[ RadSafe ] Radiation in landfills

[Brennan, Mike (DOH)]

Hi, Franz.

I have on several occasions sampled leachete from land fills, and our lab has reported finding tritium at puzzling concentrations.  The consensus is that the tritium comes from exit signs that were disposed of in the landfill, and on which the tubes containing the tritium gas were broken when the garbage was compacted.

While I don't have a solid reason, I remain dubious of this explanation.  It doesn't "feel" right to me.  I asked the chemists about contaminates that might give false positives some how, and was told that the lab was confident that was not the case.  I remain very open to suggestions beyond exit signs and watch hands, or, as one of our activist groups claims, midnight dumpings of drums of reactor primary coolant water into the landfill.

I am, however, quite satisfied of one thing: the tritium in the leachete does not constitute a public health risk.  Should someone be drinking enough leachete to gain a noticeable body burden (and do it on a regular basis, as tritium has a 12 day biological half-life, and they would need to replenish often), they should live so long that the rad becomes a health issue.  The chemical hazards are far greater, though my bet is that the pathogens would get them first.  That they would drink landfill leachete in the first place hints at some non-trivial mental health issues that I would really have someone look into. 

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On Behalf Of Franz Schönhofer
Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2007 12:55 PM
To: BLHamrick at aol.com; sandyfl at cox.net; radsafe at radlab.nl; powernet at hps1.org
Subject: AW: [ RadSafe ] Radiation in landfills

Barbara and RADSAFErs,

Additionally to the discussion I would like to put forward, that we have found in Austria highly elevated tritium concentrations - more than 3000 Bq/l in the water collected routineously from the bottom of household garbage landfillls. This water is routineously pumped to the surface and sprayed into the landfill for evaporation. 

We attribute these concentrations - without any really conclusive link, just speculation - to the fact, that the use of watches from a certain Swiss brand, which used tritium for the hands. It was more or less regarded as a fashion object, which should be changed every few months and we attributed this elevations of Tritium in landfill water to this fact, though we have no conclusive research concerning the discharge of tritium from these watches. 

I would appreciate very much to get into contact with somebody who has similar experience.

Best regards,

Franz
  
Franz Schoenhofer, PhD
MinRat i.R.
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Wien/Vienna
AUSTRIA