[ RadSafe ] Dirty Bomb Material Crosses Border

[Jim Hardeman]

Stewart *
 
And if I recall correctly, the DCF's for Th-232 are approximately the same as for Pu-238 and Pu-239, correct? 
 
The kicker is, most of the portable "radionuclide identifiers" out there either are going to fall flat when trying to identify Th-232 (due to the number of peaks), or they will identify it as "natural" ... which for quite a few responders will mean "no big deal".
 
I wonder if GAO has any health physicists on their staff??
 
My $0.02 worth ... it's late, and I need my beauty sleep!
 
Jim Hardeman
Jim_Hardeman at dnr.state.ga.us

>>> Stewart Farber <farbersa at optonline.net> 3/28/2006 23:51:31 >>>

Anyone can walk into any welding supply business and walk out with 50 or 500 pounds of  Thoriated welding rods [2% thoria by weight which can equal many pounds of  thorium oxide in 500 pounds of welding rods]. Thoriated welding rods can also be purchased on eBay.  The activity of this much Thorium oxide is a real concern.  

>From a reference: "The compounds of thorium are very active.[26] Thorium oxide surpasses even metallic uranium in activity." Of concern in this regard for ThO2:  No control on purchase. A totally exempt isotope, and the potential for significant contamination. And people are worried about a few exempt quanity check sources? Bizarre.

Stewart Farber
radproject at optonline.net
===========
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <BLHamrick at aol.com>
To: <Cehn at aol.com>; <radsafe at radlab.nl>
Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 9:16 PM
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Dirty Bomb Material Crosses Border


> 
> I don't believe the isotope or activity has been released, but you can read  
> between the lines in the report.  They purchased exempt quantities (so  likely 
> in the multi-microcurie range), they told the business it was to  "calibrate" 
> radiation pagers, and they "focused only on the procedures for  [detecting] 
> gamma radiation," so it appears this was a gamma-emitting  isotope, commonly 
> used for calibration....Hmmm...what could that be?...................

> 
> Senator Coleman was "alarmed" that radioactive material was available for  
> commercial sale.  Why, he'd absolutely FLIP if he knew how much free  
> radioactive material I have for the taking in my backyard soil.
> 
> Someone really needs to put a halt to this insanity.
> 
> Barbara L. Hamrick, CHP, JD
>