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Norm's comments and Fallout timing
Norm,
You made the point that Sr-90 in recently collected teeth was similar in
amount to that found in teeth of the late 1950s. and therefore something of a
puzzle and perhaps suggestive of reactor emissions. I don't think my answer
to that was entirely clear, so I will comment again. Although I don't have
any exact figures at hand, Jacques Read agrees with me that a very large
amount of fallout was created in the Soviet test series in 1961 and 1962. He
also makes the point that the fallout that currently exists is essentially
dominated by that Soviet fallout. In comments from you and others in the
Tooth Fairy Project, there is no mention of this important fact. And it is
important. Teeth collected in the late 1950s therefore would not have been
impacted by this major source of fallout in 1961 and 1962, while teeth
collected today will be impacted by the Soviet fallout. If it is true that
teeth collected today have Sr-90 in amounts not so different from teeth
collected in the late 1950s, this may not be especially surprising in view of
the large amounts of fallout that were deposited in the early 1960s. I have
seen graphs of the various fission products in air during those years and it
supports the idea that the Soviet fallout in 1961 and 1962 dwarfed the
fallout amounts in the 1950s.
To review your comments, you say that because Sr-90 in teeth today is not so
different from that of the late 1950s, that this possibly is an indication
of releases from reactors, because one would expect the levels today to be
much lower, than in the late 50s due to decay. But in reaching that
conclusion, you fail to consider the very large deposits of fallout in the
early 1960s from the Soviet tests. You need to go back to your friends and
tell them this line of argument is flawed, as it certainly is flawed. It is
flawed because those people giving you the information do not have a good
grasp of the basic information. For instance, if the amount of fallout
created in the 1961 - 1962 Soviet test series was 3 or 4 times that created
in the 1950s, then that alone could account for the similarity in the
concentrations of Sr-90 in teeth of the 1950s as compared to teeth collected
today. It happens many times that the arguments of the activists fail on
very simple facts. This is one of those times, in my opinion.
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