[ RadSafe ] Treating Coal-fired plant waste as TENORM

JPreisig at aol.com JPreisig at aol.com
Mon Dec 8 13:54:13 CST 2014


Radsafe,
 
      Hmmmmm.  In 20 or 30 years, when oil,  natural gas, coal etc. start 
to dwindle, and it starts to get cold in the  Winter, it should become pretty 
easy to get permitting, approval, etc. to build  a nuclear plant.
 
       Joe Preisig
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 12/8/2014 1:19:27 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
farber at farbermed.com writes:

Regarding radon dose from natural gas [ NG ], I recall that the EPA  
carried out and published a 20 or 30 page analysis back in the early 1970s to  
assess whether it was justified to require the NG industry to build some type  
of storage tanks to hold up delivery of NG when it entered a pipeline for  
delivery to consumers, so less Rn dose would result in different  situations  
At the time they were looking at the use of NG for unvented  uses in homes  
— stove burners and ovens, and unvented space  heaters.  They calculated 
that building large NG holdup tanks would avoid  [ if memory serves ] 
radiation dose to the bronchial epethelium of the  population exposed totaling many  
tens of millions of person-rem to the  US public. However, the holdup tanks 
would cost a  some millions of  dollars so their bottom line was that they 
did not feel  holding up  natural gas delivery to end consumers was worth 
spending a few $ per person  rem of lung dose avoided.

I recall thinking of the EPA’s disregard of  substantial radon dose from NG 
use many times when the EPA and other  regulatory agencies made an major 
licensing issue about trivial theoretical  radiation doses delivered thousands 
of years in the future from nuclear waste  disposal in deep geological 
repositories, or the NRC required nuclear plants  to spend tens of millions of 
dollars for some effluent control system to avoid  a integrated person-rem to 
the general public with individual doses of  micro-rem.

Ain’t it awful?  It’s tough for an industry like  nuclear power  that is 
held to a completely different standard regarding  radiation dose to the 
public than other power generation or energy related  industries.

Stewart Farber, MSPH
Farber Medical Solutions, LLC
PO  Box 144
Old Saybrook, CT  06475

farber-medical.com
farber at farbermed.com
[203] 441-8433  [o]
[203] 522-2817 [m]



