Re: Germany Urges Non-Nuclear Alternative to Chernobyl -Biomass & Cs-137 issue

[RadiumProj@cs.com]

In a message dated 6/6/00 12:59:36 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [a news article 
posted by] sandyfl@earthlink.net [notes that]:

>Trittin, a member of the ecologically-minded Green Party, called on 
>Ukraine to focus on ``the necessary modernization of the energy 
>sector.'' He drew attention to his ministry's proposal for a biomass 
>combustion plant in the Chernobyl area instead of the new nuclear 
>reactors planned by Ukraine.  .....

> Germany is negotiating with utilities such as RWE AG and Veba AG on 
>  closing down the country's 19 nuclear reactors and opposes the 
>  Ukrainian plan to build new ones, holding up European funding for 
>  Chernobyl's replacements. 
>  
>  Decontamination 
>  
>  Trittin said biomass combustion plants, which produce energy by 
>  burning plant matter such as tree trimmings, grass and peat moss, 
>  would be both economically viable and help ``decontaminate the still 
>  radioactive woods around Chernobyl.'' 
>  
>  Antje Radcke, chairwoman of the Green Party, the junior party in 
>  Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's ruling coalition, called on 
>  international lenders and the European Union ``to use the decision to 
>  close Chernobyl as an opportunity to help Ukraine build a modern and 
>  ecological energy supply.'' 


==============
Radsafers:
It is worth noting in regard to the above "ecological" energy supply proposal 
to construct a large biomass plant, that there is data regarding the amount 
of Cs-137 volatilized in burning wood and wood waste in a modern industrial 
boiler. Studies were performed for the pulp and paper industry at a large 
pulp mill in the early 1990s in response to a study I conducted through the 
Health Physics Society of Cs-137 in domestic wood ash and questions raised in 
a news report in Science News about woodash being an "unregulated radwaste". 
These studies  found that greater than 90% of Cs-137 in the wood feedstock 
into the commercial boilers on-site at a pulp mill was not accounted for in 
the bottom ash and flyash trapped by the kraft paper  mill's air pollution 
systems.  It appears that at the extremely high temperatures achieved in a 
modern industrial boiler [as would be found at a large pulp mill or power 
plant] 90 to 95% and more of all Cs-137 becomes volatile and exits the stack. 
Accordingly, burning contaminated biomass from around Chernobyl and the 
Ukraine would likely disperse the Cs-137 back into the environment unless 
extraordinary measures were taken to capture any volatile Cs-137.

These high rates of volatilization for Cs-137 are not seen in domestic 
fireplace burning  based on the survey results I gathered in 1990 which found 
Cs-137 levels in fireplace ash exceeding 20,000 pCi/kg ash,   because the 
temperature of combustion  in a fireplace is so much less.

Stewart Farber, MS Public Health
Public Health Sciences
172 Old Orchard Way
Warren, VT 05674
[802] 496-3356

Stewart Farber
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