[ RadSafe ] Radioactive wood pellets...

Mon Jun 15 14:17:02 CDT 2009

Dear Group:

The results of preliminary tests on biomass power projects using
contaminated wood and forest material near Chernobyl demonstrated that most
of the Cs-137 contamination remains in the bottom ash. Wildfires from the
non-commercial forests contaminated by Chernobyl tend to loft contaminants
for redistribution. While I was at the Sosny Labs near Minsk, we considered
using contaminated forest material as fuel for biomass power engineering
projects. This would serve two objectives: 1) Remove contaminants from the
soil profile, and 2) Provide the economic drive for remediation.

I hate to toot my own horn, but then if I don't, who will?

McCarn, D., Dubovik, L., Iakoushev, A., and Grebenkov, A. (1996): The
Ecological-Commerce (ECO-COM) Zone Concept for Developing Biomass Energy
from Contaminated Resources: A New Demonstration Zone for the Republic of
Belarus, in International Topical Meeting on Nuclear and Hazardous Waste
Management, Seattle, Washington, August 18-23, 1996, pp. 1417-1424.

Grebenkov, A. and McCarn, D.W. (1996): The US-Belarus Joint Projects
Associated with Remediation of the Chernobyl Contaminated Sites,
Environmental Opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly
Independent States, in Partnerships for Solutions Forum, Colorado School of
Mines, Golden, Colorado, p. 19-35.

There were/are concerns in the Gomel Province, Belarus that wood ash
containing significantly elevated concentrations of Cs-137 would be used as
potash fertilizer in private vegetable gardens, since that is an historical
method of fertilizing gardens there.

Sadly, the projects were never financed because of the deteriorating
political situation in Belarus at the time.

One concern that I have is whether the wood pellets really have an origin in
Lithuania. Could they be bootleg from Belarus?

Best, 

Dan ii

--
Dan W McCarn, Geologist
8, Le Buisson Sainte Anne
78860 Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche 
+33.6.47.86.05.25 (Mobile - France) 
+1-505-240-6872 (Skype - New Mexico)
HotGreenChile at gmail.com (Private email)

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On Behalf
Of Cary Renquist
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 19:44
To: Dutch Radsafers
Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] Radioactive wood pellets...

I recall that Stewart Farber's wood ash analysis in the NE US yielded
~20,000 - 30,000 pCi/g.

Cary 

---
Cary Renquist
cary.renquist at ezag.com

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On Behalf
Of John R Johnson
Sent: Monday, 15 June 2009 08:59
To: WILLIAM LIPTON; Bjorn Cedervall; Dutch Radsafers
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radioactive wood pellets...

I agree.

It would be interesting to know the fallout at the latitude and longitude 
that the pellets were harvested from. See NCRP report 52 at 
http://www.ncrppublications.org/Reports/052 for background information.

***************
John R Johnson, PhD
CEO, IDIAS, Inc.
4535 West 9th Ave
604-676-3556
Vancouver, B. C.
V6R 2E2, Canada
idias at interchange.ubc.ca

----- Original Message ----- Latitude and longitude
From: "WILLIAM LIPTON" <wlipton at sbcglobal.net>
To: "Bjorn Cedervall" <bcradsafers at hotmail.com>; "Dutch Radsafers" 
<radsafe at radlab.nl>
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 7:26 AM
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radioactive wood pellets...

The major concern is not the wood pellets, themselves, but the source of the

contamination. Is there a serious lack of control somewhere?

One theory offered is that this is due to Chernobyl fallout. This is 
plausible, and should be investigated.

Bill Lipton
It's not about dose, it's about trust.

________________________________
From: Bjorn Cedervall <bcradsafers at hotmail.com>
To: Dutch Radsafers <radsafe at radlab.nl>
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 9:39:32 AM
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Radioactive wood pellets...

I agree of course with the comments that relate to the lack of quantitative 
(meaningful) data for the wood pellets. This far we have not seen any of 
that.

I may mention that we had radioactivity levels on a court desk in Sweden 
some years ago (it was about releases - Bq values). According to one of my 
friends (PhD in the nuclear field, math smart and with very relevant 
experience) who was present these lawyers et al. understood nothing about 
radiation doses etc but they took a (very) costly decision in the matter.

My personal ideas only,

Bjorn Cedervall bcradsafers at hotmail.com

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