> On Dec 8, 2014, at 12:19 PM,  Nathan Sutherland <sutherln at gmail.com> 
wrote:
> 
> The radon  angle on this is an interesting one, in canada
> drilling/fracking  operations look to be getting ahead of the game in
> their employ of  RSO's on site.  To many I have spoken with, it is
> looking likely  that this practice could become something that ends up
> being mandated  by our regulator.  dose received would depend highly on
> the  geography, and a quick google seems to indicate that radon levels
>  transported to residential customers would be a factor of the geology
>  of the source and relative distance to the operation (decay time).
>  Seems like at a gas fired plant, it would be difficult to get any
>  representative numbers for the industry as a whole, but given how
>  close the stations are to residential neighbourhoods id love to hear
>  some more information on this!
> 
> -Nathan
> 
> On  Sun, Dec 7, 2014 at 6:11 PM, ROY HERREN <royherren2005 at yahoo.com>  
wrote:
>> Yes indeed, Doug's referenced article sums up the double  standard 
between the waste from coal and that of nuclear power rather  nicely.  One can't 
help but wonder how natural gas would fair by  comparison against nuclear 
power.  One good part about burning huge  quantities of natural gas is that 
one isn't left with mountains of left over  ash, however I am left to wonder 
about he quantity of radon gas emissions from  burning natural gas.  Is the a 
potential for huge plumes of radon  daughter products falling out from the 
natural gas power plants smoke  stacks?  While this question may well sound 
alarmist, it's not outside  the realm of possibilities when one considers 
previous stack emissions from  copper smelters, wherein adjacent smelter town 
communities were heavily  contaminated from lead fall out.
>> Roy Herren
>>  
>>     On Sunday, December 7, 2014 5:28 AM, Doug  Aitken <JAitken at slb.com> 
wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> An  oldie, but goodie:
>>  http://web.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev26-34/text/colmain.html
>>  Regards
>> Doug
>> 
>> Doug Aitken
>> Cell  phone: 713-562-8585
>> QHSE Advisor, D&M Operations  Support
>> Schlumberger Technology Corporation
>> c/o Kathy  Trosclair
>> 300 Schlumberger Drive, MD15,
>> Sugar Land,  Texas 77478
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>  -----Original Message-----
>> From:  radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu  
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Dan  McCarn
>> Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2014 10:24 AM
>> To:  The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing  
List
>> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] 10 warmest years on  record
>> 
>> Dear Doug:
>> 
>> That would  mean that farmers who use water with trace radium would have 
to remediate  their TENORM soils when accumulation exceeds a specified 
norm; Or that waste  from most rare-earth mining would have to be considered 
TENORM.
>>  
>> Dan ii
>> 
>> Dan W McCarn,  Geologist
>> 108 Sherwood Blvd
>> Los Alamos, NM  87544-3425
>> +1-505-672-2014 (Home – New Mexico)
>>  +1-505-670-8123 (Mobile - New Mexico)
>> HotGreenChile at gmail.com  (Private email) HotGreenChile at gmail dot com
>> 
>> On  Sat, Dec 6, 2014 at 9:16 AM, Doug Aitken <JAitken at slb.com>  wrote:
>> 
>>> Does not a lot of this waste from coal  fired power stations contain a
>>> significant amount of  radioactivity? And should it not be treated as 
TENORM?
>>> That  would put the cat among the pigeons.....
>>>  Regards
>>> Doug
>>> 
>>> Doug  Aitken
>>> Cell phone: 713-562-8585
>>> QHSE Advisor,  D&M Operations Support
>>> Schlumberger Technology  Corporation
>>> c/o Kathy Trosclair
>>> 300  Schlumberger Drive, MD15,
>>> Sugar Land, Texas  77478
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>  -----Original Message-----
>>> From:  radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:
>>>  radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of ROY HERREN
>>>  Sent: Friday, December 05, 2014 9:15 PM
>>> To: The International  Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing
>>>  List
>>> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] 10 warmest years on  record
>>> 
>>> Is there a double standard at work  here regarding waste post energy
>>> production?  What is the  coal fired energy industries long term
>>> plan/solution for the  environmentally acceptable disposal of well over
>>> a century of  accumulated waste?  See  ‘Thick Orange Gooey Stuff’  With
>>> Arsenic, Lead Found In River Near Duke Energy Power  PlantandNew Coal
>>> Ash Leaks Found at Duke Energy’s Buck Power  Plant » EcoWatch
>>>   Roy Herren
>>>  
>>>     On Friday, December 5, 2014 6:24 AM,  "Sandgren, Peter" <
>>> Peter.Sandgren at ct.gov>  wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>> No agenda here - just  relaying what has been reported:
>>>  http://www.climatecentral.org/gallery/graphics/10-warmest-years-global
>>>  ly It’s official: 2013 is tied with 2003 as the fourth warmest  year
>>> for Planet Earth since modern record-keeping began more  than 130 years
>>> ago. The mean global temperature rose 1.12°F  above the 20th century
>>> average. That means the 10 warmest  years on record have all happened
>>> since 1998,  with
>>> 2010 still on top as the warmest of all. The only year in  the entire
>>> 20th century that was warmer than 2013, and the  only one remaining in
>>> the top 10, was 1998. This also marks  the 37th straight year where the
>>> global temperature was above  the long term average.
>>> 
>>> (Google News) US,  British data show 2014 could be hottest year on
>>>  record
>>> 
>>>  http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/11/27/us-climatechange-heat-idUKKCN
>>>  0JB1EM20141127
>>> 
>>> P. SANDGREN
>>> CT  DESPP - DEMHS
>>> RAD EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS
>>> 25  SIGOURNEY ST., HARTFORD, CT
>>> 
>>> 
>>>  ________________________________________
>>> 
>>> On  11/24/2014 12:49 PM, JPreisig at aol.com wrote:
>>>>  Radsafe,
>>>> 
>>>>        See google news --- antarctic sea  ice    .
>>>>  
>>>>       Not only is there more  Antarctic Ice,  but it is also now
>>>> thicker,  as  determined by underwater robotic vessels.
>>>>  
>>>>       So much for global  warming????
>>>> 
>>>>        Joe Preisig
>>> 
>>> 
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