rent processing technology the volume of high and intermediate level waste accumulated by 1980 would reach 36 million gallons.

The intervening years have brought improvements in fuels technology and in fuel reprocessing methods which have served to markedly reduce the volume of wastes generated per unit of nuclear power produced. Thus, while estimates of installed nuclear power in the year 2000 remain about the same, estimates for 1980 have risen almost fourfold from 25,000 electrical magawatts at the time of the hearings to 95,000 electrical magawatts now forecast, and predicted accumulated waste volumes in storage by 1980 have dropped by a factor of 10 to 40 (from 36 million gallons down to 1 to 4 million gallons), depending on waste handling techniques within the reprocessing plant. With the currently projected nuclear power growth rate, the cumulative waste volumes by the year 2000 are estimated at 20 to 40 million gallons, which is not inordinately large when compared with the over 65 million gallons of high activity wastes which have been satisfactorily handled in the AEC's own operations to date.

These estimated waste volumes are predicated on the assumption that confinement of the wastes will be accomplished by means of longterm tank storage of liquids. However, while more than 20 years' experience with storage of liquid high activity wastes in tanks has shown it to be a safe, practical means of interim handling, the longterm usefulness of this method is limited. This is due to the long effective life of the wastes (hundreds of years) and the comparatively short life of storage tanks, estimated at several tens of years. Accordingly, the Commission has pursued a vigorous research and development program aimed at developing and demonstrating, on an engineering scale, systems for the conversion of high level liquid wastes to stable solids and their subsequent storage in a dry geologic formation such as salt.

This solidification and disposal technology for high-activity waste appears quite feasible and practical, and has now reached the hot pilot plant and field demonstration phase. Results of these research and development programs are being provided to industry as commercial reprocessing of spent reactor fuel becomes operational during the 1966-72 period.

While it appears that the presently proposed waste management systems will fulfill the requirements for safe and economical disposal of high-level wastes from our future nuclear power industry, there are two potential problems which may require additional attention. These involve the proposed practice of releasing krypton 85 and tritium to the environment from fuel processing plants. Although these rare gases are far less hazardous than many other fission products, the release of krypton 85 at those processing plants which might be located near populous areas may impose certain operational limitations. The removal and containment of krypton 85, to prevent a significant buildup of this radionuclide in the atmosphere, may be required in an expanding nuclear power economy. Technology to accomplish this is being developed in the Commission's waste research program. Tritium, a fission product of very low yield, may also merit special consideration from the standpoint of its management in wastes from fuel processing. In the case of present solvent extraction plants, at least 75 percent of the tritium in the irradiated fuel is discharged to the

environment in low-level aqueous wastes. Future plants, if situated less remotely, may be restricted in the quantity they can release to their immediate environs.

The costs of high-activity waste treatment and ultimate storage in the nuclear power future have been estimated between 0.02-0.03 mill per kilowatt-hour of nuclear electricity produced. This represents about 1-2 percent of the total fuel cycle cost and substantially less than 1 percent of the cost of nuclear power in a 4-mill-per-kilowatt-hour economy. On the basis of laboratory and engineering process data, and on an expected successful field demonstration and testing program with high-activity waste, it is believed that waste management costs will not deter the development of safe and economical nuclear power.

NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY IN POLLUTION CONTROL

While waste management technology has been and is being developed which we believe will continue to provide satisfactory environmental pollution control systems for the expanding nuclear power industry, there are also other facets of the AEC program which are making significant contributions to the Nation's overall pollution abatement efforts. These programs deal with the development of instrumentation and monitoring equipment for the measurement and control of nonradioactive contaminants in our geohydrologic and atmospheric environments.

RADIOTRACER RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Pollution of the environment generally involves the presence of chemical substances in low concentrations. To control pollution, one must be able to measure it. Here the use of radiotracers is a particularly useful tool for quantitatively analyzing the problem, because of the extreme sensitivity of radioisotope measurements. An example of an early use of tracers was their employment in 1958 in a study of sewage flow rates near El Segundo, Calif.

