[ RadSafe ] Ra-226 tubing? Tubes may emit hazardoul levels of radon . dispose of them sooner rather than laterm

[parthasarathy k s]

Ed,

The damage to the chemical is not only due to chemical degradation but due to alpha particle irradiation. Radium-226 with all decay products together have several alpha emitters (Ra 226, Rn-222, Po 218, Po-214 and Po-210). Rn-222 emitted from a few hundred microcurie of Ra-226 can lead to totally unacceptable airborne levels of Rn-222 and decay products. We have demonstrated that leaky radium tubes and needles stored in small rooms with poor ventilation can be  sources of airborne decay products in radiotherapy departments.

The radium laced tube must be disposed of safely. I  am unable to accept that they can be preserved as mementos !

Regards
Parthasarathy



________________________________
From: Ed Johnson <cejjr56 at gmail.com>
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
Sent: Sunday, 25 September 2011, 0:45
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Ra-226 tubing?

Some clarification on the Ra-226 tubing:  The 0.5 cm diameter matches that
of my uncle's WWII souvenir deck cord, and I misstated the tubing material
composition in my previous post; it was a clear plastic, not rubber.  Also,
I recall that the deck cord's cavity was not completely filled with the
radium phosphor.  I believe the configuration was that only the interior
surface of the tubing was painted.

I agree with Jerry Gels concern about radon progeny contamination.  Given
the long half life of Ra-226 (1600 years), it will be continuously producing
Rn-222 (3.8 day half-life) and approaching secular equilibrium.  The deck
cords could by no means be considered "sealed" sources, and the Rn-222 could
easily leak out, as indicated by Kelly Grahn's post.  Therefore, whatever
confined space the item is stored in can become quite contaminated with
alpha- and beta/gamma-emitting progeny in transient equilibrium with the
Rn-222.

You might want to test if the item is still luminescent in the dark, though
the phospor might have chemically degraded.  If it is a deck cord, the
emitted visible light intensity would not be sufficient to be visible in
daylight conditions.

Your item is yet another example of the many applications of radium-226 that
were developed prior to the advent of fission reactors, when fission and
activation products were substituted for Ra-226.  Those applications ranged
from self-luminescence, to both real and supposed medical therapeutics, to
neutron sources, including initiators.  I remember fondly Paul Frame/ORAU's
Revigator (inhale deeply) and the radium-filled pillow "for a good night's
sleep."

Don't you just love a mystery.  Legacy items can be so much fun!

Ed Johnson

On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 9:22 PM, <grahnk at comcast.net> wrote:

