[ RadSafe ] Key Alpha Emitters - by Elaine Hunter

[Roger Helbig]

Elaine Hunter <dutnkyoh at yahoo.com> wrote:  To: du-watch at yahoogroups.com, du-list <du-list at yahoogroups.com>
From: Elaine Hunter <dutnkyoh at yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 08:55:54 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [DU-WATCH] Key Alpha Emitters

Here's an email in response to an email from someone in Hawaii--his is below mine.
It's good news that a relatively inexpensive radiation detector that can measure alpha particles is available. However, it is important to understand that U-238 is not the only alpha emitter. Other key alpha emitters include: americium-241, thorium-232, radium-222, polonium-210 and plutonium-236.

Also it's important to understand the decay chain of U-238. Once an atom of U-238 has emitted its alpha particle, it is no longer U-238. Now it is thorium-234 which is a beta emitter with a halflife of only about 24 days [IMPORTANT NOTE: don't confuse this with thorium-232 listed above, because each and every radioactive isotope has a unique decay chain] Thus you should expect to need to measure the beta radiation, as well, that is there is present thorium-234 from U-238 that decayed more than 24+ days ago. The next daughter product in the U-238 decay chain is a now-you-see-it-now-you-don't beta emitter, protactinium-234, with a halflife of less than 2 minutes. The next daughter product is uranium-234 and I have to admit to only knowing that it has a long, long halflife so it will mostly just sit around holding on to whatever its radioactive emission is. Anyone want to know? look it up.

I don't know the decay chain of any of the other alpha emitters listed. They are available on the internet at various websites. Maybe what you detected was DU, i.e. U-238, probably a mixture. I'm not saying it's not DU, just that it takes more to sort it out than a Gamma Scout. Radioactivity is an exceedingly complex subject. Ask the US Military
>} [= tongue in cheek].

It's true not much attention has been paid to earlier sources of U-238 in the atmosphere. Most attention/measurement went to radioisoptopes that were considered bio-active. Plutonium, strontium, cesium, etc. If strontium can substitute for calcium, uranium [trivalent] can substitute for chromium in the Glucose Tolerance Factor and cause diabetes [so can tungsten]. They are body potentially bio-active. 

"Weapons are tools of ill omen weilded by the ignorant...
The greatest sorrow is to be a veteran, witness to the atrocities of humanity" [from 365 Tao by Deng Ming-Dao]

Elaine

Here's the email:  (I apologize for its being a bit jumbled -- it came in in messed up HTML form -- the original is probably on the Big Island News which has become ground zero in Hawaii for the anti-DU crusade after Moret made her Gamma Scout measurement that Blaine Howard has torn to shreds -- this message might even be from Moret .. it has some of her style thinking.

Just a heads up on my issues to let you know....

the Gammascouts are useful even if they cannot do what spectrometry or other sophisticated measurements can do. Detecting alpha is an important test. I'm sure you know the significance of alpha radiation (uranium is mostly all alpha by voltage) and that the relative power of ionization of alpha is immensely greater than beta and gamma. A protocol to test for alpha in radiation spikes downwind of live fire bases has been designed and implemented. Results will be made public soon.
Better gear is nice if affordable. What would be great to stop DU is a protocol that is affordable and can be copied freely by anyone with $430 for a Gammascout (or two, in order to do the protocol).

Have you read "The Enemy Within" by Jay Gould? It would address what you are saying about nuclear weapons testing and health statistics.  here are two more statistics from Hawaii you must have seen::
1960- highest measured strontium 90 
1970-2? -highest plutonium measured
of any major population centers listed in the world, no doubt from the Pacific testing.
In gould's book the statistics confirm your analysis.
One problem though: Gould never studied DU. this is a new era with much greater alpha radiation released. the equivalent Hiroshimas are 80K for atmospheric testing and over 400K (and probably much more) from DU. No fission products, but a lot of alpha dispersed in the biosphere. 
I can forward some new statistics reported about lung cancer following Shock and Awe. The increase of DU to five times background seems small compared to a bomb crater in Iraq, but given the logorrythmic dose response (Petkau effect) the impact of low level radiation is significant.
Just some ideas for you that I had when I read your blog. If you posted on BIW I did not want to criticize you without a talk first. I just want you to understand that the Gammascout protocol could be a very effective means for communities to stop DU pollution of their areas. No one is saying they do what Knolls Atomic Lab did for Colonie, NY. By the way, Concord Mass is finally getting rid of Starmet.
We will be doing cancer map studies downwind of the bases with UH soon.
this is all new for me."