-6- 



Radioactive wastes from AEC operations are deposited in two areas of 

 the Atlantic Ocean that have been previously designated by the Navy as 

 "explosives dumping areas." Toxic chemical wastes and defunct munitions 

 were dumped in these areas for several years before addition of radioactive 

 wastes. Each of these areas is a 1^ mile square, theoretically. The 

 northernmost area is centered at Ul°33' N Latitude, 65°30' W Longitude. 

 Very few drums of wastes are dumped there - possibly twenty 30 gallon 

 drvun packages, or less, per year since 195l» The dump area which received 

 the wastes listed in Table 1 is centered at 3803O' N Latitude, 72°06' W 

 Longitude . 



Both of these areas are located at the edge of the continental shelf 

 where the water is about 1000 fathoms deep. 



Hon-AEC Government Operations ; Table 2 summarizes sea disposal opera- 

 tions by other government agency laboratories. Except for the U. S. Fish 

 and Wildlife Service's field installation at Beaufort, North Carolina, 

 these laboratories are in the Washington, D. G. area. 



The waste materials themselves are very much like those from AEC 

 installations, but the radioactivity is unquestionably of a lower average 

 magnitude than the radioactivity of the AEC wastes. A wide spectrum of 

 isotopes is represented. The araoimts of radioactivity noted as being 

 disposed were recorded at the time of packaging, not at time of disposal. 



Packaging varies among the agencies. The USF&WS disposes of their 

 tracer experimentation wastes and residues directly to the sea without 

 packaging - reportedly wastes which normally could be diluted and flushed 

 into their sewerage system. The National Bureau of Standards and the 



