6. 



II. SUMMARY 



The feasibility of establishing areas in the Atlantic and Gulf 

 coastal waters of the United States into which packaged low level radio- 

 active wastes may be disposed has been studied in an attempt to learn 

 at what rate of disposal the practice will create a hazard to the marine 

 environment and to man in his uses of the marine environment and 

 marine resources. 



These studies are a continuation of the work of the National 

 Academy of Sciences - National Research Council Committees on the 

 Biological Effects of Atomic Radiation. In particular they supply a 

 part of the information considered by the Committee on Effects of 

 Atomic Radiation on Oceanography and Fisheries to be necessary 

 before the disposal of radioactive wastes into onshore waters should be 

 authorized. 



Two mechanisms have been considered which appear to be the 

 most likely avenues by which radioactivity deposited in onshore waters 

 could become a hazard to man or to the marine environment. They 

 are: (1) diffusion from containers, followed by transport to the immed- 

 iate shoreline, thereby creating a potential hazard primarily to man' s 

 recreational uses of the areas; and (2) diffusion from containers, fol- 

 lowed by inclusion in the various trophic levels of the marine biota, 

 and final return to man via the comnciercially important marine fish and 



