[ RadSafe ] Request for Assistance

[Holcomb, Robert D]

I don't know when blood irradiation started, might be a source of Cs-137 in one of those units.

Moisture density gages, used in construction, have both Cs-137 and Am/Be-241, for density and water content measurements.  These sources are not that large, say 10mCi Cs-137 and 40 mCi Am-241.  The fact that it is an old air base would mean that there was a specific need for these units, maybe several in storage onsite.  There was a big SNAFU at the current Denver airport during its construction, someone read the wrong side of the moisture curve, messed up the runway, had to re-build it.  I don't know what units were available in 1983, Troxxler is a good mfg to look up.  The beta, gamma, alpha and maybe neutron presence would complicate/confuse the initial responders in their first assessment of the hazard.  That would be the point of using the Am-241, not big enough to be dangerous, but throws a curve at the government's response, alphas may mean U or Pu, much more scary to the public.  Remember Alexander Litvinenko, they didn't think to look for alpha emissions when they "checked" him for radiation poisoning. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Otto G. Raabe [mailto:ograabe at ucdavis.edu] 
Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2013 6:22 PM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Request for Assistance


>July 2,  2013

My questions is what radionuclides would the Nuclear Medicine Department in a British hospital in 1983 that would be suitable for contaminating a deactivated air base so the USAF cannot deploy a new nuclear missile weapon system there?

Otto

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Prof. Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP
Center for Health & the Environment
University of California
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E-Mail: ograabe at ucdavis.edu
Phone: (530) 752-7754   FAX: (530) 758-6140
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