Ocean Disposal of Radioactive Wastes: The Obligation of International Cooperation to Protect the Marine Environment
![handle is hein.journals/vajint21 and id is 633 raw text is: Ocean Disposal of Radioactive Wastes:
The Obligation of International
Cooperation to Protect the Marine
Environment*
DANIEL P. FINN**
The disposal of radioactive waste in the oceans has recently be-
come a public concern in many nations. In the United States, reve-
lations about dumping operations conducted during the period
from 1946 to 19701 have gained the attention of the media2 and led
to public speculation about the health consequences of old dump
sites,3 especially those relatively close to shore.4 Dumping opera-
* This research was supported by the Marine Policy Program at the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). The program receives funds from the Pew Memorial
Trust and from the U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA Office of Sea Grant, under Grant
No. NA 80AA-D-00077. WHOI Contribution No. 4849.
** Research Fellow, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, B.A. 1970, Fordham Univer-
sity; M.A.. 1974, University of Toronto; J.D. 1977, University of Hawaii; S.J.D. 1981,
Harvard.
The author wishes to acknowledge reviews of this article by Professors John Norton
Moore and Samuel A. Bleicher of the University of Virginia School of Law;, informative
conversations with Dr. Vaughan T. Bowen of WHOI and Mr. Ha-Vinh Phuong of the Inter-
national Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); discussion and extensive comments on the earlier
draft by Dr. William 0. Forster of the IAEA; bibliographic efforts by Ms. Inge Buchinger at
the IAEA library in Vienna; and secretarial services by Ms. Ann Goodwin and Ms. Ethel
LeFave of the Marine Policy Program at WHOL All defects in presentation, however, are
entirely the responsibility of the author.
1. See Hearings before the Subcomm. on Oceanography of the House Comm. on
Merchant Marine and Fisheries, 96th Cong., 1st & 2d Sess. 341 (1979 & 1980) [hereinafer
cited as 1980 Hearings] (statement of Roger Mattson).
2. See, e.g., Ackerman, Bottom of the Sea Getting Hard Look as Site for Disposal of
Nuclear Waste, Boston Globe, May 6, 1980, at 6, col 1.
3. See, e.g., 11 EmR. REP. (BNA) 820 (Oct. 17, 1980).
4. In the United States, at least two such sites are close to shore: the Farallon Islands off](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/vajint21&div=33&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Ocean Disposal of Radioactive Wastes: The Obligation of International Cooperation to Protect the Marine Environment
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