Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, Oceanography
end Pisheries — Cha
Roger.
elle,
Scripps Institute of Oceanography
-
This group viewed the past record of this country with
respect to pollution of streams, waterways and harbors with extreme repugnance, They point out that 71% of the earth's surface
is ocean and that eventually everything gets into the oceaang,
They note that the sea as compared to the land is rela-
tively non-radioactive,
that of igneous rocks,
the following:
Natural radicactivity of the seas is 1/100
As 4 result cf weapons tests they report
two days after Operation Castle was over in the
spring of 1954 there was a millionfold increase in radioactivity |
of the surface waters near Bikini; that after four months 1500
miles away it was three times the normal amount and that at 13
months the area of surfase water contamination had spread over a
million square miles, and that at a distance of 3500 milss from
Bikini the “artificial” radicactivitywas 1/5 the natural,
They concluded thet tc date there has probably been no
damage to life in the sea exzept that at the test site proper,
They call attention to consentration of radioactivity by plant
forms in the sea and warn repeatedly against indiacriminate dumping of radicective wastes into the sea, They discuss the "flushing time" of the Black Sea 2500 years as compared with perhaps
100. or 200 years for the shelf-deeps of the Atlantic and Caribbean,
They stress they need to know much more about the ocean depths and
their movements,
(The International Geopliysical Year has a very
large-scale study of the depths planned for 1957-58), This com
mittee would apparently permit "controlled" sea disposal especially
of short-lived radioactive materials, They recommend that "Industrial agencies formulate conventions for the safe. disposal of
atomic. wastes at sea, based on existing knowledge."
seem to be a very logical and necessary move,
This would
To date, except for
small amounts of short-lived material, the U.S, has not dumped any
radicactive wastes in the sea, We are still storing all process
wastes in tanks,
.
NAS
because of widespread low level contamination of the seas,
may well be. true,
Re PT CG LLECTIORS.
4
-
hy
.
Syme
veo
rad
Be pp acne
Abd OA
ad tt SCIENCES
a
This
Lge tinea
They further recommend collaborative studies of the
oceans and their organisms and though a beginning has been made
urge a greater effort, Finally, thay contend that in ten or
twenty years certain radiotracer experiments will net be possible