<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN>
<div id="cover" class="fig">>
<ANTIMG id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="The Atom and the Ocean" width-obs="1000" height-obs="1570" /></div>
<div class="box">
<h1><span class="blue">The <i class="large">ATOM</i> and the <i class="large">OCEAN</i></span></h1>
<p class="center"><span class="blue ss">by E. W. Seabrook Hull</span></p>
<p class="tbcenter"><span class="blue"><span class="ssn">U.S. ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION
<br/>Division of Technical Information</span>
<br/><i>Understanding the Atom Series</i></span></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_i">i</div>
<h2><span class="small">The Understanding the Atom Series</span></h2>
<p>Nuclear energy is playing a vital role in the life of every
man, woman, and child in the United States today. In the
years ahead it will affect increasingly all the peoples of the
earth. It is essential that all Americans gain an understanding
of this vital force if they are to discharge thoughtfully their
responsibilities as citizens and if they are to realize fully the
myriad benefits that nuclear energy offers them.</p>
<p>The United States Atomic Energy Commission provides
this booklet to help you achieve such understanding.</p>
<p class="jr1"><ANTIMG class="inline" src="images/ejb.jpg" alt="Edward J. Brunenkant" width-obs="300" height-obs="99" />
<br/>Edward J. Brunenkant, Director
<br/>Division of Technical Information</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0"><span class="ss">UNITED STATES ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION</span></p>
</div>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0"><span class="ssn">Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, Chairman</span></p>
<p class="t0"><span class="ssn">James T. Ramey</span></p>
<p class="t0"><span class="ssn">Wilfrid E. Johnson</span></p>
<p class="t0"><span class="ssn">Dr. Theos J. Thompson</span></p>
<p class="t0"><span class="ssn">Dr. Clarence E. Larson</span></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_ii">ii</div>
<h1 title="">The <i class="large">ATOM</i> and the <i class="large">OCEAN</i></h1>
<p class="center"><span class="ssn">by E. W. Seabrook Hull</span></p>
<h2 id="toc" class="center">CONTENTS</h2>
<br/><SPAN href="#c1">SEEKING ANSWERS</SPAN> 1
<br/><SPAN href="#c2">Energy for Exploration</SPAN> 3
<br/><SPAN href="#c3">THE WORLD OCEAN</SPAN> 6
<br/><SPAN href="#c4">Ocean Movements</SPAN> 7
<br/><SPAN href="#c5">A Mix of Elements</SPAN> 10
<br/><SPAN href="#c6">The Sea’s Interfaces</SPAN> 11
<br/><SPAN href="#c7">The Sea’s Resources</SPAN> 11
<br/><SPAN href="#c8">NUCLEAR ENERGY’S ROLE</SPAN> 13
<br/><SPAN href="#c9">Radionuclides in the Sea</SPAN> 13
<br/><SPAN href="#c10">Research Projects</SPAN> 23
<br/><SPAN href="#c11">Oceanographic Instruments</SPAN> 35
<br/><SPAN href="#c12">Environmental Safety Studies</SPAN> 41
<br/><SPAN href="#c13">The Atom at Work in the Sea</SPAN> 42
<br/><SPAN href="#c14">Ocean Engineering</SPAN> 51
<br/><SPAN href="#c15">Fresh Water from Seawater</SPAN> 52
<br/><SPAN href="#c16">Radiation Preservation of Seafood</SPAN> 54
<br/><SPAN href="#c17">Project Plowshare</SPAN> 56
<br/><SPAN href="#c18">A New <i>Fram</i></SPAN> 56
<br/><SPAN href="#c19">THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL OCEAN</SPAN> 57
<br/><SPAN href="#c20">SUGGESTED REFERENCES</SPAN> 58
<p class="tbcenter"><span class="ss">United States Atomic Energy Commission
<br/>Division of Technical Information</span>
<br/><span class="small">Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 67-62476
<br/>1968</span></p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_iii">iii</div>
<div class="fig">> <ANTIMG src="images/p02.jpg" id="ncfig1" alt="uncaptioned frontispiece" width-obs="1000" height-obs="1582" /></div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_1">1</div>
<h1 title="">The <i class="large">ATOM</i> and the <i class="large">OCEAN</i></h1>
<p class="jr1">By E. W. SEABROOK HULL</p>
<h2 id="c1"><span class="small">SEEKING ANSWERS</span></h2>
<p>Historians of the future will record that man almost
simultaneously unlocked the secret of atomic energy and
ventured into new domains beneath the closed doors of the
world ocean, in one of the greatest exploration endeavors
of all time.</p>
<p>History may also show how these two efforts to benefit
mankind became closely interthreaded—how nuclear energy,
in its many forms and applications, played a major
role in the efforts to explore and exploit “the other three-quarters”
of our planet, and moreover, how the very development
of a nuclear technology enforced our need to know
more about the sea around us.</p>
<p>Nuclear energy is a fundamental physical phenomenon,
like the actions of the wheel, the lever, or the inclined
plane. Like chemical combustion or electricity, it is but
another means for men to do useful work, whether that
work be in the interests of science, commerce, recreation,
or war. To this extent, nuclear energy is universal,
as applicable in the sea as it is on land or in outer space.
Wherever man goes and whatever he does, he requires
energy to get him there and energy for his work or play
when he arrives. Some of the places he now seeks to
pioneer are hard to investigate by anyone encumbered with
bulky traditional energy sources—coal, fuel oil, or storage
batteries. The ocean in its full three-dimensional scope is
one of these places.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_2">2</div>
<p>The atom is the most concentrated source of energy, and
one of the most diverse. Thus, not only are we able to do
familiar things better with nuclear energy (the nuclear-powered
submarine is a dramatic example), but we are
also able to do things never before possible (such as
studying the diffusion of dissolved salts in the open ocean
or extending the useful life of seafoods through irradiation).</p>
<p>Nuclear energy has at last enabled us to realize the predictions
of Jules Verne’s adventure tale, <i>Twenty Thousand
Leagues Under the Sea</i>, and to build a true submarine—a
craft whose submerged existence is limited only by the
physiological and psychological endurance of its human
crew. This fact in itself has added greatly to our need to
learn much more about the ocean, for the sea is an opaque
and strange environment in which the deadly game of hunt-and-be-hunted
will be won by whoever knows the ocean
best.</p>
<p>The very fact that we have nuclear energy means we
have nuclear wastes; many of these inevitably find their way
into the ocean, as all things do. We need to know more about
the watery world before we can safely allow this inflow
to continue.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig1"> <ANTIMG src="images/p03.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="682" /> <p class="pcap"><i>In 1900 the U. S. Navy commissioned its first submarine, the USS</i> Holland, <i>which was built by John P. Holland. It is shown in dry dock at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, in 1898.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig2"> <ANTIMG src="images/p03a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="644" /> <p class="pcap"><i>The USS</i> Plunger, <i>named after an early John Holland submarine, which is an example of the Navy’s present fleet of nuclear submarines.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_3">3</div>
<p>In the waters of the seven seas are enough deuterium
and tritium to power tomorrow’s thermonuclear power
plants<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_1" href="#fn_1">[1]</SPAN> for millions of years. These rare, heavy varieties
of hydrogen, enormously abundant in the vastness of the
sea, comprise an energy source without limit for all
nations, which need only develop the technological ability
to extract them and put them to work.</p>
<h3 id="c2">Energy for Exploration</h3>
<p>For this exploration, men need to put instruments,
navigation beacons (see figures on pages <SPAN href="#Page_46">46</SPAN> and <SPAN href="#Page_47">47</SPAN>), and
other devices on the deep ocean floor, where they must operate
for long periods of time unattended and with no external
source of power. Radioisotope-powered generators,
capitalizing on the energy of disintegrating radioactive
atoms, are almost the only devices capable of fulfilling
these requirements.<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_2" href="#fn_2">[2]</SPAN> Man also wants to do productive work
under the ocean, such as drilling seafloor oil wells, mining,
and salvaging for profit some of the tens of thousands of
cargoes lost at sea during thousands of years of ocean
commerce. Eventually, he even wants to farm the ocean
floor.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig3"> <ANTIMG src="images/p03b.jpg" alt="" width-obs="727" height-obs="747" /> <p class="pcap"><i>An artist draws (using pencil and frosted plastic sheet) the position of objects in the wreck of a
7th century Byzantine ship 120
feet down in the Aegean Sea.
Nuclear power will permit historians
of the future to remain
underwater for long periods exploring
shipwrecks or old cities
far below the surface.</i></p>
</div>
<p>All these activities require energy—energy in an environment
where most sources cannot be applied. Above all,
<span class="pb" id="Page_4">4</span>
man wants to go down himself to explore, to work, and
perhaps to direct nuclear-powered robots to do even more
work. This means that small, manned, nonmilitary submersibles
will be needed—vessels whose endurance should
not be limited by the short life of traditional power sources,
but should draw on the fissioning atomic nucleus, harnessed
in small reactors.<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_3" href="#fn_3">[3]</SPAN></p>
<p>To work effectively in any environment, we must first
know and understand it. This is the job of science. In the
quest for knowledge and understanding of the ocean, nuclear
energy provides scientists with better instruments to
put down into the depths and wholly new techniques for the
direct study of the many oceanic processes.</p>
<p>For example, take the role of radioisotope tracers:
For the first time, these telltale atoms permit us to study
the metabolism of tiny plankters, the often microscopic
drifting creatures of the sea that in their incredible abundance
form the base of the entire marine food chain, including
fish eaten by humans. Even fallout isotopes from
nuclear tests enable us to trace important physical oceanographic
events, such as the ponderous process known
as overturning, which transports oxygen-rich surface
water to the deeps and nutrient-rich bottom water to the
surface. Radioisotope tracers also provide a tool for
studying the mechanics of littoral transport, which continually
tears down some beaches and builds up others.
They also enable us to determine if oceanic processes are
likely to concentrate fallout particles and deliver them in
dangerous doses through the food chain to our dinner tables.<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_4" href="#fn_4">[4]</SPAN></p>
<p>By using other nuclear energy technology, we are better
able to ascertain the age and composition of deep ocean
sediments and the rate at which they are deposited, how
a tsunami (tidal wave) propagates across vast distances,
how tides operate in the open ocean, where the brown shrimp
of the Carolina coast go every fall, and the migration patterns
of tuna, swordfish, and other valuable food fish.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_5">5</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig4"> <ANTIMG src="images/p04.jpg" alt="" width-obs="1200" height-obs="937" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Navy men preparing for undersea research by feeding Tuffy, a friendly porpoise, which later carried messages for them during the “Man-In-The-Sea” experiment.</i> (<i>Also see photos on <SPAN href="#Page_12">page 12</SPAN>.</i>)</p>
</div>
<p>These are just a few of the answers we seek from the
world ocean—answers important for more productive fisheries,
more accurate long-range weather forecasting,
possible control of hurricanes and typhoons, pollution control,
safer and more economical shipping, better recreation,
and numerous other matters that bear on our health,
well-being, and day-to-day lives.</p>
<p>On all these endeavors the ocean exerts a major influence.
And in each, atomic energy is helping assemble and interpret
answers.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_6">6</div>
<h2 id="c3"><span class="small">THE WORLD OCEAN</span></h2>
<p>But what of this environment into which, armed with the
atom, we plunge with such enthusiasm and expectations? A
portrait is in order, which must be brief, for not all the
books ever written about the sea have yet described it fully.</p>
<p>The world ocean covers 70.8% of our planet. It contains
324,000,000 cubic miles of seawater. Living in it are upwards
of a million different species of plants and animals.
They range from one-celled organisms that can only be
seen with a microscope to the largest creature ever to
have lived on this earth—the giant blue (or sulfur-bottom)
whale, captured specimens of which have exceeded 90 feet
in length and 100 tons in weight.</p>
<p>The ocean’s depth ranges from 600 feet or less above
continental shelves to more than 35,000 feet at the Marianas
Trench. The mean depth is 12,451 feet. Sea bottom topography
includes wide plains, the world’s longest mountain
range, steeply rising individual truncated peaks called
<i>guyots</i> (pronounced gee-ohs), gentle slopes, narrow canyons,
and precipitous escarpments. Mountains higher than Everest
rise from the ocean floor and never pierce the surface.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig5"> <ANTIMG src="images/p05.jpg" alt="" width-obs="1000" height-obs="582" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Underwater mountain traced by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution echo sounder in the Caribbean area. Depth is determined by the time it takes the sound emitted by the instrument to
go to the bottom and return to the surface.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_7">7</div>
<h3 id="c4">Ocean Movements</h3>
<div class="fig"> id="fig6"> <ANTIMG src="images/p05a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="1000" height-obs="705" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Six ships checking the Gulf Stream’s course through the Atlantic Ocean over a 2-week period found the
variations shown above.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig7"> <ANTIMG src="images/p05b.jpg" alt="" width-obs="560" height-obs="800" /> <p class="pcap"><i>The infrared film photograph shows the edge of the Gulf Stream. The visible
line between the Gulf Stream,
which is on the right, and Labrador
water is made by Sargassum
weed concentrated at the interface.</i></p>
</div>
<p>The ocean is constantly in motion—not just in the waves
and tides that characterize its surface but in great currents
that swirl between continents, moving (among other things)
great quantities of heat from one part of the world to
<span class="pb" id="Page_8">8</span>
another. Beneath these surface currents are others, deeply
hidden, that flow as often as not in an entirely different
direction from the surface course.</p>
<p>These enormous “rivers”—quite unconstant, sometimes
shifting, often branching and eddying in a manner that
defies explanation and prediction—occasionally create
disastrous results. One example is El Niño, the periodic
catastrophe that plagues the west coast of South America.
