[ RadSafe ] New York maps local radiation fields -- finds radium...

[Stewart Farber]

Hello all,
  It is always surprising how little is know about history in general and the history of the atomic age.  I had done some research on Union Meniere du Haut Katanga some years ago related to their radium operations and refining in Belgium with ore from the Congo, and immediately recollected the role of Edgar Sengier who moved to NYCity at the start of WWII.
   
  Regarding Staten Island having high radium levels, 1000 tons of high grade uranium ore from the Belgian Congo were secretly sent there at the start of WWII. There would be significant residual contamination of Staten Island after the ore was removed as part of the Manhatten Project.
   
  Stewart Farber, MS Public Health
   
  ==============
  See:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Sengier
   
    In 1938, Edgar Sengier, then director of both the Société Générale and the UMHK, learned about the potential of uranium from European scientists. British scientists had warned him that should the material he possessed fall into the enemy's hands, the consequences would be catastrophic. Sengier understood that uranium, a by-product that had until then been stored without being used, could become a crucial resource in times of war. In 1939, he ordered that half of the uranium stock available in Africa (about a thousand tons) be secretly dispatched to New York.
  At the start of the war, Sengier himself travelled to New York to conduct the Union Minière 's worldwide operations from there. At first, the UMHK's uranium stockpile remained in a Staten Island depot.

  

John Andrews <andrewsjp at chartertn.net> wrote:
  Here is the link to the report about the New York City radiation mapping 
study. No numbers, of course.
http://www.wnbc.com/news/9904214/detail.html

John Andrews, Knoxville, Tennessee
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