[ RadSafe ] query for RadSafe ... radiation from tailings pile

[Dan W McCarn]

Tailings not the only "large" source for radon!

As I've mentioned before in this forum, areas of high-volume irrigation may
indeed cause very large amounts of radon to be released.  My calculations of
the San Luis Valley in which about 1 million acre-feet of water (my
calculations were about 1.3 x 10^9 m^3 water) are used for spray irrigation
releases from 2-4K Curies of radon per year.  Attached is a short pdf file
of my unpublished estimates.  This is the "Low-end" case for the San Luis
Valley (around 2KCi) which does not include elevated radon from a 60 x 5 km
"uranium feature" in the valley. This source of radon is 3 times the total
radon release from active uranium mining in Texas in 1998.

Dan ii

--
Dan W McCarn, Geologist
108 Sherwood Blvd
Los Alamos, NM 87544-3425
+1-505-672-2014 (Home - New Mexico)
+1-505-670-8123 (Mobile - New Mexico)
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-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Andycgeo at aol.com
Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 10:09
To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] query for RadSafe ... radiation from tailings pile

Hi all:
 
Back in the 1970's and early 1980's I made a lot of measurements on top of  
uncovered tailing piles and about 1/4 of a mile from the tailings. On top 
of the  tailings as you would expect the radon flux was very high
but radon measurements about 1/4 of a mile from the perimeter of the  
tailings were at background levels. 
 
Andy George
 
 
In a message dated 9/13/2010 11:35:10 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
brees at lanl.gov writes:

As long  as the covering is sufficient to hinder the radon gas migration... 
there are  protocols to test that. 

Brian Rees

-----Original  Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu  
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Miller, Mark  L
Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 9:18 AM
To:  'radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu'
Subject: [ RadSafe ] query for RadSafe ...  radiation from tailings pile

Mark,
Assuming that the U-tailings are  covered (and even if they are not) the 
gamma radiation coming from the  tailings are likely to be indistinguishable

from background within several  hundred yards from the pile itself 
(self-shielding, geometry, soil cover, rock  cover, etc).  The larger
potential is for 
the migration of radon gas that  the tailings emit.  If they are covered, 
this is a non-issue.   Finally, if the tailings are NOT covered, the larger 
issue is environmental  spread via wind and water.
Mark Miller


-----Original  Message-----
From: Mark Sonter [mailto:sontermj at tpg.com.au] 
Sent:  Thursday, September 09, 2010 6:32 PM
To:  radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
Subject: [ RadSafe ] query for  radsafe

Hi -

Does anyone out there in RadsafeLand have any  simple 'rule of thumb' or 
formula for estimating roughly the skyshine (sky  scattered gamma) from a 
large area of irradiating surface such as a  uranium tailings deposit, 
given area of deposit, radium content in it, and  horizontal distance 
from deposit to receptor point?

Mark  Sonter


-- 
Mark Sonter

Radiation Advice & Solutions  Pty Ltd,   abn 31 891 761 435
Asteroid Enterprises Pty  Ltd,   abn 53 008 115 302

116 Pennine Drive, South Maclean,  Queensland 4280, Australia

Phone / fax  (07) 3297 7653    Mobile 0412 433 286

"Keep everything as simple as possible, but no  simpler"  - A. Einstein

--This email was produced using recycled  electrons--




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