This coast normally is caressed by the cold, rich Humboldt
Current. Usually the Humboldt hugs the shore and extends
200 to 300 miles out to sea. It is rich in life. It fosters the
largest commercial fishery in the world and is the home of
one of the mightiest game fish on record, the black marlin.
The droppings of marine birds that feed from its waters
are responsible for the fertilizer (guano) exports that
undergird the Chilean, Peruvian, and Ecuadorian economies.</p>
<p>Every few years, however, the Humboldt disappears.
It moves out from shore or simply sinks, and a flow of
warm, exhausted surface water known as El Niño takes
its place. Simultaneously, torrential rains assault the
coast. Fishes and birds die by the millions. Commercial
fisheries are closed. The beaches reek with death. El
Niño is a stark demonstration of man’s dependence on the
sea and why he must learn more about it.</p>
<p>There are other motions in the restless sea. The water
masses are constantly “turning over” in a cycle that may
take hundreds of years, yet is essential to bring oxygen
down to the creatures of the deeps, and nutrients (fertilizers)
up from the sea floor to the surface. Here the floating
phytoplankton (the plants of the sea) build through photosynthesis
the organic material that will start the nutrient
cycle all over again. Enormous tonnages of these tiny sea
plants, rather than being rooted in the soil, are separated
from solid earth by up to several vertical miles of saltwater.
Sometimes, too, there is a more rapid surge of deep
water to the surface, a process known as upwelling.</p>
<p>Internal waves, far below the surface, develop between
water masses that have different densities and between
which there is relative motion. These waves are much
like the wind-driven waves on the surface, though much
<span class="pb" id="Page_9">9</span>
bigger: Internal waves may have heights of 300 feet or
more and be 6 miles or more in length!</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig8"> <ANTIMG src="images/p06.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="804" /> <p class="pcap"><i>A dividing cell of the diatom</i> Corethron hystrix. <i>Diatoms, one-celled photosynthetic plants, are the primary producers
of organic matter in fresh waters.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig9"> <ANTIMG src="images/p06a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="805" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Ocean currents feed sand from nearby beaches into this “sandfall”, which is about 30 feet high, in a submarine canyon
off Baja California.</i></p>
</div>
<p>Among other motions of the sea there are landslides, or
turbidity currents, which are great boiling mixes of mud,
rock, sand, and water rushing down submarine mountainsides
at speeds of a mile a minute. They destroy everything
in their paths and spread clouds of debris over the abyssal
plains like a sandstorm, producing fanlike deposits radiating
far out from the base of the slope. And there are tsunamis,
or seismic sea waves—popularly misnamed “tidal waves”—that
transmit energy from undersea earthquakes or volcanic
eruptions. At sea, these waves are only a few inches high,
<span class="pb" id="Page_10">10</span>
but they may travel great distances at 500 miles an hour.
As they approach the shoaling waters of a coast, they are
slowed to about 30 miles an hour and build up great surface
waves capable of destroying harbor and coastal installations.</p>
<h3 id="c5">A Mix of Elements</h3>
<p>The sea is a chemistry, too. Over 60 elements have been
discovered in measurable amounts in solution or in suspension
in the ocean. Many of these are in the form of salts,
making seawater a highly efficient electrolyte, and a most
corrosive fluid. The study of corrosion and techniques for
combatting it is a continuous one in which nuclear energy
already has a principal role.</p>
<p>Because the sea is so much a chemistry, it is a potential
source of minerals for the world’s growing industrial
appetite. All of our magnesium and most of our bromine
already are extracted directly from seawater. Oil and
sulfur are mined from the sea floor or beneath it, as are
coal (United Kingdom and Japan), iron ore (Japan), tin
(Thailand and United Kingdom), diamonds (Southwest Africa),
and gold (Alaska). In the layered sediments that cover the
ocean-basin floors to depths of thousands of feet, geologists
believe there also may be found some missing chapters of
earth history.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig10"> <ANTIMG src="images/p07.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="527" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Nodules such as these containing manganese cover millions of undersea acres on the ocean floor. Many nodules are
rich in nickel, cobalt, zirconium, and
copper. Metallurgists are seeking ways
to recover the metals from these deposits.</i></p>
</div>
<p>The ocean, by and large, is an opaque fluid through which
light travels only a few hundred feet and most other radiant
energy not much more than a few yards; yet through this
same fluid, sound waves, by contrast, have been transmitted
and received over distances of many thousand
miles.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_11">11</div>
<h3 id="c6">The Sea’s Interfaces</h3>
<p>What of the interfaces of the sea? Above three-quarters
of the globe, water and air are in constant contact, continually
exchanging heat and moisture. This is a major
factor in the making of weather and climate. The sea
constantly feeds electricity into the atmosphere, primarily
through the electron-scrubbing action of tiny popping bubbles
at the sea surface. It also lifts tiny crystals of salt
and the remains of microscopic sea creatures into the air.
Perhaps these are the nuclei on which moisture condenses
to trigger hurricanes, since it is the latent heat of vaporization
of air, made over-moist by long travel over the
tropical sea, that provides a hurricane’s energy.</p>
<p>Along its land edges, the sea is constantly working
on the shore—sometimes gently, sometimes violently—breaking
down rock cliffs, opening bays and harbors,
closing channels and inlets, smashing breakwaters and
seawalls, and moving sand up and down and to and from
beaches.</p>
<h3 id="c7">The Sea’s Resources</h3>
<p>In summary, then, the ocean, the largest single geographical
feature of our planet, is infinitely varied and
infinitely complex. We are learning it bears on our day-to-day
living in ways we never suspected. It is the largest
resource of food for our exploding population, the largest
resource of minerals with which to support the world’s
burgeoning industries, the largest resource of energy, and,
of course, it is the largest supply of water. It is mankind’s
largest dumping ground for the wastes of cities and industries.
It is the source of much pleasure and recreation.</p>
<p>Men already have lived experimentally for weeks at a
time on the bottom of the ocean. Both sea floor laboratories
and military bases are being planned or, in a few
cases, installed. Sea floor mining complexes are in the
conceptual design stage. It is only a matter of time before
recreational “aquotels” are built safely below the sea’s
restless surface. Private sports submarines are an actual,
though costly, reality. It is not inconceivable that in the
<span class="pb" id="Page_12">12</span>
not-too-distant future human beings may overflow the land
into complete, self-sufficient communities below the oceans.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig11"> <ANTIMG src="images/p08.jpg" alt="" width-obs="1000" height-obs="912" /> <p class="pcap"><i>In 1965 the U. S. Navy conducted a 45-day experiment in its “Man-In-The-Sea” program in which 10 aquanauts
lived and worked 205 feet below
the surface of the sea off La
Jolla, California. Their undersea
base was Sealab II shown at her
christening.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig12"> <ANTIMG src="images/p08a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="735" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Sealab II shown during final checkout before descent. The aquanauts conducted experimental salvage
operations, marine research, and underwent
a series of physiological and
human performance tests.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_13">13</div>
<h2 id="c8"><span class="small">NUCLEAR ENERGY’S ROLE</span></h2>
<p>The role of nuclear energy in the study, exploration, and
utilization of the world ocean is best defined by citing the
specific oceanographic interests of the U. S. Atomic Energy
Commission (AEC): Development of better instruments
and devices for work and study in the ocean, development
of ever-stronger national sea power, conversion
of seawater to fresh water, possible modification of ocean
boundaries, purely scientific studies to advance knowledge,
and, indirectly at least, improving the state of oceanographic
engineering. Among the technological products of
the nuclear age are radionuclides, neutron sources and
other radiation sources, radioisotope heat and electric
generators, and nuclear reactors. All these are applied to
ocean-related endeavors.</p>
<p>Several divisions of the AEC have important oceanic
interests. These range from pure oceanographic research
to development of specific instruments, nuclear reactors,
radioisotopic power sources, and other devices for use in
or under the ocean. The AEC also conducts extensive
marine environmental studies to monitor the effects or
ensure the safety of specific projects involving nuclear
energy. A statistical summary of specific AEC programs
in oceanography is shown in Table I on <SPAN href="#Page_14">page 14</SPAN>.</p>
<h3 id="c9">Radionuclides in the Sea</h3>
<p>Before we can follow the atom down into the sea, we
must understand something about the potentials, both good
and bad, of this incursion of one of our most advanced
technologies into one of earth’s least understood environments.
This adventurous probing has ramifications for
studying both man-produced radioactivity in the sea and the
ocean itself as an uncontaminated environment.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_14">14</div>
<table class="center">
<tr class="th"><th colspan="3">TABLE I</th></tr>
<tr class="th"><th colspan="2">AEC OCEANOGRAPHY PROGRAM </th><th>1968 Expenditures Estimate</th></tr>
<tr class="th"><th class="l" colspan="2"><i>Research Activities</i></th></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="l">Division of Biology and Medicine </td><td class="r">$4,000,000</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="l">Studies of uptake, concentration, distribution and effects of radioisotopes on marine life, of geochemical cycling of elements, and of geophysical diffusion and transport.</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="l">Division of Research </td><td class="r">25,000</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="l">Geological dating of corals and other marine and terrestrial materials.</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="l">Division of Isotopes Development </td><td class="r">190,000</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="l">Radioisotope applications to devices for marine systems, such as current meters, analysis and recovery of sedimentary minerals, and underwater sound transmission.</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="l">Division of Reactor Development and Technology </td><td class="r">197,000</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="l">Studies of factors affecting dissolution and dispersal of accidentally released radionuclides, and site evaluations.</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="l">Division of Space Nuclear Systems </td><td class="r">275,000</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="l">Nuclear power sources for aerospace applications.</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="l">Division of Military Applications </td><td class="r">850,000</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="l">Ocean environmental observation and prediction.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="r"><i>Total—Research Activities</i> </td><td class="r">5,537,000</td></tr>
<tr class="th"><th class="l" colspan="2"><i>Engineering Activities</i></th></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="l">Division of Reactor Development and Technology </td><td class="r">5,900,000</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="l">Radioisotope and reactor power development.</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="l">Division of Naval Reactors </td><td class="r">1,320,000</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="l">Deep submergence research vehicle.</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="r"><i>Total —Engineering Activities</i> </td><td class="r">7,220,000</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"> </td><td class="r"><i>Total—ABC Oceanographic Activities</i> </td><td class="r">12,757,000</td></tr>
</table>
<div class="pb" id="Page_15">15</div>
<p>Radionuclides (radioactive atoms) can find their way into
the sea from natural radiation sources or from nuclear
energy operations undertaken by the United States and other
countries since 1945. Specific man-made sources in the
past may have included nuclear weapons tested in the
atmosphere and under water, the cooling water and wastes
of nuclear reactors, laboratories and nuclear-powered
ships, containers of radioactive waste disposed of at sea<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_5" href="#fn_5">[5]</SPAN>,
radioisotope energy devices, and intentional injection of
radioisotope tracers for scientific research. In the future,
they may also include reentry from space of upper-stage
nuclear rockets or satellite-borne nuclear energy sources.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig13"> <ANTIMG src="images/p09.jpg" alt="" width-obs="643" height-obs="801" /> <p class="pcap"><i>The Nansen bottle, shown being attached to a hydrographic wire, is one of the standard tools of oceanology.
When a bottle reaches a desired
depth, a sliding weight tips it upside
down to collect seawater samples.
Thermometers on the sides of the
bottles record temperature. The device
was designed by the Norwegian
oceanographer and explorer, Fridtjof
Nansen.</i> (<i>See photo on <SPAN href="#Page_56">page 56</SPAN>.</i>)</p>
</div>
<p>In order to evaluate the effects of these materials in the
ocean environment, it is necessary to know many things.
Just how much radiation is introduced? In what form?
