9. 



At the first meeting of the Steering Committee, held April 15, 

 1955, at Ames Hall of the Johns Hopkins University, seven members 

 of the Committee met with eight members of the Sanitary Engineering 

 Department and one representative of the Reactor Development Divi- 

 sion, AEC . The entire problem was described and the previous gen- 

 eral studies of disposal reviewed: a conference had been held in 

 August 1954 at Woods Hole to explore with oceanographers the possi- 

 bility of disposal in the oceans, and another had been held in 

 Washington in November 1954 with geologists to consider underground 

 disposal. 



At the November 1954 conference the following plan was pro- 

 posed anticipating the signing of a contract with AEC: a steering 

 committee was to secure a proper definition of the problem (includ- 

 ing as much technological data as was possible within the restrictions 

 of security classification) and conduct two conferences with the guid- 

 ance and assistance of the AEC and Hopkins group. The first meeting 

 would have as its objective the generation of ideas and cataloging of 

 suggestions for underground disposal of wastes, and the second would 

 be to appraise critically the ideas, documenting the advantages and 

 disadvantages, arranging the suggestions in order of apparent feasi- 

 bility, and indicating the lines of research needed to arrive at reliable 

 answers to the more pressing problems. The willingness of the 

 Hopkins group to perform staff functions for the Committee was stated 

 especially as regards compiling the unclassified technological data. 

 The AEC relationships were summarized, and the desirability of the 

 Committee visiting Oak Ridge was discussed. The minutes of this 

 meeting 'were prepared by the Hopkins group. 



During the summer of 1955 arrangements were made to hold 

 the first conference at the Graduate School of Princeton University, 

 Princeton, N. J., on September 10-12. Participants were selected 

 and invited, and those who accepted the invitation were sent a digest 

 of the essential data entitled "Radioactive wastes in the atomic energy 

 industry" compiled by A. B. Joseph and J . M. Morgan, Jr., of the 

 Hopkins group. The "graybook" summarized the information gener- 

 ally available up to March 31, 1955 on the kinds of waste, treatment 

 and disposal methods, and the projected magnitudes of high level 

 wastes and their disposal problems. 



The Princeton Conference was attended by 65 persons repre- 

 senting many scientific and engineering disciplines, active in a vari- 

 ety of capacities in universities, research institutions, private 



