AW: [ RadSafe ] Nuke meltdown may have caused cancers

[Dukelow, James S Jr]

Julian Ginniver wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
Behalf Of JGinniver at aol.com
Sent: Monday, October 09, 2006 3:48 PM
To: blc+ at pitt.edu; sandyfl at earthlink.net
Cc: radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: Re: AW: [ RadSafe ] Nuke meltdown may have caused cancers

I don't know if this helps, but it's a small excerpt from a dose
reconstruction report produced by ORAU
_www.cdc.gov/niosh/ocas/pdfs/tbd/etec4.pdf_
(http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ocas/pdfs/tbd/etec4.pdf) 
 
SNIP>"Of all these incidents, only the Sodium Reactor Experiment (SRE)  
SNIP>Fuel
Damage incident, commonly known as "The Meltdown," resulted in a
measurable release of radioactive material into the environment." The
SRE was  a sodium-cooled graphite-moderated reactor in Building 143,
which in 1959 had  a loss of coolant that resulted in damage to 13 fuel
assemblies (Sapere and  Boeing 2005, pp. 2-1, 2-3, 2-5). Radioactive
noble gases reached the  outer containment and 28 Ci of radioactive
noble gases 133Xe and 85Kr were released in a controlled manner and low
concentrations to limit the potential  dose (Rutherford 2005).<SNIP
 
Cheers, Julian
_______________________________________________

This wouldn't qualify the SRE accident as worse than TMI, since TMI
released about 1.5 million curies of Kr-85, a matter of no public health
concern, since Kr-85 is a noble gas.

Best regards.

Jim Dukelow
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Richland, WA
Jim.dukelow at pnl.gov

These comments are mine and have not been reviewed and/or approved by my
management or by the U.S. Department of Energy.