25 
A 
INTRODUCTION (Koltermann, Prahm, Kautsky) 
This part contains the hydrographical and 
radiological measurement results, which were gained 
during the R.V. "Meteor" cruises nos, 3, 15, 21, 29, 
and 33. The investigations were in connection with 
the question of the possibility of dumping radio- 
active waste in the sea, 
A sea area in which packaged radioactive wastes 
are dumped for storage - from the hydrographical 
point of view —- should be such that the radioactive 
material, in all probability, stays on the sea bottom, 
or at least near-bottom, even when a dumping container 
becomes leaky. For that reason, the sea area intended 
for the dumping should be an enclosed deep-sea basin 
which has a low vertical exchange and where large- 
scale transport processes are impossible; also, the 
current in the bottom water should be only weak. 
The International Atomic Energy Organization 
(IAEO) demands - for the Convention on the Prevention 
of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other 
Matter (London Convention) — with respect to the 
storage of packaged radioactive wastes in the sea, a 
minimum water depth of 4,000 m. In addition, the pro- 
posed sea area shall be free of marine cables and not 
be too far away from the coasts but should still lie 
outside the coastal shelf region, So it would seem 
that —- in the European region — first and foremost, 
the Iberian Deep Sea Basin complies with these re- 
quirements, and - within it - above all, the Iberia 
Abyssal Plain with uniform water depths of a little 
more than 5,300 m (see Fig. 1b). 
In consideration of the Nuclear Energy Agency 
(NEA/OECD) planned - and since 1967 also repeatedly 
sarried out —- dumping of packaged radioactive wastes