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