I. CHAIRMAN' S PREFACE 



The deliberations of this committee were undertaken at a time 

 when active debate was going on concerning the extent of the hazard to 

 man being created by the introduction of radioactive materials into 

 man' s environment. Both sides of this debate have been pressed by 

 people in all sections of American society: scientists, politicians, and 

 laymen. Although this debate has centered primarily around the effects 

 of activity produced during bomb testing, since this is now the main 

 source of radioactive wastes, the results are much more pertinent to 

 the situation that will exist when nuclear power production reaches its 

 expected levels. At that time the quantity of activity in existence will 

 be many thousands of times greater than that w^hich now^ must be con- 

 sidered. It has been estimated, for example, that the equilibrium 

 quantity of activity in about the year 2000 w^ill be approximately 

 30 million megacuries. To be sure, most of this will be contained in 

 such a way, and in such locations, that its hazard will be negligible, 

 just as the "high level wastes" from present pile operations are now 

 treated. Nevertheless, it is inevitable that as the rate of production of 

 radioactive materials increases, so the quantity of "low level wastes" 

 will increase. These large volume, low activity wastes result from the 

 processing of spent reactor fuels and from an increased production and 

 use of radioisotopes by industry, hospitals, and research institutions. 



