[ RadSafe ] Two Meter Thick Steel Plates to Shield from Plutonium

[Dan W McCarn]

Lieber Franz:
Dear Group:

Kazakhstan has a host of issues related to nuclear / radioactive
contamination. There was a case about 20 years ago in which the migratory,
horse-riding sheepherders in the central basins in Kazakhstan cut the steel
caps off boreholes drilled for uranium exploration in order to water their
livestock.  This formed a rather modest shallow lake and went on for years!
Needless to say, the sheep received a quite high radium dose.

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)
HotGreenChile at gmail.com (Private email) HotGreenChile at gmail dot com





-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of
franz.schoenhofer at chello.at
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2011 05:50
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList
Cc: Roger Helbig
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Two Meter Thick Steel Plates to Shield from
Plutonium

Roger and RADSAFErs,

I have time and again warned on RADSAFE for "Der Spiegel", because this is a
nasty pseudointellectual journal for pseudointellectuals and wants to give
their readers that belief that they are intellectuals. Speculations, which
turn out a few days later as what they are, are "sold" as facts. Furthermore
it is one of the foremost anti-nuclear pseudointellectual journals. They
ignore any real scientists, even the world over highly esteemed "Fachverband
für Strahlenschutz" (German Radiation Protection Society) with the absolute
top scientists from Germany, Switzerland and even some from Austria, as far
as we have some....  They only cite the Gesellschaft für Strahlenschutz
which consists only of a handful of furious anti-nuclear pseudo-scientists,
one of the most disgusting one Schmitz-Feuerhake who has been officially
found  by her university to having falsified data and left out those which
did not agree with her anti-nuclear opinion. She was not dismissed from
university because she was to retire anyway the next year. She is a
prominent member of this infamous "European Commission of something with
Radiation Protection" - what a surprise that Chris Busby is secretary there!


I have visited the web-site you mentioned before. One of the masterpieces of
this kind of journalism is to cite facts - and then draw conclusions which
have nothing to do with the facts. 

Having a reasonable mind looking at the site, one would detect, that almost
all of the examples given there are from military use of nuclear bombs,
tests, etc. What has this to do with Fukushima? But that's the usual trick
of antinuclear groups to link nuclear power to the devastating effects from
nuclear weapons. No anti-nuclear propaganda without a mushroom cloud, no one
against a nuclear power plant without showing the huge cooling towers, even
if there are none and the reactor building is tiny compared to the cooling
towers. Manipulation everywhere, but  we live in democracies, where spin
doctors tell the politicians what lies to say to be elected!

Something scientific on Kazachstan: Yes the site is incredibly contaminated.
I cannot believe that anyone in Kazachstan would think of agricultural
produce. There have been IAEA based groups evaluating the contamination and
there are even more results from research of former Sovjet agencies and now
Kasach ones. During a meeting at the IAEA on the Fast Breeder Reactor many
years ago I also met a few Kasach scientists and I dare say, that they were
top in their field.

That 2 m of steel would be necessary to shield from alpha-radiation of
plutonium - ok, it will certainly shield, but where to plant the
agricultural produce then? We live in a world of idiots, having not the
slightest amount of common sense.

Best regards, 

Franz
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------- 

---- Roger Helbig <rhelbig at sfo.com> schrieb:
> Is this statement on the Der Spiegel Atomic Desert site accurate?  If it
is,
> why two meter thick steel plates and how much of an area do they cover.
> 
>  
> 
> http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,756369-8,00.html
> 
>  
> 
> The Kazakh government had hoped to make the site available for
agricultural
> use once again. But some areas are still so contaminated with plutonium
that
> they have to be covered with huge, two-meter thick steel plates to contain
> the radiation.
> 
> Thanks
> 
>  
> 
> Roger Helbig
> 
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--
Franz Schoenhofer, PhD, MinRat
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
Austria
mobile: ++43 699 1706 1227

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