> They already have an entry for this, and explicitly say they don't want any
> for the collection.
>
> http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/radioluminescent/rope.htm
>
> We've encountered 4 of these over the years in our Orphan Source Recovery
> Program and they've all been leakers.
>
> Kelly Grahn
> Illinois Emergency Management Agency
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: alstonchris at netscape.net
> To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
> Sent: Sat, 24 Sep 2011 02:31:25 -0000 (UTC)
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Ra-226 tubing?
>
> Ed
>
> Your answer is so good that it is almost hilarious.  You should write a
> page for the Wikipedia about it.  I would bet money that Paul Frame, the
> curator of ORAU's museum would be interested in the story, and picture, at
> least.  Whether he would want to, or could, take custody of the device is
> another matter.  Rick should be able to link to the HP Historical Museum
> through either ORISE or ORAU.
>
> Cheers
> cja
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ed Johnson
> To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
>  Sent: Fri, Sep 23, 2011 9:15 pm
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Ra-226 tubing?
>
>
> Hi Rick,
>
> After viewing your photo, it appears to be a deck cord (i.e., barrier) that
> was used during WWII, and for some time after, to warn sailors that they
> were approaching the edge of a ship's deck during night-time ops.  It is
> difficult to be certain of this based on the photo alone, but that's what
> it
> looks like and the radium-226 is good supporting evidence.  There are
> sections of a ship's deck where steel railings are purposely not
> installed to allow ready access and egress of equipment and supplies, and
> this is especially true for aircraft carriers.   Maintaining dark
> operations
> to avoid enemy detection was and still is essential for shipboard
> operations
> during war times.  Before the installation of these cordons, and also
> radium-filled deck markers (typically two-inch diameter disks attached to
> the deck's edge), it was not uncommon for sailors to unwittingly walk right
> off the edge of the deck and be lost to the sea on moonless or overcast
> nights.  When you're steaming along at 20+ knots on a pitch black night and
> on a war mission, the overboard squid's cries for help are either not going
> to be heard or the mission's demands do not permit a rescue.
>
> The cords were strung between vertical stanchions that were bolted to the
> deck.  Typically, the cords and deck markers were filled with Ra-226 that
> was chemically bonded with a phosphorescent material such as a sulfate.
>  The
> design was to create a continuous thermoluminescence whereby the 185 KeV
> photons from the radium-226 were exciting the outer shell electrons of the
> phosphor, which in turn returned to ground state by emitting visible
> wavelelength photons.  The light intensity was low enough so as not to be
> visible by the enemy at a distance, but high enough to be readily visible
> by
> sailors on deck.  The clips on each end of the cord attached to the
> stanchions.  I seem to recall that these devices were replaced with
> tritium-filled markers at some time after the end of WWII.  There would of
> course be less of a hazard with tritium-filled devices due to the much
> shorter radiological half-life, pure beta emitter decay scheme vs. the
> penetrating energy of the Ra-226 gamma photon, the non-bone seeker
> biochemistry, and short effective half-life of the tritium should intake
> occur.  As well, radium filled devices build up a radon-222 gas pressure
> and
> tend to leak over time, resulting in loose contamination of surrounding
> surface s by the radon decay progeny.  If you want to know about leaking
> radon from supposed sealed sources, just ask any of the EPA/Roy F. Weston
> or
> was it Chem Nuclear(?) personnel that performed the Superfund emergency
> removal of 120 or so curies of radium-filled medical devices from the
> "vault" at the Radium Chemical Company facility in Queens back in the late
> 80s.
>
> You may know that  for many decades after WWII ended the Navy was not very
> scrupulous about either acknowledging the hazards associated with this
> material or disposing of the devices in a manner that we would find
> acceptable today.  In fact, the regulatory requirements either did not
> exist
> or were not well-enforced (as a federal agency the Navy was regulated by
> the AEC/NRC), or the material was exempted.  How do I know what your item
> is, you may wonder?  When I was a regulator for the New York State DEC, we
> investigated a Yellow Freight terminal property in Rochester (Erdman
> Street)
> that bordered a landfill where deck markers had been disposed.   Some were
> surfacing.  Also, my uncle served on a light cruiser during WWII and
> brought
> one of these cords home with him after the war.  In the 1960s as a kid, my
> brother and I played with the cord because, "gee, look Wally, it glows in
> the dark."  Neither I nor my parents nor my uncle had any idea that we were
> likely being frequently dosed from the thing.
>
> There were probably many linear miles of that rubber tubing produced during
> the war, and one wonders where it all went!  Hmmmm...old barns, landfills,
> and attics can be such treasure troves of forgotten history.  Like my
> brother's Hot Wheels dragsters that are now worth $50K apiece but are
> buried
> under 150 feet of compacted garbage.  Oh well.  If Oak Ridge Associated
> Universities is still operating and still maintaining their museum of rad
> material relics, you might want to contact them and ask if they want to
> take
> it off your hands.  Anywho, hope this helps you, and I would like to hear
> about your disposition of this item in a follow-up post.
>
> Best of luck,
>
> Carl Ed Johnson
> Still a sometimes HP (unaffiliated)
> Albuquerque, New Mexico
> cejjr56 at gmail.com
> 505-463-6685
>
>
> All,
>
> Please see the attached PDF file (assuming the attachment goes through) of
> a photo of an item that was found in an old barn in New Hampshire, USA.  It
> appears to be a bundle of rubber or plastic tubing with metal clips on the
> ends.  The bundle in the photo is approximately 15 cm in diameter, with a
> tube thickness of approximately 0.5 cm.  The contact exposure rate is 50
> mR/hr, and the isotope was identified to be Ra-226.  Does anyone know what
> this might be or where it might have come from?
>
> (See attached file: Ra-226 tubing3.pdf)
>
> Thank you,
>
> Rick D'Alarcao, Ph.D.
> Health Physicist
> Radiological Health Section
> Bureau of Public Health Protection
> New Hampshire Division of Public Health Services, Department of Health and
> Human Services
> Division of Public Health Services
> 29 Hazen Drive
> Concord, NH 03301-6504
> Phone: (603) 271-7578
> Fax: (603) 225-2325
> Email: rdalarcao at dhhs.state.nh.us
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