[ RadSafe ] Treating Coal-fired plant waste as TENORM

JPreisig at aol.com JPreisig at aol.com
Mon Dec 8 19:06:40 CST 2014


Radsafe,
 
     Ever hear of a Pitot tube???  Find books on  Air Sampling and 
Analysis.  Man, this takes me back to my Air Sampling and  Analysis course with Ray 
Manganelli and Jill Lipoti at Rutgers.  Can't even  remember what the book 
was called, but it was good reading.  Frank Haughey  made me take Air 
Sampling instead of Mathematical Physics.
 
     EPA documents must be loaded with information (see  their websites 
also) on how to measure Radon and how to grab samples.  The  carbon absorber 
test kits were around New Jersey Department of Environmental  Protection.  The 
Reading Prong (geologically speaking) is right next to New  Jersey.  People 
in Pennsylvania still test for Radon in their homes and  need to.  You can 
measure stack effluents with a pitot tube, provided you  make the 
measurements correctly.  Search the internet, baby.  It is  all out there.
 
    Regards,   Joe Preisig
 
PS  Perhaps also check the New Jersey Department of Environmental  
Protection (Radiation Protection Programs) website and the archives there.   NJDEP 
RPP still has a Radon group, I think, and you could call or email them, if  
needed.  NJDEP RPP was a nice place to work.  Some NJDEP RPP folks  lurk on 
Radsafe, I think.  Hi Herb!!!!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 12/8/2014 7:50:46 P.M. E.sce place to worktern Standard  
Time, sutherln at gmail.com writes:

The IAEA  technical document mentioned above made for excellent
reading. I am still  at a loss as to how or if Rn emissions are
measured exiting the  stack.

Can or should the the avg of ~20pCi/L residential concentration  be
interchangeable with what the gas plant could be expected to receive  ?
(probably safe to assume it would be slightly higher)

and if this  was the case could that value be thrown into:

Natural gas = 0.00786 Mcf  (1,000 cubic feet)
Amount of fuel used to generate one kilowatthour  (kWh):
http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=667&t=3

And then  work backwards from total MW Capacity of the plant to
determine  hourly/daily/yearly totals?

Thanks,

-Nathan

On Mon, Dec  8, 2014 at 4:48 PM, Brad Keck <bradkeck at mac.com> wrote:
> To offer  up an AAHP plug on this topic, there is a CEU module at the 
Mountain &  Plains Research and Learning Center  (Ma Perc) that does a very 
good  walkthrough of the factors that relate radon in natural gas to dose at 
the  consumer level.  "Radon Progeny Doses and Risks"  is a video and  slide 
show presentation if you are interested :}
>
> I believe the  speakers were Ralph Johnson and Lynn McKay.....
>
>  Brad
>
>
> On Dec 8, 2014, at 1:18 PM, stewart farber  wrote:
>
>> 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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