[ RadSafe ] UO{2,3} dissolved: which increases?

[Brennan, Mike (DOH)]

>Nether has the potential in a lifetime to exceed the possible soluble
uranyl dose from being 100 m downwind of a 5 kg uranium fire. 

How do you know?  What is the "soluble uranyl dose" from being 100 m
downwind of a 5 kg uranium fire?  With what kind of plume spreading,
wind shifts, building effects, etc?  And what population numbers are you
talking here?  What is the "soluble uranyl dose" for being downwind of
an unscrubbed coal smokestack (I disagree that "close proximity" is
going to represent the most affected population, as the whole purpose of
a smokestack is to put the exhaust products high up so they will
disperse widely before getting down to people level)?  What population
numbers are you talking about?  If you are saying that a relatively few
(in the thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, to be very, very generous
to you model) are exposed to DU smoke in high concentrations are more at
risk than the tens of millions to billions exposed to lower
concentrations from coal smoke, then you must be rejecting
population-dose and Linear-No-Threshold models.  While I agree that
those models are vulnerable, I haven't seen anything that lets me reject
them outright, yet.  Do you have some research that indicates that large
numbers of people exposed to small amounts of something like uranium are
not at risk?

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
Behalf Of Ben Fore
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 2:12 AM
To: hotgreenchile at gmail.com; radsafelist
Subject: [ RadSafe ] UO{2,3} dissolved: which increases?

Dan,

You are absolutely correct at a neutral pH when carbonate is present.
In that case the fraction of uranyl increases, and is soluble.  Does
most irrigation water contain substantial enough amounts of dissolved
carbonate to allow UO2 to oxidize?

In that case coal fly ash contains nowhere near the volume of soluble
uranyl compounds as irrigation water.  But those are both background
sources, unless there is a locally rich concentration of U(VI) or (IV)
leachate, or very close proximity to an unscrubbed coal smokestack.

Nether has the potential in a lifetime to exceed the possible soluble
uranyl dose from being 100 m downwind of a 5 kg uranium fire.

James Salsman, as Ben Fore
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