[ RadSafe ] Vermont Yankee leaking tritium --- time to panic(?)

Tue Feb 2 16:02:10 CST 2010

It's worse than just being detectable in miniscule quantities.  Though I
am not a lab guy, I know that if you aren't really, really good with
your chemistry you have get very inaccurate results.  It is worse if
there are any of a number of chemicals in your sample that will
luminesce.  This can make ground water and leachate tricky (NOTE: I am
not even suggesting that there isn't tritium in the groundwater under
Vermont Yankee).  

As for a credible scenario where tritium contamination might lead to
health consequences:  The only one that comes to mind is if someone who
thinks they have internal contamination seeks to decrease the biological
half-life (12 days) by drinking copious amounts of liquid (beer being
the traditional beverage of choice), and gets in an accident.  

And if you don't think activists would claim that as due to the tritium,
you have greater faith in their integrity than I do.  

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
Behalf Of Jerry Cohen
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 11:52 AM
To: edmond0033 at comcast.net; radsafe
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Vermont Yankee leaking tritium --- time to
panic(?)

An almost unique property of Tritium is that it is detectable even in
miniscule quantities. Somehow there is a tendency, particularly among
non-technical people, to equate detectability with hazard.
Paradoxically, tritium, under almost any credible exposure scenario is
essentially innocuous. Can anyone suggest a credible accident sequence
involving tritium that might lead to health consequences worthy of
concern?
Jerry Cohen

________________________________
From: "edmond0033 at comcast.net" <edmond0033 at comcast.net>
To: dckosloff at firstenergycorp.com
Cc: radsafe at radlab.nl; radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl
Sent: Tue, February 2, 2010 11:02:18 AM
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Vermont Yankee leaking tritium --- time to
panic(?)

What do we do about K-40??  How about the difference in exposures in
places like Denver??  Places in India and Brazil where they have higher
than normal levels of background?  Is this like the Carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere?  Must we stop breathing?  The more 'intelligent' these
people think they are , the siller the Reports. 

Ed Baratta 

edmond0033 at comcast.net 
----- Original Message ----- 
From: dckosloff at firstenergycorp.com 
To: "Steven Dapra" <sjd at swcp.com> 
Cc: radsafe at radlab.nl, radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl 
Sent: Tuesday, February 2, 2010 8:54:20 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern 
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Vermont Yankee leaking tritium --- time to
panic(?) 

 "But in 2005, the National Academy of Sciences concluded after an
exhaustive study that even the tiniest amount of         
 ionizing radiation increases the risk of cancer."

 From the article, the voice of authority as understood by the public.
Of course, the statement, once made was not carried 
 to its logical conclusions.

 Don Kosloff

 License Renewal

 Oak Harbor Ohio

             Steven Dapra

             <sjd at swcp.com>

             Sent by:
To 
             radsafe-bounces at r         radsafe at radlab.nl

             adlab.nl
cc 

Subject 
             02/01/2010 08:50          [ RadSafe ] Vermont Yankee
leaking   
             PM                        tritium --- time to panic(?)

Feb. 1 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100201/ap_on_bi_ge/us_leaking_nuclear_plant
s 

Steven Dapra 

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