In the past few years, the development and refinement of ultrasensitive analytical techniques (such as neutron activation analysis) and of sealed sources of radioisotopes have enabled scientists to apply modern methods and portable equipment for determining more accurately and conveniently the concentration of a wide variety of environmental pollutants. Activation analysis, for example, permits the use in some cases of inert tracers to follow the course of a particular contaminant without having to add radioactivity to the biosphere. Reliable and intense sources of alpha, beta, and gamma activity are incorporated in field instruments wherein the degree of attenuation. scattering, or emission of radiation is a measure of the properties of the medium.

An instrument for continuously monitoring the concentration of sulfur dioxide and ozone in air has been developed in the AEC isotopes development program for air pollution control and is under evaluation by a commercial company. This device uses a newly available radiochemical (krypton clathrate) to measure parts per million levels of sulfur dioxide and parts per billion levels of ozone. Air containing the contaminants is passed through an organic compound in which the radioisotope krypton 85 is trapped. Reaction of the contaminants with

the organic material releases an equivalent amount of the radioisotope, which can be measured with great sensitivity.

For stream hydrologic work, a suspended sediment density meter has been developed, a rugged portable device for measuring the concentration of suspended sediment in rivers and streams. This unit employs a sealed source of cadmium 109 which emits soft X-rays. The degree of attenuation of the radiation is related to the concentration of sediment.

Another new analytical technique which appears promising for stream pollution studies is a portable dissolved oxygen analyzer. In this method, a radioactive material-metallic thallium 204-reacts with the dissolved oxygen, in stoichiometric quantities, in the water flowing through a column of metal particles. The radioactivity in the effluent is counted. This unit can measure parts per million concentrations of oxygen, and can provide data over longer periods of time than other devices, without interruption.

Other radiotracer work is being carried out in connection with stream pollution control for the pulp and paper industry in the State of Washington. A tracer technique using chromium 51 has also been developed to determine the efficiency of ion exchange waste treatment for chromium bearing waste solutions. Increasing use of various radionuclide tracers (krypton 85, chromium 51, and scandium 46) for sediment transport studies is another area where radioisotope technology is being used in the overall problem of environmental pollution measurement and control.

While not considered as nuclear technology, per se, the AEC in its environmental pollution research and development program has pioneered the use of a "team approach" in assessing the environmental impact of large-scale nuclear energy operations on man and his resources. The application of a wide variety of chemical and analytical techniques and competencies in many scientific disciplines, including operations and systems analyses, has resulted in comprehensive environmental evaluations of (1) stream conditions in the Clinch River below Oak Ridge, Tenn.; the Savannah River below the Savannah River plant, Aiken, S.C.; the Mohawk River below Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, Schenectady, N.Y., and the Columbia River below the Hanford works, Richland, Wash., and (2) atmospheric conditions in the vicinity of Oak Ridge, Tenn.; National Reactor Testing Station, Idaho; and Brookhaven National Laboratory, near Upton, N.Y. We believe the techniques used, including systems analysis, are equally applicable to other environmental pollution studies.

METEOROLOGICAL APPLICATION

The meteorological problems faced by air pollution abatement and nuclear energy authorities are similar, despite the differences in emphasis engendered by the differences in source materials and configurations. In many cases, such as releases from stacks, the problems are identical and the same meteorological tools may be used to estimate downwind dosages. In other cases, such as the urban area source, the meteorological parameters governing single source emission are the same but applied in a somewhat different manner.

Because of the intensity of effort and the fundamental nature of the studies of turbulence and diffusion within the nuclear energy field over

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the last 15 years, there has been a significant flow of basic and applied meteorological information into the air pollution technology. The various national laboratories and other contractors of the Atomic Energy Commission have carried out research in several major categories: aerosol studies, precipitation studies, atmospheric transport and diffusion studies, and the development of sampling equipment. All of these programs have direct application to the overall air pollution problem.

