AW: [ RadSafe ] Fw: [FIREBASEVOICE] Radioactive Dumping

Tue May 15 10:16:59 CDT 2007

Roger,

First question for my continuous training regarding the English language: I
learnt at school, many decades ago: hide, hid, hidden. Has this changed? 

Secondly: Do I understand correctly that the message is that somebody,
somewhere on some TV station has distributed some nonsense? How interesting
it is that this was sent to..... Vietnam veterans..... 61 year old
Shriner... calls himself Bugs on the internet......

Thirdly: Everywhere on this planet there are dumped mega, tera, giga, exa
etc. Bq's (and also Ci's) in the form of C-14, tritium, Ra-226, Ra-228,
thorium, uranium etc. because it would be a little tedious to separate C-14,
tritium and the other naturally occurring radionuclides from waste from
vegetables, fruits, watches, soils, concrete, etc. etc. 

This message is annoying. RADSAFE is an international list and though I
appreciated most of your previous posts I have to say that this is far
off-topic. Start a local debate about this nonsensicle message. 

I do not expect that anybody on RADSAFE would be very much interested in
absurd messages from Austrian anti-nuclear groups. I assure you, they would
provide a good laugh. 

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 Roger Helbig
Gesendet: Dienstag, 15. Mai 2007 10:27
An: radsafelist
Betreff: [ RadSafe ] Fw: [FIREBASEVOICE] Radioactive Dumping

I doubt this is very credible or the waste is not what it is claimed to be
by this TV story or the Nuclear Resource Information Center which I gather
is really a disinformation center.  This was sent to a group that has a
number of veterans, particularly Vietnam veterans on it by a 61 year old
Shriner in Tennessee who calls himself Bugs on the internet.

Roger

Tennessee has hide this from most citizens,
www.wsmv.com  TV, uncovered this today and reported it on tonights news
cast..05-14-07..in Nashville,Tn..

bugs
Radioactive Dumping Occurs In Rutherford County
10 Million Pounds Of Radioactive Material Dumped In 2004
Reported By Demetria Kalodimos 

POSTED: 4:44 pm CDT May 14, 2007
UPDATED: 7:12 pm CDT May 14, 2007
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- A Channel 4 I-Team investigation uncovered a practice
the state of Tennessee approved, but nobody else seemed to know about it for
nearly 20 years. 

Video: Radioactive Materials Dumped In Rutherford County 

Tennessee has been allowing companies from all over the country to dump
radioactive waste into ordinary trash landfills, including the Middle Point
landfill in Rutherford County.   

More than 10 million pounds of radioactive material was dumped in
Murfreesboro in a single year. 

There are at least four of these facilities in Tennessee, which is more than
any other state in the country. 

For nearly 20 years, the state has made it cheap and convenient for all of
them to put low level radioactive waste out with your trash. 

"Soils, concrete, asphalt, equipment ... there's a big market. This is seen
as a place for that waste to go. Nobody wants to keep it where it is. They
want to get rid of it. Tennessee is the sinkhole for nuclear waste around
the country," said Nuclear Information and Resource Service watchdog, Diane
D'Arrigo. 

Trucks roll onto the scales at Murfreesboro's Middle Point landfill 24 hours
a day. Channel 4 captured video of the trucks as they were checked and
cleared for radiation in as little as two minutes. 

"(The waste) will go past a radiation detector, and if that doesn't trip any
alarms, it will go straight out to what's called the working face where the
waste is disposed," said Glen Pugh of the Tennessee Solid Waste Department. 

Why Murfreesboro? The waste processors chose it. 

In fact the whole program was their idea to save money and space in the few
places out of state that are actually licensed to take nuclear waste. 

"If you take up a sidewalk at a nuclear facility or even tear down some
auxiliary facilities ... facilities that are not significantly contaminated,
the risk is sufficiently allowable that we believe they can be put into a
landfill," said Eddie Nanney of the Tennessee Radiological Health
Department. 

Here's some of what Channel 4 News found: 

a.. In 1994, Middle Point landfill was approved for 200,000 to 400,000
pounds per month of spent ion exchange resin, pellets that filter radiation
out of water 

a.. In 1999, 40,000 pounds a week of soil from an area where scrap thorium
alloy parts were stored. Thorium is naturally radioactive, with a half-life
of 14 billion years. 

a.. The dump took trash from a restricted area of a nuclear facility that
included 4,800 tons a month of trash. 

a.. Loads of radioactive metal were taken to the dump, but it wasn't clear
where it came from. 

a.. Also 400 tons of month of contaminated dirt came from the University of
California at Los Angeles. 

"Why bring it all here in order to disperse it, even if it's at small
amounts? Because no amount is actually harmless. There's no safe level,"
said D'Arrigo. 

In one year's time, Middle Point went from nearly 166,000 pounds of low
level waste in 2004 to more than 10 million pounds in 2005. 

"What happened in 2005 (to cause the increase)?" asked reporter Demetria
Kalodimos. 

"My guess would be that licensee was receiving a nice contract and disposed
of a lot of material in that year," said Nanney. 

"That's a huge increase from one year to the next," said Kalodimos. 

"It's a huge increase but still a very small increment. It's way less than 5
percent," said Nanney. 

And 5 percent is important. Up until now, the state has had just a few key
rules for dumping low level radioactive waste through what it calls Bulk
Survey for Release or BSFR. 

The total amount of low level nuclear waste cannot exceed 5 percent of
what's in the landfill, but that's once a dump is closed for good. Officials
said they're always keeping track of that amount. 

And the total radiation dose, be it from plutonium, strontium, cesium,
uranium or the host of other isotopes they've accepted, cannot exceed a
measurement of 1 millirem, even to a person who later lived on the landfill,
farmed crops there and drank the water from a well. 

"Do you know the increment that 1 millirem of radiation would cause? Point 8
additional cancers. That's the level of risk were talking about ... very
low," said Nanney. 

"A millirem is an expression of biological damage to tissue. It's not
something you can measure and say, 'Ahah! you've got a millirem.' Nuclear
waste should not be brought into this state and dispersed without people
knowing it," said D'Arrigo. 

In researching this report, Channel 4 found that no one seemed to know about
the bulk survey for release program. There's never been a public hearing to
discuss this issue. 

Related Link: 

a.. For more information, read the just released report titled Out of
Control On Purpose that is available at the Nuclear Information and Resource
Service Web site. 

Copyright 2007 by WSMV.com

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