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RE: Contaminated uranium in the news again
This article is misleading. It gives the impression that the DOE produced
twice the amount of recycled uranium than originally estimated. However,
the quantity produced at the production sites is still reported (i.e., by
the DOE) to be within the original estimate of 100,000 - 150,000 MTU.
It was known from the beginning of the mass balance project that the
blending/processing of uranium materials at the various sites inevitably
increased the total quantity of "recycled" uranium (i.e., due to
cross-contaminating "virgin" materials). I guess that this total quantity
of "recycled" uranium is now estimated at ~ 250,000 tons, which is not at
all surprising. As usual, the press makes it sound like the DOE discovered
some totally unexpected, alarming new scenario - which is really not the
case.
Rodney Bauman, CHP, RRPT
84u@bechteljacobs.org
> -----Original Message-----
> From: AndrewsJP@AOL.COM [SMTP:AndrewsJP@AOL.COM]
> Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 6:49 AM
> To: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
> Subject: Contaminated uranium in the news again
>
> http://www.newsday.com/ap/text/national/ap165.htm
>
> This is on AOL news today and elsewhere. How bad is this contamination?
> Anybody know?
> It would be nice to have the numbers so we could answer questions.
>
> AP National
> Contaminated Uranium Threat Widens
>
> ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) -- Thousands more workers than first thought could
> face
> serious health threats from exposure to plutonium and other highly
> radioactive matter that fouled a large amount of uranium recycled by U.S.
> nuclear weapons programs, a published report says.
>
> From 1952 until 1999, when the shipments ended because of the
> contamination
> threat, vast quantities of recycled uranium were shipped worldwide.
>
> New government studies, reviewed by USA Today and reported in Monday's
> editions, found that the recycling program yielded 250,000 tons of tainted
>
> uranium, or about twice as much as earlier estimated. The highly
> radioactive
> material was handled at about 10 times the number of sites previously
> revealed and reportedly reached more than 100 federal plants, private
> manufacturers and universities.
>
> ''This stuff circulated much more widely than we'd thought,'' said Robert
> Alvarez, an official at the Energy Department when the new studies were
> started in 1999.
>
> USA Today said the latest studies suggest that thousands more workers than
>
> expected might have unwittingly faced radiation risks beyond those
> associated
> with normal uranium. That exposure could significantly increase their odds
> of
> developing cancer and other diseases.
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