For example, the aerosol studies have as their objective an understanding of the interrelationships between very small particles and their environment. Since many air pollutants are aerosols, it can be seen that the work done in this category would have direct application to many of the industrial air pollution problems.

The precipitation studies are designed to understand better the effect of scavenging or the cleansing of the atmosphere by precipitation. This involves understanding the processes involved in precipitating systems and the creation, development and eventual dissipation of such systems. The scavenging of the atmosphere by precipitation is nature's method of keeping the air clean of all air pollutants. Therefore it is vital that we know more about the scavenging mechanism. Although the programs in atmospheric transport and diffusion studies are primarily supported for the purpose of developing a capability to forecast efficiently and expeditiously the concentration of radioactive material from an accident, operational release, etc., anywhere in space and time, the results of these studies are applicable to any problem where the atmosphere acts as the transporting and diffusion mechanism. Many of the studies use nonradioactive materials as tracers. A good share of these contracts emphasize basic studies of atmospheric turbulence, since it is the turbulence which diffuses material in the atmosphere.

In other research studies, the AEC has pioneered in the use of tall towers and constant level balloons for probing the atmosphere, in the performance of some of the major diffusion experiments necessary to verify theoretical models and develop empirical techniques and in studies of the deposition and washout of material on surface features. These studies have been responsible for new techniques in meteorological instrument development and use, for plume height of rise studies and for the development of advanced climatological formats which delineate those features of local climate that determine the diffusive capacity of a site.

Another significant contribution to the quantitative assessment of air pollution problems has been the publication of "Meterology and Atomic Energy" (now being updated), a technical guide used by the nuclear industry during the past 10 years in reactor safety analyses. The calculational methods and techniques which have been developed for determining atmospheric transport and diffusion of radioactivity are now being used in the evaluation of industrial air pollution problems.

AEC STUDY OF POLLUTION PROBLEMS

It has recently been suggested that the AEC and its national laboratories be used in assisting with the problem of pollution control from fossil-fuel plants, as well as other pressing national industrial waste problem. The Commission, as part of its broad public responsibility,

is vitally concerned with overall problems of pollution, and is especially interested in developing nuclear techniques or systems which would contribute to the solution of various industrial waste problems. The AEC actively promotes the maximum use by others of technology developed within the AEC complex. Further, the Commission stands ready to make AEC facilities available to other Federal agencies, where the Commission's special competence may be useful. In this connection, arrangements have been made for AEC and its national laboratory staff members to visit with the National Coal Association research group for technical discussions on the coal industry pollution problems.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Pollution abatement is one of the major factors being considered by the power industry in the selection of fossil fuels or nuclear reactors for electric power generation. Power reactor effluent control has been carried out in a safe and economical manner and these operations have not resulted in any harmful effects on the public, its environment, or its natural resources.

Waste management technology has been and is being developed which will continue to provide satisfactory environmental pollution control systems for the expanding nuclear power industry. Surveillance programs have been established to assure that concentrations of radioactive materials released to the environment are maintained well below internationally accepted health and safety standards. The costs of power reactor waste management to date have been nominal, and it is estimated that the future costs for treatment and storage of highly radioactive wastes which are produced in the chemical processing of irradiated reactor fuel will be substantially less than 1 percent of the cost of nuclear power in a 4 mill per kilowatt-hour economy. Instrumentation and analytical techniques using radioisotopes have been developed for use in nonnuclear environmental pollution measurement and control. Basic and applied meteorological research data from AEC programs are being used in industrial air pollution control programs.

The subject of industrial radioactive waste disposal was thoroughly and extensively discussed in hearings conducted by the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy in 1959. Among the salient conclusions reached as a result of the exhaustive JCAE hearings on this subject were (1) radioactive waste management practices have not resulted in any harmful effects on the public, its environment, or its resources; and (2) the general problem of radioactive waste need not retard the future development of the nuclear energy industry with full protection of the public health and safety. Even with the most optimistic nuclear power projections, we believe these conclusions are still valid.

The Commission is grateful for this opportunity to provide information on a subject of such vital significance to the people of the United States.