Ocean dumping of low-level radioactive waste

The failure of the technical arms of international agencies to convince general forums on the acceptability of ocean dumping for low-level radioactive waste is attributed to four factors: (i) Belated guidance by the ICRP on addressing the effects of waste disposal practices in the biota; (ii) Assessment methodology that concentrated on deriving demonstrably conservative doses to humans at the expense of realistic estimates for doses to the biota; (iii) Implicit value judgements by technical assessment groups on the safety of ocean dumping for marine resources; (iv) Lack of knowledge on most aspects of deep-sea biology and related radioecology. After briefly reviewing the major assessments of the effect of past and proposed future ocean dumping, it is concluded that there could be an overlap between doses to the benthic biota resulting from past dumping practices and those that could affect the biota at the community level. The cost of resolving this uncertainty would severely diminish the claimed economic benefit of ocean dumping. (author). 23 refs, 1 tab