RE: Anti's, posting, and small SNM quantities

["Conklin, Al" <Al.Conklin@DOH.WA.GOV>]

I enjoy reading selected RADSAFE threads, when I have the time. I don't
actually participate much because my job requires my attention more hours of
the day than I have. Many of us work in the public arena all the time, and
we hear all kinds of opinions about radiation safety, most contrary to real
science. Most of those contrary opinions, but certainly not all, are based
on sincere, though misguided "facts". I want to know what they're up to, and
I enjoy reading them and the responses that are well thought out by many of
you who are much better and smarter than I am. While the occasional arrogant
responses illustrate why this profession has so much trouble communicating
with the less educated, I still enjoy reading them. But mostly I enjoy and
value the reasoned responses to these people. I hope no one seriously
considers kicking the "antis" off.

We also often have to deal with "contrary" opinions that are fully and
clearly intentioned to stir up people and get headlines. One such group at
Hanford is Heart of America Northwest, lead by a lawyer who loves publicity,
and who, when faced by factual data and proof, simply smiles and follows his
own agenda anyway. The discussions I read on RADSAFE really help me deal
with this kind of thing, mostly by seeing what works and what doesn't. What
doesn't work is the arrogance. What does help counter allegations made by
such groups is reasoned explanations, not to the group making the
allegations, but to the media, in language with little jargon, and in a tone
and manner empathetic to the unknowledgeable, but sincere worried public.
The bottom line is, though, that the general public is scared of this stuff,
and will remain so.

A case in point was the recent range fire at Hanford. DOE declared an ALERT,
and by procedure, we, in the state, mobilized. While the fire never became a
full blown radiation emergency, we had to respond and collect samples as if
it was. The level of our efforts would normally be saved for at least a Site
Area Emergency, but due to public concern, fired in part by the "antis", of
the potential for airborne contamination from surface contaminated areas
onsite, we were in an "emergency" mode all the way. We've had to explain why
quick samples taken during an "emergency" can't be compared to background
ambient samples, why the presence of radionuclides in those samples don't
necessarily mean they're from Hanford, why there's a lot of K-40 in a fire
that has nothing to do with Hanford, why plutonium air concentrations two
orders of magnitude over background still don't represent a public health
threat, etc. etc. We've had to counter many allegations made by activists,
but we've done fairly well, thanks in large part to lessons learned from
many of you and people like you. I've learned from some wonderful people out
there, like Ron Kathren, and many others. I want to keep hearing from people
like that on RADSAFE about what the antis are alleging. No censorship,
please.

Allen W. Conklin,Manager 
Air Emissions & Defense Waste Section
Bldg 5 7171 Cleanwater St. 
Department of Health
Olympia, WA 98504
phone: (360) 236-3261 fax: (360) 236-2256 pager: (360) 786-2975

"This message may be confidential. If you received it by mistake, please
notify the sender and delete the message. All messages to and from the
Department of Health may be disclosed to the public." 



-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Rees [mailto:brees@lanl.gov]
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2000 5:11 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Anti's, posting, and small SNM quantities


First of all, the idea of banning any class of people from radsafe is 
repugnant to me, in addition to those who of use who are in the trenches as 
operational radiation safety professionals, radsafe is a resource of many 
related (sometimes tenuously) professionals who can add the perspective I 
need to accomplish something.  We have media people (both reporters and 
journalists - thanks to radsafe I understand the difference now), 
educators, regulatory folks, researchers of all types, and all kinds of 
people who have some sort of interest in some aspect of radiation 
protection.  Face it, slogging through some days of radsafe can be a true 
test of your interest.  Diversity is good, especially when it challenges 
you.  I've learned quite a bit from observing anti's specious arguments, 
and their lack of coherent response - yes I know that "they" wont stop, and 
I've been told that this is the case, but actually seeing their BS, 
reasoned and supported counter-arguments, and the fact that they can't come 
up with anything reasonable (in an unaltered state of mind or being) has 
helped me immensely when I deal with other folks who espouse the same
drivel.

HOWEVER, I noted that in the recent exchanges with Norm, Edith, 
et.al.  that it was a handful of people who made the most comments.  I 
would easily support a one-message-a-day limit on posting - except maybe 
for news postings.  If you can't say it in one message, wait a day- for 
many of us it would be good practice, and for the others on the list it 
would save time (and in some cases money).  If you've got nothing better to 
do than sit in front of your computer and make arguments - think about it.

As for Steve Rima's question about small quantities of Pu, a "fun" tidbit - 
those of us born before 1960 excrete over (usually well over) a million 
atoms of Pu each day, so regulating each atom of SNM could get a little 
difficult.  The reference for this is at work, and I'm stuck at home for 
the next week so I can't readily provide it, but I do have one.  At first 
it seemed incredible, but a few simple calculations confirmed it.  If you 
were born after 1960 you still excrete Pu, although what date the million 
atoms a day changes is unknown to me - the quote is somebody else's.


(Obviously) my own personal opinions.

Nuclear Weapons = Peace
50 years of fact, like it or not
(soon to be a bumper sticker!)

Brian Rees
brees@lanl.gov

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