Committee cn the Effects of Atomic Radiation, Oceanography and Pisheries ~- Chairman, Roger Revelle, Scripps Institute of Oceanography — This group viewed the past record of this country with respect to pollution of streams, waterways and harbors with ex- treme repugnance, They point out that 71% of the earth’s surface is ocean and that eventually everything gets into the ocsang, They note that the sea as compared to the land is relatively non-radioactive, Natural radioactivity of the seas is 1/100 that of igneous rocks, the following: 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 rear Bikini; that after four months 1500 miles away it was three times the normal amount and that at 13 months the area of surface water contamination had spread over a million square miles, and that at a distance of 3500 miles from Bikini the "artificial" radicactivity was 1/5 the natural, They concluded that tc date there has probably been no damage to life in the sea exsept that at the test site proper, They call attention to concentration of radioactivity by plant forms in the sea and warn repeatedly against indiscriminate 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 cf the Atlantic and Caribbean, They stress they need to know much moreabout the ccean depths and their movements, (The Internaticnal Geophysical 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 "Indus- trial agencies formulate conventions for the safe disposal of atomic. wastes at sea, based on existing knowledge." This would seem to be a very logical and necessary move, To date, except for small amounts of short-lived material, the U.S, has not dumped any wastes in tarks, We are still storing all process NAS They further recommend collaborative studies of the oceans and their organisms and though a beginning has been made urge a greater effort, Finally, they contend that in ten or twenty years certain radiotracer experiments will not be possible because of widespread low level contamination of the seas, This may well be- true, : Bes, vee Peat ty : ve‘ CGLLEGTIONS, , ryt unre EINES Laer pam radioactive wastes in the sea,