Where geographically? How are these radionuclides dispersed
or concentrated physically, chemically, biologically,
and geologically? What is the net result in each
case now, and what will it be many years hence?</p>
<p>These questions are not answered easily. There is, as
yet, no satisfactory laboratory substitute for the open
ocean. Research for the most part must be conducted at
sea, where tests and measurements are difficult at best,
and where results therefore are often suspect. Further, if
we are to study the effects of man-induced changes in a
natural environment, it would have been advantageous to
have known the nature of that environment before the
changes were introduced—which, by and large, in the case
of the ocean we do not. So we must start with a contaminated
environment and try to separate what we have
put there ourselves from what would have been there
anyway. It isn’t an easy task to make the physical and
biological observations that will make this distinction.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_16">16</div>
<table class="center">
<tr class="th"><th colspan="4">Table II CONCENTRATION AND AMOUNTS OF 42 OF THE ELEMENTS IN SEAWATER</th></tr>
<tr class="th"><th>Element </th><th>Concentration (mg/l) </th><th>Amount of element in seawater (tons mile³) </th><th>Total amount in the oceans (tons)</th></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Chlorine </td><td class="l">19,000.0 </td><td class="l">89.5 × 10⁶ </td><td class="r">29.3 × 10¹⁵</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Sodium </td><td class="l">10,500.0 </td><td class="l">49.5 x-10⁶ </td><td class="r">16.3 × 10¹⁵</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Magnesium </td><td class="l">1,350.0 </td><td class="l">6.4 × 10⁶ </td><td class="r">2.1 × 10¹⁵</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Sulphur </td><td class="l">885.0 </td><td class="l">4.2 × 10⁶ </td><td class="r">1.4 × 10¹⁵</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Calcium </td><td class="l">400.0 </td><td class="l">1.9 × 10⁶ </td><td class="r">0.6 × 10¹⁵</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Potassium </td><td class="l">380.0 </td><td class="l">1.8 × 10⁶ </td><td class="r">0.6 × 10¹⁵</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Bromine </td><td class="l">65.0 </td><td class="l">306,000 </td><td class="r">0.1 × 10¹⁵</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Carbon </td><td class="l">28.0 </td><td class="l">132,000 </td><td class="r">0.04 × 10¹⁵</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Strontium </td><td class="l">8.0 </td><td class="l">38,000 </td><td class="r">12,000 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Boron </td><td class="l">4.6 </td><td class="l">23,000 </td><td class="r">7,100 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Silicon </td><td class="l">3.0 </td><td class="l">14,000 </td><td class="r">4,700 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Lithium </td><td class="l">0.17 </td><td class="l">800 </td><td class="r">260 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Rubidium </td><td class="l">0.12 </td><td class="l">570 </td><td class="r">190 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Phosphorus </td><td class="l">0.07 </td><td class="l">330 </td><td class="r">110 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Iodine </td><td class="l">0.06 </td><td class="l">280 </td><td class="r">93 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Barium </td><td class="l">0.03 </td><td class="l">140 </td><td class="r">47 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Indium </td><td class="l">0.02 </td><td class="l">94 </td><td class="r">31 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Zinc </td><td class="l">0.01 </td><td class="l">47 </td><td class="r">16 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Iron </td><td class="l">0.01 </td><td class="l">47 </td><td class="r">16 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Aluminum </td><td class="l">0.01 </td><td class="l">47 </td><td class="r">16 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Molybdenum </td><td class="l">0.01 </td><td class="l">47 </td><td class="r">16 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Selenium </td><td class="l">0.004 </td><td class="l">19 </td><td class="r">6 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Tin </td><td class="l">0.003 </td><td class="l">14 </td><td class="r">5 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Copper </td><td class="l">0.003 </td><td class="l">14 </td><td class="r">5 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Arsenic </td><td class="l">0.003 </td><td class="l">14 </td><td class="r">5 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Uranium </td><td class="l">0.003 </td><td class="l">14 </td><td class="r">5 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Nickel </td><td class="l">0.002 </td><td class="l">9 </td><td class="r">3 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Vanadium </td><td class="l">0.002 </td><td class="l">9 </td><td class="r">3 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Manganese </td><td class="l">0.002 </td><td class="l">9 </td><td class="r">3 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Antimony </td><td class="l">0.0005 </td><td class="l">2 </td><td class="r">0.8 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Cobalt </td><td class="l">0.0005 </td><td class="l">2 </td><td class="r">0.8 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Caesium </td><td class="l">0.0005 </td><td class="l">2 </td><td class="r">0.8 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Cerium </td><td class="l">0.0004 </td><td class="l">2 </td><td class="r">0.6 × 10⁹</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Silver </td><td class="l">0.0003 </td><td class="l">1 </td><td class="r">5 × 10⁸</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Cadmium </td><td class="l">0.0001 </td><td class="l">0.5 </td><td class="r">150 × 10⁶</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Tungsten </td><td class="l">0.0001 </td><td class="l">0.5 </td><td class="r">150 × 10⁶</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Chromium </td><td class="l">0.00005 </td><td class="l">0.2 </td><td class="r">78 × 10⁶</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Thorium </td><td class="l">0.00005 </td><td class="l">0.2 </td><td class="r">78 × 10⁶</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Lead </td><td class="l">0.00003 </td><td class="l">0.1 </td><td class="r">46 × 10⁶</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Mercury </td><td class="l">0.00003 </td><td class="l">0.1 </td><td class="r">46 × 10⁶</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Gold </td><td class="l">0.000004 </td><td class="l">0.02 </td><td class="r">6 × 10⁶</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Radium </td><td class="l">1 × 10⁻¹⁰ </td><td class="l">5 × 10⁻⁷ </td><td class="r">150</td></tr>
</table>
<blockquote>
<p>Adapted from <i>The Mineral Resources of the Sea</i>, by John L.
Mero, American Elsevier Publishing Company, New York, 1964.</p>
</blockquote>
<div class="pb" id="Page_17">17</div>
<p>Many sea creatures are efficient, selective concentrators
of “trace elements”, which occur in seawater only in
minute portions. These elements are difficult enough to
detect qualitatively and all but impossible to analyze
quantitatively. Yet among the elements the sea’s plants and
animals concentrate are the very materials with which we
are apt to be most concerned: Strontium, cesium, cerium,
ruthenium, cobalt, iodine, phosphorus, zinc, manganese,
iron, chromium, and others. Radioisotopes<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_6" href="#fn_6">[6]</SPAN> of all these
elements occur as by-products of human nuclear activities.
Many concentrating organisms are microscopic in size
and are frequently impossible to raise in captivity. It is
apparent that we are faced with a research program of
considerable challenge and proportion.</p>
<p>We need to know <i>how</i> each marine species concentrates.
Is it from the food it eats, by absorption from the water, or
both? Does it concentrate an element by continuous accumulation,
or is there a constant turnover of the material
in the organism’s system? (In the first case, once the
creature became radioactive it would remain so throughout
its life or until the radioactivity decayed. In the second
case, however, the radioactivity might be a transient condition,
assuming the creature could find its way into uncontaminated
water and were able to flush itself.) Obviously,
both the cycling time of the radioisotope in the organism
and its radioactive half-life<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_7" href="#fn_7">[7]</SPAN> must be taken into account.</p>
<p>Even if we should manage to identify all the marine concentrators
and gain some insight into their metabolic
processes, this would be only a first step. For example,
one tiny form of planktonic protozoan, <i>acantharia</i>, concentrates
<span class="pb" id="Page_18">18</span>
up to 15% of its own weight of strontium, including
the radioisotope strontium-90. It is eaten by larger zooplankton
(animals), such as copepods, which are eaten by
little fish, which, in turn, are eaten by bigger fish, etc.
Somewhere along this food chain, perhaps, a fish will
come along that is favored for human dinner tables. How
much strontium-90 has <i>that</i> fish accumulated through
swallowing its prey and by absorption from the water?
Is the radioactivity in its scales, bones, viscera, and other
usually uneaten portions, or in its flesh?</p>
<p>It is probable, though as yet by no means proven, that
among the million or so oceanic species of plant and
animal life, there are concentrators of virtually all the
60 or more elements found in seawater. To identify and
study them is an enormous undertaking, which is often
possible only by using radioisotopes as tools.</p>
<p>And what of the immediate and genetic effects of radiation
on each species? Studies of reef fish in the nuclear
testing area in the Marshall Islands have shown that radioiodine
in the water caused thyroid gland damage long after
the amount of radioiodine remaining in the water was too
low to be detected. Studies of salmon in the Columbia
River have shown some physiological variations between
those fish whose eggs and young were reared in radioactive
waters and those that were not, though these variations
have not been determined to be statistically significant or
different from variations caused by other contaminants.</p>
<p>Studies are being made of the reproductive efficiency
and patterns of sea creatures in a radiation-contaminated
environment, compared with those in an uncontaminated
environment, to learn such things as the numbers, survival
rates, and sex ratios of the offspring, and any genetic
abnormalities or mutations. Many more studies are needed.
Always, the task is made difficult by insufficient detailed
knowledge of the original natural environment, the limitations
of laboratory experiments, and the mechanics of
trying to follow the reproductive cycles of free-floating or
swimming organisms in any statistically meaningful manner
through successive generations.</p>
<p>One obviously important kind of research deals with the
rate, pattern, and means by which radionuclides are distributed
<span class="pb" id="Page_19">19</span>
into the sea from a point source, such as the mouth
of a river or a nuclear test site. Transport and diffusion
of radioactivity can be, and are, influenced by physical,
chemical, biological, or geological means, separately or
all at once. This has led the AEC to support scientific
studies of currents, upwelling, downwelling, convergence,
diffusion, mixing rates, air-sea interactions, chemical and
geological processes in the sea, and the horizontal and
vertical migrations of sea life.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig14"> <ANTIMG src="images/p10.jpg" alt="" width-obs="1000" height-obs="512" /> <p class="pcap"><i>This sound instrument record reveals the layers of planktonic sound scatterers on the continental slope east of New England. Each peak originates from an individual group of organisms.</i></p>
</div>
<p>In much of the ocean there is an acoustic “floor”, known
as the <i>deep scattering layer</i> (because of what it does to
sound waves), which is believed to consist primarily of
zooplankton. Every 24 hours the layer migrates up and
down through several hundred feet of water. At night the
countless small animals graze in the rich sea-plant pastures
near the surface; during daylight, back at the lower level,
they undoubtedly are heavily fed upon by larger animals.
Over a period of time, the layer accounts for considerable
vertical transport of materials. (See figure above.) Other
life forms may move materials still farther down, or, in
some instances, back up—as when the sperm whale
descends to the depths to fight and best a giant squid, and
then returns to the surface to eat it.</p>
<p>Constantly drifting downward is a great volume of
material—the dead bodies, skeletons, excrement, and
<span class="pb" id="Page_20">20</span>
other waste from sea life at all depths. As it sinks there
is a constant exchange of matter between it and the surrounding
water through chemical, physical, and biological
processes. Eventually, the molecules of material added to
the bottom sediments may be returned to the water mass by
bacteriological action or the eating and living habits of
sea floor animals.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig15"> <ANTIMG src="images/p11.jpg" alt="" width-obs="787" height-obs="906" /> <p class="pcap"><i>A school of skipjack tuna photographed from an underwater observation chamber on the
research vessel</i> Charles H.
Gilbert.</p>
</div>
<p>Biological transport works in other ways, too. Most
pelagic (free-swimming) fish are great travelers. They account
for a tremendous movement of material, namely
themselves, from one place to another. Tuna, swordfish,
whales, porpoises, and sea birds may travel thousands of
miles in a single year. Such migrations may serve,
variously, as mechanisms for either dispersal or concentration
of elements or nutrients. The anadromous
(river-ascending) fishes, such as salmon, herring, sturgeon,
and shad, concentrate in freshwater streams in untold
numbers to spawn. After hatching, the young seek the ocean
and scatter widely until they, too, feel the urge to return
to the rivers and lakes whence they came, to spawn and
die there as did their ancestors.</p>
<p>Ocean currents may transport concentrations of radionuclides
essentially undiluted for thousands of miles.
Surface currents move at speeds of up to five knots
(nautical miles per hour). Normally current waters do not
mix readily with the water mass through which they pass.
<span class="pb" id="Page_21">21</span>
Because of the slowness of vertical circulation in the ocean,
radionuclides deposited on the surface of the ocean may
take a thousand years to reach the bottom. But the vertical
transport sometimes is much more rapid: When the wind
piles too much water against a coastline, the resultant
downwelling (sinking) may move radionuclides suddenly into
the deeper ocean. Or, conversely, when the wind and the
rotation of the earth combine to force the surface water
<i>away</i> from the coast, deep water may suddenly rise to
replace it, a process known as upwelling.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig16"> <ANTIMG src="images/p11a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="1200" height-obs="851" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Mechanisms of nutrient turnover in the sea.</i></p> </div>
<dl class="undent pcap"><br/>Light energy
<br/>Dissolved gases
<br/>Birds and man
<br/>Rivers and ice
<br/>Wave action
<br/>Surface mixed layer 20-100m
<br/>Suspended matter
<br/>Elements in true solution
<br/>Plants phytoplankton
<br/>Animals
<br/>Deep water
<br/>Elements in true solution in deep water
<br/>Buried in sediment
<br/>Physical Processes
<br/><i>Transport by wind</i>
<br/><i>Transport by current</i>
<br/><i>Turbulent mixing</i>
<br/><i>Sedimentation</i>
<br/><i>Transport</i> by animals
<br/><i>Volcanic action</i>
<br/><i>Diffusion</i>
<br/>Chemical or Biological Processes
<br/><i>Photosynthesis</i>
<br/><i>Dissolving</i>
<br/><i>Upwelling</i>
<br/><i>Decomposition and respiration</i>
<br/><i>Sorption</i> by sediment surface
<br/><i>Redissolving</i> from sediment
<br/><i>Chemical precipitation</i>
<br/>Combined Processes
<br/><i>Sedimentation and decomposition</i> by bacteria
<br/><i>Scavenging</i>
<p>Some recent evidence indicates that the passage of a
hurricane across the ocean drives surface water out from
the storm center in all directions. This, too, produces
upwelling. If radionuclides fall on the Arctic ice pack or
on the Greenland or Antarctic ice caps, it may be years
before they are released to the sea. In more or less stable
conditions at sea, radionuclides may remain trapped above
<span class="pb" id="Page_22">22</span>
the thermocline (a layer of sharp temperature change
usually less than 100 meters below the surface) for a
considerable period. Then a severe storm may destroy the
thermocline and mix the waters to much greater depths.
