[ RadSafe ] A novel use of I-131

Mon Jul 16 18:50:04 CDT 2007

Hi Syd,

I will be happy to hook you up with the South Florida Water Management 
District's staff hydrogeologist for a full explanation

of the process, or I myself will be glad to discuss the excruciatingly 
detailed info for you and any others, personally, but not on the forum.

Contact me direct.

Our conversations today did lead to a correction of one point in my report 
as shown below. The brine is pumped down into the ground

at the desalinization plant. No radiation is used there. The desal plant is 
fed from a number of well sites, and those might be some

distance from the plant, miles even.

I-131 is used at the well site during testing. It is pumped down a 
monitoring well of 2" or maybe 4" diameter, only a few hundred feet away 
from

the production well. Over at the production well, water is pumped up until 
I-131 is detected by the downhole tools. Data from these detectors are used

to calculate the water flow and gradient of the aquifer.

In the above process, FRESH WATER is used along with the I-131, and one 
problem is that the fresh water mobilizes the NORM ( in this case, soluble 
Uranium) in the aquifer.

By the way S. Fla has a fairly high concentration of NORM too. Bring a 
scintillator to the beach.

On another water related subject-

Some contaminated groundwater sites with high levels of (waste) uranium are 
being treated with BACTERIA in a pilot program called

In-Situ Groundwater Bioremediation.

see:

http://www.epa.gov/swerust1/cat/insitbio.htm

 Bacteria are introduced into the groundwater, then methane is pumped down 
as an

energy source (food). The bacteria metabolize the methane, in the act they 
eject an electron. This electron is picked up by the valence

shell of the uranium, changing the oxidation state of the U atom. Once the 
uranium is changed from U(VI)  to U(IV), it is no longer water

soluble, dropping out of the water and stabilizing in the immediate area.

See;

http://bioteach.ubc.ca/Journal/V02I01/bioremediation.pdf

DOE is using this method on some superfund sites.

Darndest thing.

If any of the members are actively participoating in this research, I would 
appreciate hearing

from you on the subject or radiation metrology, especially the in-line 
uranium immunosensor technology.

George Dowell
NLNL
New London Nucleonics Lab
56791 Rivere Au Sel Pl.
New London, MO 63459

GEOelectronics at Netscape.com

573-221-3418

----- Original Message ----- 

From: "Syd H. Levine" <syd.levine at mindspring.com>

To: "Geo>K0FF" <GEOelectronics at netscape.com>; <radsafe at radlab.nl>

Cc: <Mann.Bill at epamail.epa.gov>

Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 12:54 PM

Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] A novel use of I-131

>I believe this account of how I-131 has been used in Florida to prove 
>mechanical integrity of municipal disposal wells is a bit confused.  EPA, 
>and the well logging licenses issued by NRC or agreement states never allow 
>the introduction of radioactive tracer material into a potable water supply 
>well.  In fact, I am aware of jobs in Florida that have been run with 
>Gold-198 where EPA was afraid the tracer material MIGHT get into the water 
>supply aquifer.  Further, I am aware of no municipal water supply well 
>where the same well bore is used for disposal (it is possible such a 
>critter exists, but I cannot imagine the UIC permit writers at EPA Region 
>IV in Atlanta issuing such a permit).
>
> Syd H. Levine
> AnaLog Services, Inc.
> Phone:  270-276-5671
> Telefax:  270-276-5588
> E-mail:  analog at logwell.com
> URL:  www.logwell.com
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Geo>K0FF" <GEOelectronics at netscape.com>
> To: <radsafe at radlab.nl>
> Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 11:05 AM
> Subject: [ RadSafe ] A novel use of I-131
>
>
> Info per a client:
> Municipal water well drilling in Florida has changed in the last decades. 
> Once a well would only need to be a
> few hundred feet deep.
> Now that the population has grown, naturally the water table has dropped 
> from overuse.
> Today a well will go down 1500 feet, and be of 36 inch diameter.
> The actual hole is much deeper than that, at least 2000 feet deep.
>
> Water pumped from the well is still saline, but not as salty as the 
> ocean.Desalination plants process the
> water into drinking water and brine.Instead of pumping the waste brine 
> into the ocean for disposal, it is pumped back down the
> well, all the way to the bottom of the hole. By doing so, the water table 
> is maintained at a higher level. Being much denser than
> the source water, the brine is supposed to stay at the bottom of the hole.
>
> During the well proofing process, that is after construction but before 
> turning it over to the end users, a radioactive
> I-131 tracer  is metered into the brine flow down into the well. 
> Simultaneously a 25 foot long tool containing  7 scintillator
> gamma detectors is lowered into the well, monitoring any leaks of high 
> pressure brine into the supply pipeline, and the relative position that 
> the brine takes up in the water table.
>
> A normal medical dose of I-131 in liquid form is used, from Cardinal 
> Health Services.
>
> I-131 has a radiological half life of 8.040 days and decays to stable 
> Xe-131 (NUDAT 2) with a 1.2% branch to radioactive Xe-131m, T/2 11.840 
> days (C. Hacker)
> I-131 beta minus  decays 100% with an 81% probability of a 364.5 gamma ray 
> (and others at lower %).
>
> After 7 half-lives, any isotope is reduced to only 1% of the original 
> dose.
> http://web.ead.anl.gov/marssim/doc/docs/Radiation_Basics.pdf
>
>
> After each 5 years of use, the above tests are repeated.
>
> Such uses or radioactive materials are numerous and are excellent examples 
> of the risk/benefit ratio theory.
>
>
> George Dowell