[ RadSafe ] Radioactive contamination unearthed atformerrockettest site near Los Angeles - U.S. News

Mon Dec 31 11:25:13 CST 2012

I had a professor who worked on the nuclear powered ramjet.  He said it could power a bomber to supersonic speeds, but not with the mass needed to shield the reactor enough to service the plane.  They looked at a lot of different possible work-arounds, but never came up with anything that was good enough.

He said one of the real deal-killers was the acknowledged fact that airplanes sometimes crash, and no one wanted to be involved in cleanup of a particularly hot reactor after it hit the ground at a couple hundred miles per hour.

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Jerry Cohen
Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2012 4:20 PM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radioactive contamination unearthed atformerrockettest site near Los Angeles - U.S. News

I believe you are refereing to the "Pluto" program managed by the Los Alamos Lab. Pluto was a rocket powered by liquid hydrogen by running it through a nuclear reactor expanding its volume to provide the necessary thrust. It worked, but I assume because it invoved nuclear energy,  it was politically unacceptable to the politicians in Washington. During the same period (the 60's), Livermore Lab was working on a nuclear powered ramjet engine. Following its first sucessful test, this project was also killed by the federal government.
Jerry Cohen

________________________________
From: Edmond <edmond0033 at comcast.net>
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
Sent: Sat, December 29, 2012 10:20:06 AM
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radioactive contamination unearthed atformerrocket test site near Los Angeles - U.S. News

I think (not very sure) at one time the DOE or (AEC) was trying to develop a rocket engine that was to be powered by radioactivity.  It was canceled for whatever reason.

Ed Baratta

edmond0033 at comcast.net

-----Original Message----- From: Douglas Minnema
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2012 3:44 PM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radioactive contamination unearthed atformerrocket test site near Los Angeles - U.S. News

Just curious, what about tritium?

Twelve or so years ago, when I was doing a safety management system review of the DOE-funded cleanup operations at that site, there was clear (and
acknowledged) evidence of a tritium plume moving from the site into off-site areas.  I was surprised at the time because there had not been any active reactors or other obvious sources for the tritium at the site for many years before that time, but it was equally clear that the plume was associated with one of the old test reactor locations.

I understand that the intervening half-life of time will have reduced the quantities further (please, no lectures on radioactive decay :-) but at that time the quantities were easily measurable.  I'm not sure that one half-life would have been enough to "make it go away."  Physical dispersal of the plume might be enough to reduce it to below detectable, but I don't have a good feel for that.

Doug Minnema, PhD, CHP
US Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Cary Renquist
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2012 1:54 PM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radioactive contamination unearthed at formerrocket test site near Los Angeles - U.S. News

Here is the EPA's Fact Sheet on the study results:
EPA Radiological Characterization Study Results http://j.mp/12dBJrt

It lists some of the specific results in a table.
e.g.
Am-241: 3 positive in the 0.05-0.06 pCi/g range
Cs-137:  291 positive in the 0.2-200 pCi/g range
Pu239/240:  14 pos in the 0.02-0.19 pCi/g range
Sr90:  153 pos in the 0.08-21 pCi/g range Etc.

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

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Cary Renquist
Sent: Friday, 14 December 2012 10:35 AM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radioactive contamination unearthed at formerrocket test site near Los Angeles - U.S. News

U.S. EPA's Final Technical Memorandum Look-Up Table Recommendations This is a link to a pdf that seems to have the background threshold values for the nuclides of interest (Table 2 of attachment 1).
http://j.mp/QYILg4

Pursuant to an interagency agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the USEPA has conducted a Radiological Background Study to determine the background levels for radionuclides in surface and subsurface soils associated with Area IV and the Northern Buffer Zone (Area IV Study Area1) of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), located in Ventura County, California. In addition, the USEPA is currently conducting a radiological characterization of the Area IV Study Area to identify areas that exhibit radionuclide concentrations in surface and subsurface soil and sediment above background levels (herein, "soil" shall mean surface and subsurface soil as well as surface and subsurface sediment unless otherwise specified).

I didn't see a doc that has the presented results of the soil samples, however, this article at least has some details:
Latest soil tests at Santa Susana Field Lab site shows radioactive material remains - LA Daily News http://j.mp/TSusGW

The EPA researchers collected 3,735 samples of mostly surface soil and found that of those, 500 contained concentrations of radioactive materials that exceeded what is known as background standards - or the levels occurring naturally in the environment. Almost all were man-made radionuclides. Most of those samples contained Cesium-137, and of those one sample reached levels up to
1,000 times above background standard. There were 153 samples of Stronium-90 and of those some hits reached levels that were 284 times higher than background.

Both radioactive elements are considered dangerous to human health when present at high levels.

"There were some hits that were elevated but for the most part, they were in the range that we expected," said John Jones, federal project director with the Department of Energy.

Cary

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

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Robert J Gunter
Sent: Friday, 14 December 2012 6:38 AM
To: 'Robert Atkinson'; 'The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics)Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radioactive contamination unearthed atformer rocket test site near Los Angeles - U.S. News

Not a very informative statement:  "10 percent contained radioactive concentrations exceeding background levels."

This could easily be fill from another location or different aggregate based on this statement alone.  Is it NORM or Cs-137?

Robert J. Gunter, MSc, CHP
CHP Consultants/CHP Dosimetry
www.chpconsultants.com
www.chpdosimetry.com
Toll Free: (888) 766-4833
Fax:  (866) 491-9913
Cel:  (865) 387-0028
rjgunter at chpconsultants.com

________________________________
From: Steven Dapra <sjd at swcp.com>
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List <radsafe at agni.phys.iit.edu>
Sent: Friday, 14 December 2012, 2:53
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radioactive contamination unearthed at former rocket test site near Los Angeles - U.S. News

Dec. 13

      From the NBC article:

"Technicians collected 3,735 soil samples from a corner of the 2,850-acre hilltop lab where most of the testing was done. Of those, they found about
10 percent contained radioactive concentrations exceeding background levels."

      Yep.  Time to panic.  No doubt about it.

Steven Dapra

At 01:14 PM 12/13/2012, you wrote:
>http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/13/15878279-radioactive-contami
>nation-unearthed-at-former-rocket-test-site-near-los-angeles
>s

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