[ RadSafe ] Half-life nonsense

Tue Jul 24 12:54:06 CDT 2012

The half life of K-40 is 1.248E+9 years. 

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 John R Johnson
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2012 1:08 PM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Half-life nonsense

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
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > 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:
> > http://health.phys.iit.edu/radsaferules.html
> >
> > For information on how to subscribe or unsubscribe and other 
> > settings
> > visit:
> > 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:
> > http://health.phys.iit.edu/radsaferules.html
> >
> > For information on how to subscribe or unsubscribe and other 
> > settings
> > visit: http://health.phys.iit.edu
> >
> _______________________________________________
> 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:
> http://health.phys.iit.edu/radsaferules.html
>
> For information on how to subscribe or unsubscribe and other settings
> visit:
> http://health.phys.iit.edu
> _______________________________________________
> 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:
> http://health.phys.iit.edu/radsaferules.html
>
> For information on how to subscribe or unsubscribe and other settings
> visit: http://health.phys.iit.edu
> _______________________________________________
> 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:
> http://health.phys.iit.edu/radsaferules.html
>
> For information on how to subscribe or unsubscribe and other settings
> visit: http://health.phys.iit.edu
>
_______________________________________________
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: http://health.phys.iit.edu/radsaferules.html

For information on how to subscribe or unsubscribe and other settings visit: http://health.phys.iit.edu