The process of diffusion in the ocean is not well understood,
due both to the difficulty of the measurements that
have to be made and to the variety of other factors affecting
both vertical and horizontal transport of materials. Here
again, however, the existence of radionuclides, introduced
artificially at a known time and place, is materially aiding
these investigations by making a particular water mass
detectable and traceable.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig17"> <ANTIMG src="images/p12.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="532" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Winds of 100 knots (about 115 mph) whip high waves in the Caribbean Sea east
of Guadeloupe Island during
a hurricane.</i></p>
</div>
<p>In chemical oceanography, the AEC is concerned with
the fact that in some instances our society is introducing
elements, ions, and compounds that have not been naturally
found in the sea, as well as natural materials in greater
concentration than is normal. These may combine with
other materials in the sea, changing into new forms or
substances, or removing them from solution entirely. Any
change in the chemical composition of the ocean is quite
likely to have biological effects, some of which may prove
detrimental to man.</p>
<p>A disturbance of the chemical balance of the sea is
thought to be responsible, at least in part, for the periodic,
disastrous plankton “blooms” known as “red tides”. Such
a sudden, explosive overpopulation of plankton is a natural
phenomenon, but one that can be triggered by man-made
pollution. When it occurs, plankton multiply so rapidly that
<span class="pb" id="Page_23">23</span>
the oxygen in the water is depleted and many fish die from
suffocation.</p>
<p>Fortunately, nuclear energy operations account for an
extremely small portion of the chemical contamination of
the sea, when contrasted with the tremendous volume of
poisons dumped daily into it in the form of other industrial
and municipal waste and agricultural pesticides.</p>
<h3 id="c10">Research Projects</h3>
<p>The AEC supports oceanographic research conducted by
its own laboratories and by other federal agencies, as well
as by non-government research scientists. The Environmental
Sciences Branch of the Division of Biology and
Medicine has begun the long and complex task of unraveling
the mystery of the fate of radionuclides in the ocean.
Valuable techniques have been developed for the intentional
injection of radioisotopes into the sea for specific research.
Scientists are now able to conduct investigations
that were never before possible. In some instances, traditional
scientific concepts and theories have been shattered,
or at least severely shaken, by new evidence gathered by
radioisotope techniques.</p>
<p>Since 70% of the earth’s surface is water, at least 70%
of the radioactive debris lofted into the stratosphere during
atmospheric nuclear weapons tests falls into the ocean.
An additional small proportion finds its way into the sea
as the run-off from the land. In the case of tests at sea,
the majority of radiation immediately falls into the water
nearby. For this reason, the ocean around the sites in
the Marshall Islands where U. S. tests were conducted has
provided a unique opportunity to study the effect of large
concentrations of radionuclides. Particularly significant
studies have been conducted of the absorption of radionuclides
by plants and animals living on nearby reefs and
islands, and of both lateral and vertical diffusion rates of
elements in the open ocean.<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_8" href="#fn_8">[8]</SPAN></p>
<p>The 1954 nuclear test at Eniwetok Atoll produced heavier-than-expected
local radioactive fallout. Since then, both
<span class="pb" id="Page_24">24</span>
American and Japanese scientists have studied water-mass
movement rates, using the fallout radionuclides strontium-90
and cesium-137 themselves as tracer elements. These
nuclides produced in the test have been detected at depths
down to 7000 meters in the far northwestern Pacific in
the vicinity of Japan.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig18"> <ANTIMG src="images/p13.jpg" alt="" width-obs="600" height-obs="660" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Autoradiograph of a plankton sample collected from a Pacific lagoon a week after a 1952 nuclear
test, showing concentration of radioisotopes
(bright areas).</i></p>
</div>
<p>If this results from simple eddy diffusion, as some
scientists believe, it is a case of diffusion at a very high
rate. Other scientists suggest that other factors may have
contributed to the vertical transport of the radionuclides
to these depths. Still others believe that the strontium-90
and cesium-137 might not have originated with the U. S.
Pacific tests at all, but rather with Russian tests in the
Arctic taking place at about the same time. They propose
the theory that a syphoning effect in the Bering Strait
causes a current to flow out of the Arctic Ocean and down
under the surface waters of the western Pacific. In support
of this, Japanese researchers cite a dissolved oxygen content
where these measurements were made that is different
from that of other deep water in the area. If this theory
should be proved correct, it would be the first indication
that such a current exists.</p>
<p>Similar investigations have been conducted of the variations
in depth of strontium-90 concentration in the Atlantic
Ocean. In February 1962, when fallout from 1961 nuclear
tests was high, tests south of Greenland showed that mixing
of fallout was fairly rapid through the top 800 meters of
water. At greater depths a colder, saltier layer of water
<span class="pb" id="Page_25">25</span>
contained only about half as much strontium-90, confirming
other evidence that interchange between water masses
of different physical and chemical properties is comparatively
low.</p>
<p>Work such as this has emphasized the difficulty in
making meaningful measurements of man-made radiation
in the ocean. One problem is to separate the artificially
produced radiation from the natural radiation, namely that
from potassium-40 (which accounts for 97% of oceanic
radiation) and from the radionuclides, such as tritium,
carbon-14, beryllium-7, beryllium-10, aluminum-26, and
silicon-32, created in the stratosphere naturally by cosmic-ray
bombardment.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig19"> <ANTIMG src="images/p13a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="1200" height-obs="773" /> <p class="pcap"><i>In 1955 a scientific team aboard the U. S. Coast Guard vessel</i> Roger B. Taney <i>conducted a survey of ocean fallout in the western Pacific. They collected marine organisms and water samples at
various depths on their 17,500-mile, 7-week journey.</i></p>
</div>
<p>Another problem is the sheer physical size of the water
sample required to get any measurements at all. Up to now
there has been no truly effective radiation counter that can
be lowered over the side of a ship to the desired depth. It is
<span class="pb" id="Page_26">26</span>
often necessary to collect a sample of many gallons at
great depths and return it to the surface without its being
mixed by any of the intervening water. This is difficult at
best, and only rather primitive methods have been developed.
None is more than partly satisfactory. A standard
system is to lower a large, collapsed polyethylene bag to
the desired depth, open it, fill it, and close it again, all by
remote control, and then gingerly and hopefully return it
to the surface. Results do not always agree among samples
taken at the same location by different methods or by different
scientists. There is still no universal agreement
among scientists as to the quantitative validity of any of
the measurements, although as more and better data are
gathered there tends to be a greater concurrence.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig20"> <ANTIMG src="images/p14.jpg" alt="" width-obs="656" height-obs="1000" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Fifty-gallon sampler ready to be lowered over the side of the research vessel</i> Atlantis II <i>in the North Atlantic. Such
devices are used to obtain samples at
fixed intervals from the sea surface to
the bottom. The water is analyzed for
radioisotope content.</i></p>
</div>
<p>Recently, under an AEC contract, a detector for direct
measurements of gamma radiation<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_9" href="#fn_9">[9]</SPAN> in the deep ocean was
developed for the Institute of Marine Sciences, University
<span class="pb" id="Page_27">27</span>
of Miami, by the Franklin GNO Corp. (See figure above.)
This unit incorporates two of the largest plastic scintillation
counters<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_10" href="#fn_10">[10]</SPAN> ever used in the ocean—each is 16 inches in
diameter by 12 inches thick. This apparatus may permit
direct qualitative and quantitative measurement of radiation
at great depths by techniques that will be eminently more
satisfactory than water sampling. Already tests with the
detector have disclosed the existence of cosmic-ray effects
at much greater depths than heretofore known.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig21"> <ANTIMG src="images/p14a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="296" height-obs="1000" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Scintillation counter for use in the deep ocean.</i></p> </div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig22"> <ANTIMG src="images/p14b.jpg" alt="" width-obs="525" height-obs="800" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Constituent parts. The plastic discs are the radiation detectors.</i></p> </div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_28">28</div>
<p>Biologists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
in Massachusetts for the first time have been able to
measure the rate of excretion of physiologically important
fallout radionuclides by several species of zooplankton—<i>pteropods</i>,
<i>pyrasomes</i>, <i>copepods</i>, and <i>euphausids</i>. Radioactive
zinc and iodine, it was learned, are excreted as soluble
ions, while iron and manganese appear as solid particles.
However, the extent to which the intake and excretion of
radionuclides and the vertical migration of zooplankton contribute
quantitatively to the transport of radioactivity across
the thermocline (and into the ocean deeps) still can only be
guessed.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig23"> <ANTIMG src="images/p15.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="984" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Zooplankton, mostly copepods, collected with automatic underwater sampling equipment on board the nuclear
submarine</i> Seadragon <i>while
cruising under the Arctic ice</i>.</p>
</div>
<p>Other plankton research at Woods Hole uses radioactive
carbon-14 and phosphorus-32 as tracers to evaluate rates
of growth and nutrient assimilation by algae (floating green
plants). These investigations have revealed that the presence
or absence of minute quantities of nutrient minerals in
seawater affects the rate at which the algae produce
oxygen by the process of photosynthesis. Since the energy
of all living things—including man—is also made available
by photosynthesis, and since most of the photosynthesis
on earth is performed by algae afloat in the oceans, it is
<span class="pb" id="Page_29">29</span>
apparent that this research is of more than academic
interest. Algae, the original energy-fixers of the “meadows
of the sea”, are also the original food source for the
billions of aquatic animals, and may some day prove a
source of food for a mushrooming human population.</p>
<p>In a project with more immediate application, extensive
biological and environmental studies of the Eniwetok Atoll
area in the Pacific were conducted prior to the first nuclear
testing there in 1948, and these studies have continued
ever since. Early in the test series the Japanese,
who were at first concerned with the possible contamination
of their traditional marine food supplies, were invited
to participate in these studies. Fisheries radiological
monitoring installations were established in Japan and the
U. S. (The latter was established by the AEC and administered
by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration.) Neither
station encountered any radiological contamination of tuna
or other food fish, and the American unit has now been
closed.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig24"> <ANTIMG src="images/p15a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="667" height-obs="800" /> <p class="pcap"><i>This shell of the giant clam</i> Tridacna gigas <i>shows the position of a layer of strontium-90 absorbed in 1958 (black
line) and in 1956 (white line). The inside
of the shell (light layers) was deposited
in 1964 when the clam was
collected at Bikini Atoll by scientists
from the University of Washington,
Seattle.</i></p>
</div>
<p>Groups that have cooperated with the AEC in marine
radiobiological research are the University of Hawaii,
University of Connecticut, Virginia Fisheries Laboratory,
<span class="pb" id="Page_30">30</span>
University of Washington, U. S. Office of Naval Research,
and U. S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries.</p>
<p>At the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Radiobiological
Laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina, a cooperative effort
of the AEC and the BCF is concerned with learning the
effects of radioactive wastes on one of America’s most
valuable marine resources—the tidal marshlands and
estuaries that are essential to the continued well-being
of some of our important commercial fisheries.</p>
<table class="center">
<tr class="th"><th colspan="2">Table III RADIOISOTOPES THAT MIGHT BE FOUND IN AN ESTUARINE ENVIRONMENT</th></tr>
<tr class="th"><th>Isotope </th><th>Half-life</th></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Iodine-131 </td><td class="l">8.05 days</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Barium-140—Lanthanum-140 </td><td class="l">12.8 days—40 hours</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Cesium-141 </td><td class="l">32.5 days</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Ruthenium-103—Rhodium-103 </td><td class="l">10 days—57 minutes</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Zirconium-95—Niobium-95 </td><td class="l">65 Days—35 days,</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Zinc-65 </td><td class="l">245 days</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Cerium-144 </td><td class="l">285 days</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Manganese-54 </td><td class="l">314 days</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Ruthenium-106—Rhodium-106 </td><td class="l">1 year—30 seconds</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Cesium-137 </td><td class="l">30 years</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l">Potassium-40 </td><td class="l">1.3 × 10⁹ years</td></tr>
</table>
<blockquote>
<p>(Reprinted from <i>Radiobiological Laboratory Annual Report</i>,
April, 1, 1964, page 50.)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The project has determined that radionuclides are removed
from waters in an estuarine environment by several
physical, chemical, and biological means. For example,
radionuclides are absorbed in river-bed sediments at a
rate varying directly with sediment particle size. Mollusks,
such as clams, marsh mussels, oysters, and scallops, not
only assimilate radionuclides selectively, but do so in
sufficient quantity and with sufficient reliability to be useful
as indicators of the quantity of the isotopes present. Clams
and mussels are indicators for cerium-144 and ruthenium-106,
scallops for manganese-54, and oysters for zinc-65
(most of which winds up in the oyster’s edible portions). It
was learned that scallops assimilate more radioactivity
than any other mollusk. Of the total radioactivity, manganese-54
accounts for 60%: The scallop’s kidney contains
<span class="pb" id="Page_31">31</span>
100 times as much manganese-54 as any of the other
tissues and 300 times as much as the muscle, the only
part of the scallop usually eaten in this country.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig25"> <ANTIMG src="images/p16.jpg" alt="" width-obs="782" height-obs="800" /> <p class="pcap"><i>On the left are mussels collected near the Columbia River in an environment containing abnormal amounts of zinc-65.</i></p> </div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig26"> <ANTIMG src="images/p16a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="615" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Mussels suspended in seawater in research to determine how fast they lose their zinc-65 radioactivity.</i> (<i>Photograph taken at low tide.</i>)</p>
</div>
<p>In a surprising unintended result, it was determined that
one acre of oyster beds, comprising 300,000 individual
oysters, may filter out the radionuclides from approximately
10,000 cubic meters (18 cubic miles) of water per week!</p>
<p>The Radiological Laboratory scientists also have found
that plankton are high concentrators of both chromium-51
and zinc-65, and that zinc apparently is an essential
nutrient for all marine organisms. Some plants and animals
appear to reach a peak of radionuclide accumulation
quickly, which then tapers off even though the radiation
concentration in the water is unchanged.</p>
<p>While the AEC’s oceanographic research budgets have not
been large, they have contributed materially to knowledge
of the oceanic environment. AEC-sponsored research at
Scripps Institution of Oceanography has determined by a
process known as neutron activation analysis<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_11" href="#fn_11">[11]</SPAN> that the
concentration of rare earth elements in Pacific Ocean
<span class="pb" id="Page_32">32</span>
waters appears to be only about one hundredth of the level
previously reported. By analysis of naturally occurring
radioisotopes, they have also discovered that it takes
from one million to 100 million years for lithium, potassium,
barium, strontium, and similar elements introduced
into the ocean from rivers to be deposited in the bottom
sediments. Aluminum, iron, and titanium are deposited
in from 100 to 1000 years. They have also found that
sedimentation occurs in the South Pacific at a rate of
from 0.3 to 0.6 millimeter per thousand years, in the
North Pacific at a rate several times that figure, and in
the basins on either side of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at a
rate of several millimeters per thousand years.</p>
<p>The University of Miami has successfully developed two
methods for determining the ages of successive layers of
deep ocean sediments based on the relative abundances
of natural radioelements, and thereby has established a
chronology of climatic changes during the last 200,000
years during which the sediments were laid down.</p>
<p>The U. S. is not alone in its use of nuclear energy as a
tool of science. The United Kingdom has carried out
radiological studies of the marine environment for many
years, particularly concentrating on the effects of radionuclides
from nuclear power plants on the sea immediately
contiguous to the British Isles. Both the European Atomic
Energy Community and the International Atomic Energy
Agency also encouraged marine radiological studies. Many
laboratories and government agencies in Europe, North and
South America, Africa, and the Middle East and Far East
have well-established and productive programs under way.</p>
<p>Scientists in many parts of the world have used both
natural and intentionally injected radiation to study the
coastwise movement of beach materials. British experimenters,
for example, activate sand with scandium-46 and
are thus able to follow its movement for up to four months.
