Re: background vs man-made emmissions

["Tom O'Dou" <tom_dixie@email.msn.com>]

Norm, my response is integrated with your statements:

>> Simple answer: comparing background vs. reactor emissions is apples vs.
>> oranges.

Sorry but ionizing radiations do not differ whether from background,
reactors, or machines.

>>
>> Background
>> - is made up of mostly long-lived products

Not true, consider the short lived daughter products of longer lived U-238,
Th-232, etc.  The short lived products are where we typically receive our
dose.  In the structures that we live in, the short lived daughters of
Ra-226 produce the majority of the dose that we are concerned with.

>> - generally disperses throughout soft tissues

Not any more than reactor produced radionuclides.

>> - is something that humans have become accustomed to over millions of
years.

Yes, radiation is something that we have been exposed to as long as we have
been on earth.

>>
>> Reactor emissions

>> - is made up of both long-lived AND short-lived products

Just as terrestrial radionuclides.

>> - does different things to the body (attacks thyroid cells, attacks
bone/bone
>> marrow cells)

Does not expose us differently - our body organs are not more suceptable to
damage because the radiation originated in reactor produced species vs.
natural species.

>> - is very new, only since 1945

Again, your information is not good.  Natural reactors have been producing
fission products for thousands of years - look it up.

>>
>> Thus, health effects of each will be different.

Dose is dose - reactor produced radionuclides are not evil - some people
are.

The information presented is what I believe to be true from my knowledge
base.  I don't claim to have all of the answers but I hope that you will
research your thoughts better.

Tom O'Dou, CHP, RRPT
tom_dixie@msn.com




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