[ RadSafe ] Fwd: ruling out uranium vapor with x-rays

[Dave Blaine]

Thanks for your questions, Mike.

> Uranium vapor under what circumstances?

Carter and Stewart (1970) states, "about half of the internal mass of
burning uranium is emitted violently as a vapor."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/5527739

Carl Alexander of Battelle has written in email (20 Apr 2006 16:31)
that, "gaseous UO3 would be the major product of uranium burning in
air."

Do you have any reason to doubt those statements?

> are you equally concerned about the vapors of lead, copper, titanium, mercury, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, etc, vapors?

I am not aware that those metals burn in quantities anywhere near the
quantities of uranium which burns when it is used as an armor-piercing
projectile, nor that anyone has stated their vapors are an inhalation
hazard.

> How do YOU know if the flaw is in the understanding of the vast majority of the professionals in the field, or in your understanding?  What would it take for you to be convinced that you have overestimated uranium as a health issue?

Every professional who studied the issue of uranium inhalation --
including who who I know to be on Radsafe -- has either completely
omitted any mention of uranium genotoxicity in their publications on
the subject admitted specifically that they never considered it in
preparing their conclusions.

And now there is this claim that high-energy x-rays can't detect any
uranium in the condensate.

Please take this question seriously:  Why not count alphas?