Pebbles (shingle) coated with barium-140 and lanthanum-140
are also used as tracers and are good for 6 weeks. Scientists
at the University of California trace naturally occurring
radioisotopes of thorium, which may be introduced
from deposits of thorium sands along river banks. These
studies are of immediate practical importance, for each
<span class="pb" id="Page_33">33</span>
year the ocean moves billions of cubic yards of sand,
gravel, shingle, and rock to and from beaches and along
shores. This action destroys recreational beaches, fills
channels, blocks off harbors, and in general rearranges
the terrain, often at considerable cost and inconvenience
to mariners and other people who use the coast.</p>
<p>In another use of radioisotopes in marine research,
studies at the AEC’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in
Tennessee have revealed radioactivity in the scales of
fish taken from waters affected by the laboratory’s radioactive
waste effluent. It was suggested that this phenomenon
might be put to use as a tagging technique in fish-migration
studies, and scientists are now working on a method using
cesium-134 introduced into the fishes’ natural diet.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig27"> <ANTIMG src="images/p17.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="848" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Isaacs-Kidd midwater trawl collects samples of oceanic animals off the Oregon Coast. These
animals are then radioanalyzed
to compare the quantity of radioisotopes
associated with animals
from various depths. The
recorder at the trawl mouth
indicates the volume of water
filtered.</i></p>
</div>
<p>Some of the most extensive studies of a marine environment
ever conducted are those by the AEC, the Bureau of
Commercial Fisheries, and the University of Washington
in the Columbia River system and the nearby Pacific Ocean.
Operations at the AEC’s giant Hanford facilities some 300
miles upstream from the ocean result in the release of
small amounts of radioactivity to the river and also in
raising the river-water temperature. This downstream
research is to determine any effects of these changes,
<span class="pb" id="Page_34">34</span>
including any that might be detrimental to man. The research
encompasses studies of the variations and distributions
of the freshwater “plume”—the outflow from the
rivermouth—extending into the nearby Pacific, sediment
analyses, studies of the population dynamics of phytoplankton,
and the transport of radionuclides through the food chain.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig28"> <ANTIMG src="images/p18.jpg" alt="" width-obs="691" height-obs="999" /> <p class="pcap"><i>This core sampler is used to obtain stream bed samples up to 5 feet long in the Columbia River. The samples
are then analyzed for radioisotope content.</i></p>
</div>
<p>As so often happens with basic programs, this research
has produced immediate benefits. New resources of marketable
oceanic fish were discovered by the scientists at
depths never before fished commercially (from the edge of
the continental shelf to depths of 500 fathoms and greater).
Similarly, commercial quantities of one species of crab
have been discovered in the deeper ocean. Other findings
indicate that crab populations may have seasonal up-and-down
migrations that vary according to sex. It appears, in
fact, that, except while mating and as juveniles, the male
and female crab populations lead separate lives. This
information is important both for more efficient fisheries
and for improved conservation of the crab as a food
resource.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_35">35</div>
<p>The AEC is, in short, concerned with virtually every
facet of basic oceanography, and with study of the sea as a
whole, for radionuclides, like their nonradioactive counterparts,
can and do become involved in every phase of the
vast and complex ocean ecology. In the process of pursuing
its research interests, it also provides oceanographers
with a whole new family of tools for study. Let us now see
how atomic instruments contribute to the growing knowledge
of the sea.</p>
<h3 id="c11">Oceanographic Instruments</h3>
<div class="fig"> id="fig29"> <ANTIMG src="images/p18a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="574" height-obs="1001" /> <p class="pcap"><i>This radioisotope powered swimsuit heater uses plutonium-238 to produce 420
watts of heat. Water, heated
by the decay of ²³⁸Pu, is
pumped through plastic
veins partially visible in
the undergarment. The cylinder
under the diver’s
arm contains 4 capsules of
²³⁸Pu, and a battery-pump
assembly is contained in
the box at his feet. After
preliminary tests at the
Naval Medical Research
Institute in Bethesda,
Maryland, the unit will be
used in Sealab III, the Navy’s
underwater research
laboratory. The heater was
developed by the AEC Division
of Isotopes Development.</i></p>
</div>
<p>The ocean is both a complex and a harsh environment and
its study has always demanded that designers of seaworthy
instruments and sampling devices be both ingenious and
experienced in shipboard requirements. Until recently,
<span class="pb" id="Page_36">36</span>
these devices tended to be rugged and simple, if not indeed
crude. More refined, electronic instrumentation has begun
to appear in recent years, but most designs still fail to
pass the test of use at sea. Even among those that do pass,
there is persistent difficulty in separating desired information-carrying
signals from background and system-induced
“noise”. This has been a specific problem with current
meters designed to be moored in the open ocean and also
with one quite sophisticated gamma-ray detector.</p>
<p>To meet the clear need for improved devices, as well as
to support its own research and increase utilization of
nuclear materials and techniques, the AEC Division of
Isotopes Development encourages the development of oceanographic
instrumentation. This comparatively young technology
already has produced exciting results. The future
may be even more revealing as nuclear energy is applied
more and more to the study, exploration, and exploitation
of the ocean.</p>
<p>Instruments that have been developed under the AEC
program include a current meter, a dissolved-oxygen-content
analyzer, and a sediment-density meter. A new,
fast method for determining the mineral content of geological
samples also has been perfected.</p>
<p class="tb">The <span class="ss">DEEP WATER ISOTOPIC CURRENT ANALYZER</span> (DWICA)
was developed under a contract with William H. Johnson
Laboratories, Inc. It relies on radioisotope drift time over
a fixed course to measure seawater flow rates ranging
from 0.002 to 10.0 knots. The device embodies 12 radiation
sensors spaced equally in a circle around a radioisotope-injection
nozzle. Current direction can be determined to
within 15 degrees. The mass of tracer isotope injected is
very small—less than 10 picograms<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_12" href="#fn_12">[12]</SPAN> per injection—and
the instrument can store enough tracer material to operate
for a year. The tracer can be injected automatically
at intervals from 2 to 20 minutes, depending on the current.
The device sits on the sea floor, where its orientation to
magnetic north can be determined within 2.5 degrees.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_37">37</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig30"> <ANTIMG src="images/p19.jpg" alt="" width-obs="941" height-obs="1000" /> <p class="pcap"><i>The Deep Water Isotopic Current Analyzer.</i></p> </div>
<dl class="undent pcap"><br/>Isotope Reservoir and equipressure system
<br/>Electric logic circuitry
<br/>Pressure protective case
<br/>Compass
<br/>Sensor ring
<br/>Flow baffle plate
<br/>Isotope injection point
<div class="fig">> <ANTIMG src="images/p19a.jpg" id="ncfig2" alt="The Deep Water Isotopic Current Analyzer." width-obs="1000" height-obs="718" /></div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_38">38</div>
<p class="tb">A <span class="ss">SEDIMENT DENSITY PROBE</span>, developed under an AEC
contract by Lane-Wells Company, employs gamma-ray
absorption and backscatter properties<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_13" href="#fn_13">[13]</SPAN> to determine the
density of the sediments at the bottom of lakes, rivers, or
the ocean, without the necessity of returning a sediment
sample to the surface. It is expected that it can be modified
to sense the water content of the sediments. These determinations
are valuable not only for research, but also for
activity that requires structures on the ocean floor, such
as petroleum exploration and naval operations.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig31"> <ANTIMG src="images/p20.jpg" alt="" width-obs="676" height-obs="1000" /> <p class="pcap"><i>The Sediment Density Probe. The drawing shows the complete probe.</i></p> </div>
<p>The unit consists of a rocket-like tube 26 feet long and
about 4 inches in diameter, containing a gamma-ray-emitting
cesium-137 source, a lead shield, and a radiation
detector. The device is lowered over the side of a ship and
<span class="pb" id="Page_39">39</span>
allowed to penetrate the sediment. Once in place, the gamma
ray source, shield, and detector move together up and down,
inside the probe, for a distance of 11 feet, stopping every 24
inches for 4 minutes to take a measurement. Gamma rays
are absorbed in any material through which they pass, according
to its density. A low radiation count at the detector
indicates a high-density sediment: More radiation is absorbed
and less is reflected back to the detector. Conversely,
a high count indicates low density. Data are
recorded on special cold-resistant film. A number of different
sediment measurements can be made in several locations
before the unit must be returned to the surface.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig32"> <ANTIMG src="images/p20a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="1000" height-obs="729" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Oxygen analyzer equipment includes the deep-sea probe (large device, center, including a special Geiger counter, the electronic assembly, a pump, and power supplies), cable for transmission of
Geiger counter signals (back), and portable scaler (left).</i></p>
</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig33"> <ANTIMG src="images/p20b.jpg" alt="" width-obs="387" height-obs="400" /> <p class="pcap"><i>The latter is also shown aboard a research vessel (inset) during tests made at sea.</i></p>
</div>
<p class="tb"><span class="ss">OXYGEN ANALYZER</span> The amount of dissolved oxygen in
any part of the ocean is a basic quantity that must be
determined before some kinds of research can be undertaken.
For example, oxygen concentration is important in
determining the life-support capability of seawater and in
<span class="pb" id="Page_40">40</span>
measuring deep-water mixing. In the past this measurement
has had to be determined by laborious chemical methods
that may subject the water sample to contamination by
exposure to atmospheric oxygen. Under an AEC contract,
the Research Triangle Institute has developed a dissolved
oxygen analyzer that relies on the quantitative oxidation
by dissolved oxygen of thallium metal containing a known
ratio of radioactive thallium-204.</p>
<p>The seawater sample passes through a column lined
with thallium. The thallium is oxydized and goes into
solution. It then passes between two facing pancake-shaped
radiation counters that record the level of beta radiation
from the thallium-204. Since the rate of oxidation, and
therefore the rate of release of the thallium to solution, is
proportional to the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water,
it is simple to calibrate the device to show oxygen content.
