27. 



VI. DISCUSSION 



Of the many problems that were discussed by the committee, 

 three stand out as being especially important in the return o£ radio- 

 activity from the disposal area to man. They are: (a) turbulent diffu- 

 sion processes , (b) transport by ocean currents, and (c) accumulation 

 of radioactive materials in the marine biota, especially the species 

 that are commercially important and are a source of food for man. 



The turbulent diffusion problem is discussed in Appendix IV. 

 Several simplifying assumptions have been made in order that the final 

 results focus attention on a few important variables, and also to reduce 

 the bulk of purely mathematical manipulations. In several cases the 

 effects of these simplifying assumptions can be removed by modification 

 of the final results. In cases where this is not practical or possible it 

 is shown that the net effect of the simplifications is to make the calcu- 

 lated concentrations of radioactivity higher than would be observed in 

 the natural system. This amounts to a built-in factor of safety in the 

 conclusions that are based upon these calculations. 



The spread of activity by turbulent diffusion processes has been 

 examined for three different conditions, each being analogous to events 

 that might happen in nature. They are: 



Diffusion from a sustained gross source . The theoretical model is 

 comparable to the entire disposal area. With the assumption that at 



