[ RadSafe ] Half-life nonsense

Mon Jul 16 12:07:47 CDT 2012

Mike

I've worked in both fields also. Potassium is an element necessary for life
(e the medical field) and it all contains
K-40 (half life 1.25 x 10(to the 4) years.

John

On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 9:29 AM, Brennan, Mike (DOH) <
Mike.Brennan at doh.wa.gov> wrote:

> I deal (mostly) with environmental rad, but I also talk with people who
> use rad in the medical field.  For the medical folks, "long half-life" is
> anything more than about 100 days.  For me, Long half-life is when it is
> more convenient to write it in scientific notation.
>
> -----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, July 14, 2012 1:09 PM
> To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Half-life nonsense
>
> Lets see if I understand this correcly---If it is man-made, it is bad (ie.
> hazardous)
> but naturally occuring is OK. Right???
> By that standard, aspirin is a poison, and hemlock is OK
>
> At the HPS meeting in 1980, I gave a paper intended to address the
> longevity
> nonsense by proposing a change in definition. We proposed that:
>
> Radionuclides with a half-life less than one million years be considered
> radioactive,
>
> Radionuclides with a half-lifes between one million and one trillion years
> are
> radiopassive,and
>
> Those with half lives greater than a trillion years (eg. I-129) are
> radioquiescent (ie. stable elements)
>
> Somehow, the idea never caught on.
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: John R Johnson <idiasjrj at gmail.com>
> To: Jerry Cohen <jjcohen at prodigy.net>; The International Radiation
> Protection
> (Health Physics) Mailing List <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
> Sent: Fri, July 13, 2012 4:22:42 PM
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Texas LLRW Site
>
> Jerry
>
> Isn't it because it does not occur in "nature". If I-129 is present it must
> be "man made" and likely an indication of other isotopes being made.
> John
> On Fri, Jul 13, 2012 at 3:38 PM, Jerry Cohen <jjc105 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > I wonder what makes I-129 a "radionuclide of interest". Its exceedingly
> > long
> > half-life makes it essentially a stable element, no different than the
> > stable
> > iodine that occurs naturally in most soils.
> >
> > Jerry Cohen
> >
> >
> > Dear Radsafe,
> >
> >    From:    _jpreisig at aol.com_ (mailto:jpreisig at aol.com)    .
> >
> >
> >    Hope you are all doing well.  HP  abstracts for the HP Society
> > Meeting in Sacramento,
> > California are out now, as a supplement to Health Physics magazine.
> > Always interesting
> > reading.  One item is on DU by Bob Cherry.
> >
> >    Operational Radiation Safety (another HPS journal)  has an article on
> > Decommissioning of the
> > Brookhaven Lab High Flux Beam reactor.  Fuel and spent fuel are  gone.
> > Heavy Water is gone.
> > Interesting reading.  I guess that's one way of totally stopping  the
> > tritium leak source term.
> > The offending leaking fuel storage pool was drained.  Goodbye.  Wonder
> > what they'll do with the
> > Brookhaven Medical Research Reactor.  I don't think there was anything
> > wrong with it..
> >
> >    There's an abstract on the new Texas LLRW (Low Level  Radioactive
> > Waste) facility and some
> > modeling they did.  The radionuclides of interest are C-14, Tc-99,
> I-129,
> > possibly among others.
> > I guess tritium is not that big a deal in such a facility, due to its
> short
> > half-life.  These radionuclides
> > are particularly mobile in the groundwater environment, as referred to in
> > my earlier RADSAFE
> > postings.  These Texas folks did some computer modelling and describe
> what
> > they did.  Wonder why
> > they didn't just use Femwater-BLT (Suen and Sullivan???),  Lewater,
> Lewaste
> > or similar computer
> > codes.  Last I heard, Femwater-BLT was available for use on a personal
> > computer.  It is or was
> > available for a fee from the RSICC, the Radiation Shielding Information
> > Center at Oak Ridge
> > National Laboratory (USA).  Other Radiation computer codes are
> available.
> > Finally, if you see a computer
> > code you are interested in, you can search it out on the internet, and
> then
> > email the original
> > programmers/designers for information on how to obtain such a computer
> > code.  No big deal.
> >
> >    These newfangled small, modular reactors are also  addressed in an
> > abstract.  Sounds like
> > some of them will be deployed by the TVA, in the Tennessee Valley.
> > Newfangled nuclear
> > electricity for people/homes/businesses previously not on the electricity
> > grid.
> >
> >    NJ Nuke plants and workers, thanks for the 50% of the  electricity (in
> > NJ) that you are providing to
> > air condition part of my home this summer!!!!  Take Care...
> >
> >    Regards,    Joseph R. (Joe) Preisig,  PhD
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
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> > RadSafe rules. These can be found at:
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> >
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> > http://health.phys.iit.edu
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> >
> > From: "JPreisig at aol.com" <JPreisig at aol.com>
> > To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
> > Sent: Thu, July 12, 2012 8:44:56 PM
> > Subject: [ RadSafe ] Texas LLRW Site
> > _______________________________________________
> > You are currently subscribed to the RadSafe mailing list
> >
> > Before posting a message to RadSafe be sure to have read and understood
> > the RadSafe rules. These can be found at:
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> >
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> > visit: http://health.phys.iit.edu
> >
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