The system is sensitive enough to detect one part of oxygen
in 10 billion of water. And, the device can be towed and
take readings at depths of up to one mile, an added advantage
that obviates the chances of surface-air contamination.</p>
<p class="tb"><span class="ss">NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS</span> Nuclear energy is contributing
to the more accurate and more rapid analysis of
minerals in the sea in at least two different ways. The first
employs neutron activation analysis, which we have already
mentioned. This method is valuable not only in analyzing
sediments cored from the ocean floor, but also in the
detection and quantitative analysis of trace elements in the
water. Knowledge of the role of all natural constituents in
the ocean is essential to an understanding of the complex
interrelationships of the ocean environment, as we have
seen. Identification of trace elements also is a necessary
preliminary to determining the effects of purposely introduced
radionuclides. Collection of the minute quantities
of trace elements is very difficult at best. Once they
have been collected and concentrated, neutron activation
analysis provides a means for their identification and
measurement.</p>
<p class="tb"><span class="ss">X-RAY FLUORESCENCE</span> is another technique, used to identify
the mineral content of ore or sediment. This system
<span class="pb" id="Page_41">41</span>
was developed (for the purpose of spotting gold being
smuggled through Customs) by Tracerlab Division of
Laboratory for Electronics, Inc. (LFE), under an AEC
contract. Similar equipment was developed simultaneously
in England for use by prospectors, geologists and mining
engineers. It now may be used at sea in analyzing samples
from the sea floor. As is often the case with isotope-based
devices, its operation is really quite simple. When excited
by radiation from an isotope (or any other radiation
source), each element produces its own unique pattern of
X-ray fluorescence, that is, it radiates characteristic
X rays. By varying filters and measuring the count rate,
oceanographers can detect and measure materials, such
as tin, copper, lead, and zinc. The British unit is completely
transistorized, battery powered, and weighs only
16.5 pounds.</p>
<p class="tb"><span class="ss">RHODAMINE-B DYE</span> The AEC also has improved oceanographic
research in ways that do not involve the use of
nuclear energy. Some years ago under the joint sponsorship
of the AEC Division of Reactor Development and Technology
and the Division of Biology and Medicine, the Waterlift
Division of Cleveland Pneumatic Tool Company developed
instrumentation and techniques for detecting the presence of
the red dye, rhodamine-B, in concentrations as low as one-tenth
part per billion. This method is now widely used both
for groundwater studies and in the study of currents, diffusion,
and pollution in rivers, lakes, and the ocean. In many
cases, rhodamine-B is a better tracer in water than
radioisotopes, due to the greater ease with which it is
detected.</p>
<h3 id="c12">Environmental Safety Studies</h3>
<p>The AEC Division of Reactor Development and Technology
has supported extensive environmental studies to
assess the safety of isotopic power sources (to be discussed
later) in oceanic environments. One of the most
important of these is being conducted by the Naval Radiological
Defense Laboratory at an ocean environmental testing
complex near San Clemente Island off the coast of California,
which includes a shore installation and a floating
<span class="pb" id="Page_42">42</span>
ocean platform. These studies are to determine seawater
corrosion of containment alloys and fuel solubility in
seawater; the dispersion of the fuel in the ocean; the effect
of the radioactive material on marine life; and the radiation
hazard to man, when all significant exposure pathways are
considered.</p>
<p>In another study the Chesapeake Bay Institute of Johns
Hopkins University investigated potential hazards that
might result if radioactive materials were released off the
Atlantic Coast. Five areas along the Continental Shelf were
examined in detail for environmental factors such as
vertical diffusion. The same Institute made environmental
and physical dispersion studies off Cape Kennedy, Florida,
to predict the fate of any radioactive materials that might
be released in aborted launchings of nuclear rockets or nuclear
auxiliary power devices for space uses. Fluorescent
dye was released into offshore, surf zone, and inshore locations;
the diffusion was observed, sampled, and compared
with existing diffusion theory. Mathematical models have
been developed that can now be used to predict the rate and
extent of diffusion in the Cape Kennedy area in the event of
any radioactivity release from aborted test flights.</p>
<p>Similar studies have been carried out near the space
launching site at Point Arguello, California, by the Scripps
Institution of Oceanography. These included collection of
data on dispersion, marine sediments, and the biological
uptake of radioactive plutonium, polonium, cesium, and
strontium.</p>
<h3 id="c13">The Atom at Work in the Sea</h3>
<p><span class="ss small">NUCLEAR REACTOR PROPULSION</span></p>
<p>The transformation in undersea warfare tactics and
national defense strategy effected by the introduction of
nuclear-powered submarines is now well known. Navy
submarines employing the latest reactors and fuel elements
can stay at sea for more than 3 years without refueling.
<i>Polaris</i> submarines on patrol remain submerged for 60 to
70 days. The nuclear submarine <i>Triton</i>, tracing Magellan’s
route of 400 years earlier, traveled 36,000 miles under
water, moving around the world in 83 days and 10 hours.
<span class="pb" id="Page_43">43</span>
Under-ice transits of the Arctic Ocean by nuclear submarines
are now commonplace. These feats all are possible
because of the nuclear reactors and propulsion
systems developed by the AEC Division of Naval Reactors,
which also developed the propulsion plants for the Navy’s
nuclear surface vessels.<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_14" href="#fn_14">[14]</SPAN></p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig34"> <ANTIMG src="images/p21.jpg" alt="" width-obs="1000" height-obs="753" /> <p class="pcap"><i>USS</i> Seadragon <i>and</i> Skate <i>sit nose to nose on top of the world after under-ice voyages from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to the North Pole.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig35"> <ANTIMG src="images/p21a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="500" height-obs="483" /> <p class="pcap"><i>A frogman from the Seadragon swims under the Arctic ice in one of the first photographs made beneath the North Pole.</i></p>
</div>
<p class="tb"><span class="ss">DEEP SUBMERGENCE RESEARCH VEHICLE</span> On April 18,
1965, President Johnson announced that the Atomic Energy
Commission and Department of the Navy were undertaking
development of a nuclear-powered deep submergence research
and engineering vehicle. This manned vehicle,
designated the NR-1, will have vastly greater endurance
than any other yet developed or planned, because of its
<span class="pb" id="Page_44">44</span>
nuclear power. Its development will provide the basis for
future nuclear-powered oceanographic research vehicles
of even greater versatility and depth capability.</p>
<p>The NR-1 will be able to move at maximum speed for
periods of time limited only by the amount of food and
supplies it carries. With a crew of five and two scientists,
the vehicle will be able to make detailed studies of the
ocean bottom, temperature, currents, and other phenomena
for military, commercial, and scientific uses. The nuclear
propulsion plant will give it great independence from surface
support ships and essentially unlimited endurance for exploration.</p>
<p>The submarine will have viewing ports for visual observation
of its surroundings and of the ocean bottom. A remote
grapple will permit collection of marine samples and other
objects. The NR-1 is expected to be capable of exploring
areas of the Continental Shelf, which appears to contain
the most accessible wealth in mineral and food resources
in the seas. Exploratory charting of this kind may help
the United States in establishing sovereignty over parts
of the Continental Shelf; a ship with its depth capability
can explore an ocean-bottom area several times larger
than the United States.</p>
<p>The reactor plant for the vehicle is being designed
by the General Electric Company’s Knolls Atomic Power
Laboratory, Schenectady, New York. The remainder of
the propulsion plant is being designed by the Electric
Boat Division, General Dynamics Corporation, Groton,
Connecticut.</p>
<p>Scientists are already beginning to implant small sea
floor laboratories. In the future, when large permanent
undersea installations for scientific investigation, mining,
or fish farming become a reality, nuclear reactors like the
one designed for research submersibles or the one already
in use in Antarctica and other remote locations<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_15" href="#fn_15">[15]</SPAN> will serve
as their power plants.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_45">45</div>
<p><span class="ss small">ISOTOPIC POWER SOURCES</span></p>
<p>The ocean is a logistically remote environment, in the
sense that conventional combustible fuels can’t be used
underwater unless supplied with their own sources of
oxygen. It is usually extremely costly to take anything
heavy or bulky into the deep ocean. Even if the two essential
components of combustion—fuel and oxygen—could
be delivered economically to an undersea base or craft,
the extreme back pressure of the depths would present
serious exhaust problems. Yet deep beneath the sea is just
where we now propose to do large amounts of work requiring
huge supplies of reliable energy. The lack of reliable
and extended duration power sources is perhaps one of the
most critical requirements for expansion of underwater
and marine technology. For example, the pressing need for
measurements of atmospheric and oceanic data to support
scientific, commercial, and military operations will in the
future require literally hundreds of oceanographic and
meteorological buoys deployed throughout the world to take
simultaneous measurements and time-series observations
at specific sites.</p>
<p>Some of these buoys will support and monitor up to 100
sensors each. These devices record a variety of physical,
chemical, and radiological phenomena above, at, or below
the surface. Periodically the sensor data will be converted
to digital form and stored on magnetic tape for later
retrieval by distant shore-based or shipboard radio command,
by satellite command (for retransmittal to ground
stations), or by physical recovery of the tapes. Individually,
each buoy will not require a great deal of energy to operate,
but will have to operate reliably over long periods of time.
Conventional power sources are being used for the prototype
buoys now under development and testing, but these robot
ocean platforms in the future will make excellent use of
nuclear energy supplied by isotopic power sources.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_46">46</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig36"> <ANTIMG src="images/p22.jpg" alt="" width-obs="1000" height-obs="1008" /> <p class="pcap"><i>The world’s first nuclear-powered weather buoy located in the center of the Gulf of
Mexico. This weather station, part
of the U. S. Navy’s NOMAD system,
is on a barge 10 feet × 20 feet, and
is anchored in 12,000 feet of water.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="fig">> <ANTIMG src="images/p22a.jpg" id="ncfig3" alt="diagram" width-obs="1000" height-obs="821" /></div>
<dl class="undent pcap"><br/>RADIO ANTENNA
<br/>WEATHER SENSORS
<br/>WARNING BEACON
<br/>NUCLEAR GENERATOR
<div class="pb" id="Page_47">47</div>
<p>The SNAP-7D isotope power generator has been operating
unattended since January 1964 on a deep-ocean moored
buoy in the Gulf of Mexico. This U. S. Navy NOMAD (Navy
Oceanographic and Meteorological Automatic Device) buoy
is powered by a 60-watt, strontium-90 radioisotope source,
which was developed by the AEC Division of Reactor Development
and Technology. This weather station transmits
data for 2 minutes and 20 seconds every 3 hours. This data
includes air temperature, barometric pressure, and wind
velocity and direction. Storm detectors trigger special
hourly transmissions during severe weather conditions.
The generator operates continuously and charges storage
batteries between transmissions. Some power is used to
light a navigation beacon to alert passing ships.</p>
<p>Energy from the heat of radioisotope decay has been
used on a “proof-of-principle” basis in several other
instances involving ocean or marine technology.</p>
<p>An experimental ⁹⁰Sr isotope-powered acoustic navigation
beacon (SNAP-7E) now rests on the sea floor in 15,000
feet of water near Bermuda. Devices such as these not only
will enable nearby surface research or salvage vessels to
locate their positions precisely (something very difficult to
do at sea) and to return to the same spot, but the beacons
also will aid submarine navigation (see <SPAN href="#Page_48">page 48</SPAN>).</p>
<p>A U. S. Coast Guard lighthouse located in Chesapeake
Bay has been powered by a 60-watt, ⁹⁰Sr power source,
SNAP-7B, for 2 years without maintenance or service.
This unit was subsequently relocated for use in another
application (described below).</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig37"> <ANTIMG src="images/p22b.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="962" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Engineers prepare to install the SNAP-7D generator.</i></p> </div>
<p>The first commercial use of one of these “atomic batteries”
began in 1965 when the SNAP-7B 60-watt generator
went into operation on an unmanned Phillips Petroleum
Company offshore oil platform, 40 miles southeast of
Cameron, Louisiana. The generator operates flashing navigational
lights and, in bad weather, an electronic foghorn
(see <SPAN href="#Page_49">page 49</SPAN>). This unit will be tested for 2 years to determine
the economic feasibility of routinely using isotopic
power devices on a commercial basis.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_48">48</div>
<div class="fig">> <ANTIMG src="images/p23.jpg" id="ncfig4" alt="Acoustic pulses." width-obs="651" height-obs="800" /></div>
<dl class="undent pcap"><br/>Buoyancy tank
<br/>Sound amplifier
<br/>Nuclear-powered sound source
<br/>Ocean bottom
<div class="fig"> id="fig38"> <ANTIMG src="images/p23a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="705" height-obs="799" /> <p class="pcap"><i>The SNAP-7E isotopic generator powers an undersea acoustic beacon, which produces an acoustic
pulse once every 60 seconds.
In addition to being a navigation
aid, the beacon is used to study
the effects of a deep-ocean environment
on the transmission of
sound over long distances.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="fig">> <ANTIMG src="images/p23b.jpg" id="ncfig5" alt="Diagram." width-obs="1000" height-obs="925" /></div>
<dl class="undent pcap"><br/>Total height: 10 ft 2 in
<br/>Armored cable
<br/>Pressure vessel
<br/>Capacitor bank
<br/>Fuel capsules
<br/>Biological shield
<br/>Equipment package
<br/>Voltage converter
<br/>Depleted uranium
<br/>Thermoelectric generator
<br/>System support structure
<div class="pb" id="Page_49">49</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig39"> <ANTIMG src="images/p23c.jpg" alt="" width-obs="1000" height-obs="804" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Details of the Phillips Petroleum platform, which uses the SNAP-7B nuclear generator.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig40"> <ANTIMG src="images/p23f.jpg" alt="" width-obs="638" height-obs="800" /> <p class="pcap"><i>The final electrical connection is made from the nuclear generator to the
platform’s electronic foghorn and
two flashing light beacons.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="fig">> <ANTIMG src="images/p23h.jpg" id="ncfig6" alt="Diagram" width-obs="445" height-obs="800" /></div>
<dl class="undent pcap"><br/>Fog Horn
<br/>Beacon
<br/>Beacon
<br/>Snap-7B nuclear generator
<div class="pb" id="Page_50">50</div>
<p>The radioisotope-powered devices previously described
were developed by the AEC under the SNAP-7 Program.<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_16" href="#fn_16">[16]</SPAN>
The testing of these units has demonstrated the advisability
of developing reliable and unattended nuclear power sources
for use in remote environments without compromise to
nuclear safety standards. As a result of the success of
these tests, a variety of potential oceanographic applications
have been identified. A study, conducted by Aerojet-General
Corporation in conjunction with Global Marine
Exploration Company and Northwest Consultant Oceanographers,
Inc., described ocean applications including
underwater navigational aids, acoustic beacons, channel
markers, cable boosters, weather buoys, offshore oil well
controls along with innumerable oceanographic research
applications. This study was sponsored by the AEC Division
of Isotopes Development.</p>
<p>In order to satisfy the requirements for these and other
applications, the AEC has begun developing a series of
compact and highly reliable isotope power devices that are
designed to be economically competitive with alternative
power sources. Currently underway are two specific projects,
SNAP-21 and SNAP-23.</p>
<p>SNAP-21 is a two-phase project to develop a series of
compact strontium-90 power systems for deep-sea and
ocean-bottom uses (20,000-foot depths). The first phase of
design and component development on a basic 10-watt
system already has been completed, and a second phase
development and test effort now under way will extend
through 1970. A series of power sources in the 10- and
20-watt range will be available for general purpose deep-ocean
application.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_51">51</div>
<p>The SNAP-23 project involves the development of a
series of economically attractive strontium-90 power systems
for remote terrestrial uses. This project will result
in 25-watt, 60-watt, and 100-watt units capable of long-term
operation in surface buoys, offshore oil platforms,
weather stations, and microwave repeater stations.</p>
<p>In addition to the above, effort is underway by the AEC to
develop an isotope-fueled heater that will be used by
aquanauts in the Navy’s Sealab Program (see <SPAN href="#Page_12">page 12</SPAN>).
