Re: Strontium 90 vice Strontium 89

[Norman & Karen Cohen <norco@bellatlantic.net>]

Hi Jacques,
When we had this discussion about the Tooth Fairy Project a few months ago, this
line of reasoning was brought up and rejected. The fallout argument is not
sufficient because Sr-90 levels in baby teeth should be going down if the Sr-90 was
from fallout. Sr-90 levels in teeth in the Toms River area are at levels equivalent
to teeth tested in the late 1950s, when above ground testing was at its height. The
point of the TFP is: if the Sr90 can not be attributed to
fallout, because with half-lives, the amount of Sr90 should now be mininal, where
is the rest of the Sr90 being found in teeth coming from? The only answer I can see
is that it comes from nuclear reactors, perhaps a little leakage from underground
testing, and weapons labs.

peace
norm

Jacques.Read@eh.doe.gov wrote:

> Fission produces both 89Sr and 90Sr......  on a curie basis, a vastly greater
> amount of the shorter-lived 89Sr.  If 90Sr is found without accompanying 89Sr,
> it simply means that the fission product is so old that the 89Sr has died away
> (at least a couple of years old).   And 89Sr is a whole lot easier to find in a
> sample than the pure beta-emitter 90Sr.  If the strontium in any environmental
> or tooth sample is 90Sr, then it is clearly fallout.  If it came from Oyster
> Creek it would have to be mostly 89Sr.
>
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