[ RadSafe ] Thule; Greenpeace contradicts the BBC report......

[Franz Schönhofer]

RADSAFErs,

There is a very funny situation regarding the Thule accident: Greenpeace
(!!!) contradicts those latest news! What a perverse situation!

Facts: The US (not American!) B-52 bomber had four hydrogen bombs on board,
when it crashed close to Thule. It was not a transporter for an (enormous)
amount of "weapons grade" plutonium, which makes in my opinion a big
difference. Still, plutonium is even in "smaller" quantities not an issue to
be ridiculed. Jaro, we are all very cautious, when separating the plutonium
from irradiated fuel in our bathtubes at home. Aren't you? 

According to my opinion that such mass-media messages are not really worth
to invest much work I only consulted my German copy of the book "The
Greenpeace Book of the Nuclear Age" copyright 1989 by Greenpeace
Communications Inc. Which I bought many years ago very cheap and did never
regret this investment. It is a valuable source of events - though you have
of course to forget about the conclusions drawn, being of the sort "If the
electricity supply would have failed, the reactor would have exploded and
killed x-thousands of people". 

What does Greenpeace state? They describe the harsh conditions for the teams
retrieving the debris, they describe - and that's my point - that also the
Danish workforce was equipped with protective masks and that they were
checked for health, including urine measurements etc. So what? Anybody
wanting to go into details should consult the book. 

I simply state here that Greenpeace contradicts these BBC news. In case
Greenpeace were wrong and the BBC correct I would offer a totally different
interpretation:

Not to check workers involved in the removal of plutonium bearing debris
would most probably mean a crime - there are very strict terms for
surveillance of people working in the nuclear industry with possible
exposure to fissile material both in the USA, the European Union and in
other countries of the civilized world.

Best regards,

Franz 

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


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] Im Auftrag
von Franta, Jaroslav
Gesendet: Montag, 14. Mai 2007 15:13
An: radsafe at radlab.nl
Betreff: RE: [ RadSafe ] Denmark challenged over B52 crash 

-----Original Message-----
BBC Reports 
Denmark challenged over B52 crash 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6647421.stm
 
"Let me take you back to an Arctic night in January 1968, still the era
of the Cold War," a British MEP told the European Parliament this week,
promising a tale comparable to an international thriller. 
"An American B-52 bomber gets into trouble, the crew scramble to safety
and the plane comes down in Greenland with an enormous amount of
weapons-grade plutonium on board. 
<<snip>>


Isn't it curious, that when its an accident, the Pu quantity is "enormous,"
but when they talk a bout the amount of Pu needed to make a bomb, its
typically "very small."

Jaro