Future activities, now being planned, will involve the development
of large isotope power sources (1-10 electric
kilowatts) and small nuclear reactors (50-100 kilowatts)
for use in manned and unmanned deep-ocean platforms.</p>
<h3 id="c14">Ocean Engineering</h3>
<p>Considerable engineering experience has been derived
from the work of federal agencies in development of the
largest taut-moored instrumented buoy system ever deployed
in the deep ocean. Developed by Ocean Science 81
Engineering, Inc., it is useful in observation and prediction
of environmental changes.</p>
<p>The system embodies substantial advances in design.
It incorporates, among other features, an acoustically
commanded underwater winch for adjustment of the mooring
depth after the buoy is deployed, and for recovering
a 16,000-pound submerged data-recording instrument canister.
This buoy system can survive being moored in
up to 18,000-foot depths of the open ocean for upward of
30 days.</p>
<p>The very first deep-ocean, taut-moored buoy system was
developed for the government in 1954, and has since become
an important tool for oceanographers and others who seek
stable instrument platforms at sea. The buoys have the
advantage of minimizing horizontal movement due to currents,
winds, and waves.</p>
<p>The National Marine Consultants Division of Interstate
Electronics Corporation has developed for the government
a system for measuring the propagation of seismic sea
waves (tsunamis).</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_52">52</div>
<p>Work of these sorts contributes materially to reliable
ocean engineering. And the measurements made by these
sophisticated instruments contribute to our knowledge of
ocean fluid dynamics and wave mechanics.</p>
<p>Corrosion is a huge, ever-present problem plaguing
oceanographic engineers, ship designers, mariners, operators
of desalination plants, petroleum companies with
offshore facilities, and, in fact, everyone who places
structures in salt water to do useful work. While the basic
mechanisms of corrosion are known, there are many detailed
aspects that are not: For example, the precise role
of bacteriological slimes in causing corrosion on supposedly
protected structures. Radioisotope tracers now are
helping engineers follow the chemical, physical, and biological
actions in corrosion processes.</p>
<h3 id="c15">Fresh Water from Seawater</h3>
<p>In 1960 the chairman of the board of a large U. S. corporation
made a fundamental policy decision for his company:
Since the greatest critical need of man in the next
decade would be fresh water, his company would begin
working to produce large volumes of fresh water—including
the development of methods for desalting seawater.
His pioneering analysis proved to be prophetic.</p>
<p>Throughout the world, more people are using more
water for more purposes than ever before. Many areas of
the world, including some that are densely populated,
have been parched since the dawn of history. In others
where water was once abundant, not only are natural
sources being depleted faster than they are replaced, but
many rivers and lakes have been so polluted that they can
now scarcely be used.</p>
<p>The world’s greatest resource of water is the ocean,
but energy is required to remove the salt from it and make
it potable or even useful for agriculture and industry. The
energy produced by nuclear reactors is considered economical
in the large quantities that soon will be required.</p>
<p>The AEC and the Office of Saline Water of the Department
of the Interior, after a preliminary study, have
joined with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern
California and the electric utility firms serving the area,
<span class="pb" id="Page_53">53</span>
to begin construction of a very large nuclear-power desalting
plant on a man-made island off the California coast.
The plant, when completed in the 1970s, will have an initial
water capacity of 50 million gallons per day and also will
generate about 1,800,000 kilowatts of electricity. Additional
desalting capacity is planned for addition later to achieve a
total water capacity of 150 million gallons per day.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig41"> <ANTIMG src="images/p24.jpg" alt="" width-obs="1000" height-obs="409" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Plans to construct a nuclear desalting plant in California were announced in August 1966 by (from left) AEC Commissioner James T. Ramey, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall,
Mayor Samuel Yorty of Los Angeles, and Joseph Jensen, Board
Chairman of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.</i></p>
</div>
<p>Plans for other nuclear-powered desalting projects around
the world are being discussed by the United States government,
the International Atomic Energy Agency and the
governments of many other nations. Some of these also
may be in operation during the early 1970s.<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_17" href="#fn_17">[17]</SPAN></p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig42"> <ANTIMG src="images/p24a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="1200" height-obs="473" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Model of the nuclear power desalting plant to be built on the coast of Southern California.</i></p> </div>
<p>These projects followed extended detailed studies, including
one “milestone” investigation at the AEC’s Oak
Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, in which the
economic feasibility of using very large nuclear reactors
<span class="pb" id="Page_54">54</span>
coupled to very large desalting equipment to produce power
and water was determined.</p>
<p>The significance of these studies was recognized by
President Johnson in 1964, when he told the Third International
Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy:
“The time is coming when a single desalting plant powered
by nuclear energy will produce hundreds of millions of
gallons of fresh water—and large amounts of electricity—every
day.”</p>
<p>It is obvious that today realization of that goal is much
nearer.</p>
<p>The installation of new and larger desalting plants will
in itself require extensive additional oceanographic research.
By the nature of their operation these plants will
be discharging considerable volumes of heated water with
a salt content higher than that of the sea. Throughout the
ocean, but particularly in the estuaries, sea life is sensitive
to the concentration of ocean salts and temperature.
Studies of the effect of such discharges will be an essential
part of any large-scale desalination program.</p>
<h3 id="c16">Radiation Preservation of Seafood</h3>
<p>The use of nuclear radiation for the preservation of food
is a new process of particular importance for seafood. The
ocean constitutes the world’s largest source of animal
protein food. Yet the harvests of the sea can be stored
safely, even with refrigeration, for far shorter periods
than can most other foods. In many parts of the world,
this tendency to spoil makes fish products available only
to people who live near seacoasts.</p>
<p>Many types of seafood, however, when exposed to radiation
from radioisotopes or small accelerators, can be
stored under normal refrigeration for up to four weeks
without deterioration. The process does not alter the appearance
or taste of the seafood; it merely destroys
bacteria that cause spoilage. This fact holds promise not
only for the world’s protein-starved populations, but also
for the economic well-being of commercial fishermen,
whose markets would be much expanded.</p>
<p>In support of this program, the AEC has built and is
operating at Gloucester, Massachusetts, a prototype commercial
<span class="pb" id="Page_55">55</span>
seafood irradiator plant capable of processing
2000 pounds of seafood an hour. The radiation is supplied
by a cobalt-60 source. Private industry is cooperating
with the AEC in the evaluation of this facility.<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_18" href="#fn_18">[18]</SPAN></p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig43"> <ANTIMG src="images/p25.jpg" alt="" width-obs="1000" height-obs="730" /> <p class="pcap"><i>The first shipboard irradiator was on The</i> Delaware, <i>a research fishing vessel. Fish, preserved through irradiation soon after
they are caught, have a refrigerated storage
life two or three times longer than nonirradiated
fish.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="fig"> id="fig44"> <ANTIMG src="images/p25a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="392" height-obs="600" /> <p class="pcap"><i>The first shipboard irradiator.</i></p> </div>
<h3 id="c17">Project Plowshare</h3>
<p>Nuclear explosives are, among other things, large-scale,
low-cost excavation devices. In this respect, with the
proper pre-detonation study and engineering, they are
ideally suited for massive earth-moving and “geological
engineering” projects, including the construction of harbors
and canals. The western coasts of three continents, Australia,
Africa, and South America, are sparsely supplied with
good harbors. A number of studies have been undertaken
<span class="pb" id="Page_56">56</span>
as to the feasibility of using nuclear explosives for digging
deepwater harbors. Undoubtedly at some time in the future,
these projects will be carried out.</p>
<p>In addition, there are many places in the world where
the construction of a sea-level canal would provide shorter
and safer routes for ocean shipping, expedite trade and
commerce, or open up barren and unpopulated, but mineral-rich
lands to settlers and profitable development. The AEC
Division of Peaceful Nuclear Explosives operates a continuing
program to develop engineering skills for such
projects.<SPAN class="fn" id="fr_19" href="#fn_19">[19]</SPAN> Construction of a sea-level canal across the
Central American isthmus is one well-known proposal
for this “Plowshare” program.</p>
<p>The use of nuclear explosives in this manner may one
day change the very shape of the world ocean.</p>
<h3 id="c18">A New <i>Fram</i></h3>
<div class="fig"> id="fig45"> <ANTIMG src="images/p26.jpg" alt="" width-obs="419" height-obs="601" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Fridtjof Nansen</i></p> </div>
<p>Just about 70 years ago, the oceanographer and explorer,
Dr. Fridtjof Nansen completed his famous voyage aboard
the research vessel <i>Fram</i>, which
remained locked in the Arctic ice
pack for 3 years, drifting around
the top of the world while the men
aboard her studied the oceanography
of the polar sea. Now the
National Science Foundation has
taken the first steps toward building
a modern version of <i>Fram</i> for
Arctic studies. This time the vessel
will be an Arctic Drift Barge
containing the best equipment modern
technology can offer—including,
it is proposed, a central nuclear
power plant to guarantee
heat and power. Scheduled for completion sometime in the
1970s, this project represents yet another use of the atom
in the study of the ocean.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_57">57</div>
<h2 id="c19"><span class="small">THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL OCEAN</span></h2>
<p>The ocean is no longer an area of isolated scientific
interest, nor merely a turbulent two-dimensional surface
over which man conducts his commerce and occasionally
fights his wars.</p>
<p>In today’s world, the ocean has assumed its full third
dimension. Men and women are going down into it to study,
to play, to work, and, alas, sometimes to fight. As they
go, they are taking atomic energy with them. In many instances,
only the harnessed power in the nuclei of atoms
permits them to penetrate the depths of the mighty sea and
there attain their objectives.</p>
<div class="fig"> id="fig46"> <ANTIMG src="images/p26a.jpg" alt="" width-obs="800" height-obs="759" /> <p class="pcap"><i>Artist’s conception of one of three proposed designs for the National Science Foundation’s Arctic Drift Barge. All three designs incorporate a nuclear power source.</i></p>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_58">58</div>
<h2 id="c20"><span class="small">SUGGESTED REFERENCES</span></h2>
<h3 id="c21">Books</h3>
<p class="revint"><i>The Bountiful Sea</i>, Seabrook Hull, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood
Cliffs, New Jersey 07632, 1964, 340 pp., $6.95.</p>
<p class="revint"><i>This Great and Wide Sea</i>, R. E. Coker, Harper & Row, New York
10016, 1962, 235 pp., $2.25 (paperback).</p>
<p class="revint"><i>Exploring the Secrets of the Sea</i>, William J. Cromie, Prentice-Hall,
Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 07632, 1962, 300 pp., $5.95.</p>
<p class="revint"><i>The Sea Around Us</i>, Rachel L. Carson, Oxford University Press,
Inc., New York 10016, 1961, 237 pp., $5.00 (hardback); $0.60
(paperback) from the New American Library of World Literature,
Inc., New York 10022.</p>
<p class="revint"><i>The Ocean Adventure</i>, Gardner Soule, Appleton-Century, New York
10017, 1966, 278 pp., $5.95.</p>
<p class="revint"><i>Proving Ground: An Account of the Radiobiological Studies in the
Pacific, 1946-1961</i>, Neal O. Hines, University of Washington
Press, Seattle, Washington 98105, 1962, 366 pp., $6.75.</p>
<p class="revint"><i>The Effects of Atomic Radiation on Oceanography and Fisheries</i>
(Publication 551), National Academy of Sciences—National Research
Council, Washington, D. C. 20418, 1957, 137 pp., $2.00.</p>
<p class="revint"><i>Oceanography: A Study of Inner Space</i>, Warren E. Yasso, Holt
Rinehart and Winston, Inc., New York, 10017, 1965, 176 pp.,
$2.50 (hardback); $1.28 (paperback).</p>
<h3 id="c22">Booklets</h3>
<p class="revint"><i>Oceanography Information Sources</i> (Publication 1417), National
Academy of Sciences—National Research Council, Washington,
D. C. 20418, 1966, 38 pp., $1.50.</p>
<p class="revint"><i>A Reader’s Guide to Oceanography</i>, Jan Hahn, Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, August
1965 (revised periodically) 13 pp., free.</p>
<p class="tb">The following booklets are available from the Superintendent of
Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C.
