem. Because atomic energy work was begun during the war 

 period, our plants were established in more or less distant and iso- 

 lated places, and as problems of waste disposal arose they were not 

 too difficult to take care of because of this isolation. Now, however, 



