[ RadSafe ] Re: uranium smoke is a teratogen

[Ben Fore]

Dan,

Thank you for your estimates:

> So for agriculture in the USA, I would "guess" that there are on the order
> of 700 Tonnes U per year placed on agricultural soils and of that, 100
> Tonnes U per year redistributed as dusts. Now "apply" the years of
> agricultural use for the soils (e.g. 99 years - median - for the San Luis
> Valley), a source term, a "Leaching Coefficient" to calculate the U
> concentration in the upper soil zone, and transfer coefficients into plants,
> etc. and now uranyl becomes an issue in the food chain.

Less than one in ten thousand uranium atoms released
by irrigation are uranyl or other U(VI) compounds, in areas
where uranyl is not leaching into the water table. My source
on this is not peer-reviewed, so I would appreciate it if you
would please say whether this is right or wrong.

Irrigation is not a major source of U in the +6 oxidation state
entering the environment; that's coal (which actually burns at
2100K, contrary to my previous message -- which was still
correct in that under 10% of the uranium in coal fly ash is U(VI).

James Salsman, as Ben Fore