20402:</p>
<p class="revint"><i>Undersea Vehicles for Oceanography</i> (Pamphlet No. 18), Inter-agency
Committee on Oceanography of the Federal Council for
Science and Technology, 1965, 81 pp., $0.65.</p>
<p class="revint"><i>Marine Sciences Research</i>, AEC Division of Biology and Medicine,
March 1966, 18 pp., $0.15.</p>
<h3 id="c23">Articles</h3>
<p class="revint">Tools for the Ocean Depths, <i>Fortune</i>, LXXII: 213 (August 1965).</p>
<p class="revint">Journey to Inner Space, <i>Time</i>, 86: 90 (September 17, 1965).</p>
<p class="revint">Working for Weeks on the Sea Floor, Jacques-Yves Cousteau,
<i>National Geographic</i>, 129: 498 (April 1966).</p>
<p class="revint"><i>Nucleonics</i>, 24 (June 1966). This special issue on the use of the
atom undersea contains the following articles of interest:</p>
<blockquote>
<p class="revint">Reactors: Key to Large Scale Underwater Operations, J. R. Wetch, 33.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_59">59</div>
<p class="revint">Undersea Role for Isotopic Power, K. E. Buck, 38.</p>
<p class="revint">Radioisotopes in Oceanographic Research, R. A. Pedrick and
G. B. Magin, Jr., 42.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3 id="c24">Motion Pictures</h3>
<p class="revint"><i>1000 Feet Deep for Science</i>, 27 minutes, color, 1965. Produced by
and available from Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Visual
Communications Department, 3 Gateway Center, Box 2278,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15230. This film describes the Westinghouse
Diving Saucer, which is a two-man laboratory used for
underwater research. This is the saucer that is used by Jacques-Yves
Cousteau and was featured in his motion picture <i>World
Without Sun</i>.</p>
<p class="tb">Available for loan without charge from the AEC Headquarters
Film Library, Division of Public Information, U. S. Atomic Energy
Commission, Washington, D. C. 20545 and from other AEC film
libraries.</p>
<p class="revint"><i>Bikini Radiological Laboratory</i>, 22 minutes, sound, color, 1949.
Produced by the University of Washington and the AEC. This
film explains studies of effects of radioactivity from the 1946
atomic tests at Bikini Atoll on plants and marine life in the
area 3 years later.</p>
<p class="revint"><i>Return to Bikini</i>, 50 minutes, sound, color, 1964. Produced by the
Laboratory of Radiation Biology at the University of Washington
for the AEC. This film records the ecological resurvey of
Bikini in 1964, 6 years after the last weapons test.</p>
<p class="revint"><i>Desalting the Seas</i>, 17 minutes, sound, color, 1967. Produced by
AEC’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Describes various methods
of purifying saline water through the use of large dual-purpose
nuclear-electric desalting plants.</p>
<div class="fig">> <ANTIMG src="images/p27.jpg" id="ncfig7" alt="uncaptioned" width-obs="1000" height-obs="623" /></div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_60">60</div>
<h3 id="c25">PHOTO CREDITS</h3>
<table class="center">
<tr><td class="l">Page</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_2">2</SPAN> </td><td class="l">U. S. Navy (USN)</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_3">3</SPAN> </td><td class="l">University of Pennsylvania Museum—National Geographic Expedition</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_5">5</SPAN> </td><td class="l">USN</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_6">6</SPAN> </td><td class="l">Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_7">7</SPAN> </td><td class="l">Diagram, WHOI; photo, S. Hull</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_9">9</SPAN> </td><td class="l">Top, Oregon State University (OSU); bottom, University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO)</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_10">10</SPAN> </td><td class="l">Lamont Geological Observatory of Columbia University</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_12">12</SPAN> </td><td class="l">USN</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_15">15</SPAN> </td><td class="l">SIO</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_19">19</SPAN> </td><td class="l">R. H. Backus. <i>Physics Today</i> (November 1965), “Sound Reflections In and Under Oceans,” J. B. Hersey</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_20">20</SPAN> </td><td class="l">U. S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Biological Laboratory, Honolulu, Hawaii</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_22">22</SPAN> </td><td class="l">USN</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_24">24</SPAN> </td><td class="l">Laboratory of Radiation Biology, University of Washington (LRB)</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_26">26</SPAN> </td><td class="l">Jan Hahn</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_27">27</SPAN> </td><td class="l">Franklin GNO Corporation</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_28">28</SPAN> </td><td class="l">George D. Grice, WHOI</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_31">31</SPAN> </td><td class="l">SIO</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_33">33</SPAN> </td><td class="l">OSU</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_35">35</SPAN> </td><td class="l">Monsanto Research Corporation</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_37">37</SPAN> </td><td class="l">USN</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_38">38</SPAN> </td><td class="l">Lane-Wells Company</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_39">39</SPAN> </td><td class="l">Research Triangle Institute</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_43">43</SPAN> </td><td class="l">USN</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_46">46</SPAN>, <SPAN href="#Page_47">47</SPAN> & <SPAN href="#Page_48">48</SPAN> </td><td class="l">Martin-Marietta Company</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_49">49</SPAN> </td><td class="l">The Photo Mart</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_53">53</SPAN> </td><td class="l">Top, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California; bottom, Bechtel Corporation</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_55">55</SPAN> </td><td class="l">U. S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Fish and Wildlife Service; inset, Brookhaven National Laboratory</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_56">56</SPAN> </td><td class="l">Norsk Folkemuseum, Oslo, Norway, courtesy The Mariners Museum, Newport News, Virginia</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_57">57</SPAN> </td><td class="l">National Science Foundation</td></tr>
<tr><td class="l"><SPAN href="#Page_61">61</SPAN> </td><td class="l">S. Hull</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="l"><SPAN href="#cover">Cover photo</SPAN> courtesy James Butler, USN</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="l"><SPAN href="#ncfig9">Author’s photo</SPAN> courtesy General Dynamics Corporation</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" class="l"><SPAN href="#ncfig1">Frontispiece</SPAN> from Jan Hahn</td></tr>
</table>
<div class="pb" id="Page_61">61</div>
<h3 id="c26">THE COVER</h3>
<div class="fig">> <ANTIMG src="images/p28.jpg" id="ncfig8" alt="The ATOM and the OCEAN" width-obs="395" height-obs="600" /></div>
<p>The ship on the cover is the trim
<i>Atlantis</i> riding the waves about 200 miles
south of Bermuda. The first craft built
by the United States as an oceanographic
research vessel, she traveled more than
1,200,000 miles across the seven seas
for a period of 30 years. She “ran”
over 6000 hydrographic stations and
was used for innumerable dredging,
coring, biological, physical, and acoustical
research operations. After she was
retired from active service at the Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts,
she was sold to Argentina,
where she has resumed her role as an
oceanographic research vessel.</p>
<h3 id="c27">THE AUTHOR</h3>
<p><span class="ss">E. W. SEABROOK HULL</span> is an experienced writer and editor in
technical and engineering fields. He is the author of <i>The Bountiful
Sea</i>, published in 1964 by Prentice-Hall, and <i>Plowshare</i>, another
booklet in this Understanding the Atom Series. He is the editor of
<i>Ocean Science News</i> and editor and publisher of <i>GeoMarine Technology</i>.</p>
<div class="fig">> <ANTIMG src="images/p28a.jpg" id="ncfig9" alt="E. W. Seabrook Hull" width-obs="1000" height-obs="697" /></div>
<h2 id="c28"><span class="small">Footnotes</span></h2>
<div class="fnblock"><div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_1" href="#fr_1">[1]</SPAN>For a description of how these will work, see <i>Controlled Nuclear
Fusion</i>, another booklet in this series.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_2" href="#fr_2">[2]</SPAN>These devices, which will be frequently mentioned later in these
pages, are described in detail in a companion booklet <i>Power from
Radioisotopes</i>.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_3" href="#fr_3">[3]</SPAN>See <i>Nuclear Reactors</i>, another booklet in this series, for a description
of the fission process and how reactors operate.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_4" href="#fr_4">[4]</SPAN>For a full discussion of other aspects of this topic, see <i>Fallout
from Nuclear Tests</i>, another booklet in this series.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_5" href="#fr_5">[5]</SPAN>For a full discussion of this topic, and the safety measures
taken by the AEC in connection with it, see <i>Radioactive Wastes</i>,
another booklet in this series.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_6" href="#fr_6">[6]</SPAN>Radioisotopes, unstable forms of ordinary atoms, are distinguishable
by reason of their radioactivity, not by their biological
or chemical activity.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_7" href="#fr_7">[7]</SPAN>The time in which half of the atoms in a quantity of radioactive
material lose their radioactivity.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_8" href="#fr_8">[8]</SPAN>For more details of these studies, see <i>Atoms, Nature, and Man</i>,
a companion booklet in this series.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_9" href="#fr_9">[9]</SPAN>Gamma rays are high-energy electromagnetic radiation, similar
to X rays, originating in the nuclei of radioactive atoms.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_10" href="#fr_10">[10]</SPAN>Instruments that detect and measure radiation by recording
the number of light flashes or scintillations produced by the radiation
in plastic or other sensitive materials.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_11" href="#fr_11">[11]</SPAN>A method involving use of nuclear reactors or accelerators
for identifying extremely small amounts of material. See <i>Neutron
Activation Analysis</i>, a companion booklet in this series.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_12" href="#fr_12">[12]</SPAN>A picogram is one trillionth (10⁻¹²) of a gram.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_13" href="#fr_13">[13]</SPAN>For an explanation of how similar instruments work, see
<i>Radioisotopes in Industry</i>, a companion booklet in this series.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_14" href="#fr_14">[14]</SPAN>For a discussion of proposed nuclear merchant submarines,
see <i>Nuclear Power and Merchant Shipping</i>, another booklet in this
series.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_15" href="#fr_15">[15]</SPAN>These are described in <i>Power Reactors in Small Packages</i>,
another booklet in this series.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_16" href="#fr_16">[16]</SPAN>See <i>Power from Radioisotopes</i>, a companion booklet in this
series, for a more complete discussion of radioisotopes in use.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_17" href="#fr_17">[17]</SPAN>For an explanation of how these will function, see <i>Nuclear Energy
for Desalting</i>, another booklet in this series.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_18" href="#fr_18">[18]</SPAN>See <i>Food Preservation by Irradiation</i>, another booklet in this
series, for a full account of this installation.</div>
<div class="fndef"><SPAN class="fn" id="fn_19" href="#fr_19">[19]</SPAN>Details are described in <i>Plowshare</i>, another booklet in this
series.</div>
</div>
<div class="pb" id="Page_63">63</div>
<p class="tb">This booklet is one of the “Understanding the Atom”
Series. Comments are invited on this booklet and others
in the series; please send them to the Division of Technical
Information, U. S. Atomic Energy Commission, Washington,
D. C. 20545.</p>
<p>Published as part of the AEC’s educational assistance
program, the series includes these titles:</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0"><i>Accelerators</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Animals in Atomic Research</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Atomic Fuel</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Atomic Power Safety</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Atoms at the Science Fair</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Atoms in Agriculture</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Atoms, Nature, and Man</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Books on Atomic Energy for Adults and Children</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Careers in Atomic Energy</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Computers</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Controlled Nuclear Fusion</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Cryogenics, The Uncommon Cold</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Direct Conversion of Energy</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Fallout From Nuclear Tests</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Food Preservation by Irradiation</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Genetic Effects of Radiation</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Index to the UAS Series</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Lasers</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Microstructure of Matter</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Neutron Activation Analysis</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Nondestructive Testing</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Nuclear Clocks</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Nuclear Energy for Desalting</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Nuclear Power and Merchant Shipping</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Nuclear Power Plants</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Nuclear Propulsion for Space</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Nuclear Reactors</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Nuclear Terms, A Brief Glossary</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Our Atomic World</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Plowshare</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Plutonium</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Power from Radioisotopes</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Power Reactors in Small Packages</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Radioactive Wastes</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Radioisotopes and Life Processes</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Radioisotopes in Industry</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Radioisotopes in Medicine</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Rare Earths</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Research Reactors</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>SNAP, Nuclear Space Reactors</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Sources of Nuclear Fuel</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Space Radiation</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Spectroscopy</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Synthetic Transuranium Elements</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>The Atom and the Ocean</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>The Chemistry of the Noble Gases</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>The Elusive Neutrino</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>The First Reactor</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>The Natural Radiation Environment</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Whole Body Counters</i></p>
<p class="t0"><i>Your Body and Radiation</i></p>
</div>
<p>A single copy of any one booklet, or of no more than three
different booklets, may be obtained free by writing to:</p>
<p class="center"><span class="smaller ss">USAEC, P. O. BOX 62, OAK RIDGE, TENNESSEE 37830</span></p>
<p>Complete sets of the series are available to school and
public librarians, and to teachers who can make them
available for reference or for use by groups. Requests
should be made on school or library letterheads and indicate
the proposed use.</p>
<p>Students and teachers who need other material on specific
aspects of nuclear science, or references to other
reading material, may also write to the Oak Ridge address.
Requests should state the topic of interest exactly, and the
use intended.</p>
<p>In all requests, include “Zip Code” in return address.</p>
<p class="tbcenter"><span class="smaller">Printed in the United States of America
<br/>USAEC Division of Technical Information Extension, Oak Ridge, Tennessee</span></p>
<h2 id="trnotes">Transcriber’s Notes</h2>
<ul>
<li>Silently corrected a few typos.</li>
<li>Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication.</li>
<li>In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.</li>
</ul>
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