[ RadSafe ] Chernobyl's radioactive trees and the forest fire risk - Tower Shielding Facility at ORNL

Tue Jul 24 12:23:12 CDT 2012

I remember DOSAR. It did not have any fuel in it at the time I worked at ORNL. I remember the Tower Shielding Facility (same comment). There was an old farm house across the valley from one of the facility windows which housed the TSR. The TSR could operate while inside this facility, as well as during the "hoisted" operations. Rumor has it that this window allowed a neutron beam to blast the farm house across the valley. I am not old enough to verify that.

Regards,
John E. Dixon

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Joseph Shonka
Sent: Monday, July 09, 2012 9:54 PM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Chernobyl's radioactive trees and the forest fire risk - Tower Shielding Facility at ORNL

The DOSAR Reactor (dosimetry applications research reactor) at ORNL was a fast pulsed reactor used for the ICHIBAN studies in support of the japanese dosimetry.  Many of you may have participated in the annual accident dosimetry intercomparisons held for a week during each summer.  During the operational period, trees with the largest chromosomal volumes were preferentially killed (if you can kill a tree?).  The forest around the reactor building had different species of trees as a function of radius.
As I recall, the pines were most affected.

Joe Shonka

On Mon, Jul 9, 2012 at 9:10 PM, K. L. McMahan <kb60127 at comcast.net> wrote:

> The reactor you describe was almost surely the Tower Shielding 
> Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. A good summary description 
> complete with photos and drawings of this impressive bit of history 
> can be found at this
> link:
> http://info.ornl.gov/sites/publications/Files/Pub20808.pdf
>
> Others will have to speak of the effect of the hoisted, operating 
> reactor on pine trees (or perhaps oak trees, since this is, after all, 
> Oak Ridge). I can only say trees grow pretty well around there now.
>
> Kim McMahan, CHP
> Oak Ridge, TN
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
> [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Lawrence 
> Jacobi
> Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2012 4:38 PM
> To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
> Subject: [ RadSafe ] Chernobyl's radioactive trees and the forest fire 
> risk
>
> According to the story below, Professore Sergiy Zibtsev, from the 
> Forestry Institute at the Kiev University of Life Sciences, is 
> evaluating the potential for a fire in the pine forest around 
> Chernobyl to spread major amounts of radioactivity to offsite areas, 
> including the Ukraine and Western Europe.  While my intuition tells me 
> that will not be the case, I was wondering if anyone who is more 
> experienced than me in terrestrial radiation ecology has more insight 
> or a different opinion.
>
> I remember reading about the "red forest" around Chernobyl caused by 
> the death of the existing pine trees, which I attributed to the 
> massive doses received by the forest 25 years ago; but, not 
> necessarily attributable to ongoing irradiation from contamination.  I 
> also remember reading about an experimental reactor in the USA that 
> was purposelly allowed to go critical while suspended in air, leading 
> to the death of nearby pine trees.  Does anyone remember the name of that facility?
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18721292
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