exposure of soldiers after atmospheric nuclear bomb tests

["Franz Schoenhofer" <franz.schoenhofer@CHELLO.AT>]

Private:

Franz Schoenhofer

Habicherg. 31/7

A-1160 Vienna, AUSTRIA

Phone: -43 699 11681319

e-mail: franz.schoenhofer@chello.at



Office:

MR Dr. Franz Schoenhofer

Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management

Dep. I/8U, Radiation Protection

Radetzkystr. 2

A-1031 Vienna, AUSTRIA

phone: +43-1-71100-4458

fax: +43-1-7122331

e-mail: franz.schoenhofer@bmu.gv.at







-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----

Von: Franta, Jaroslav <frantaj@AECL.CA>

An: Radsafe (E-mail) <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

Datum: Freitag, 17. August 2001 15:59

Betreff: RE: Compensation of survivors -- bomb test exercises -- uptake of

radionuclides





>Franz wrote:

>

><SNIP>

>That decades after atmospheric testing middle- to long-lived

>radionuclides only can be found by sophisticated methods and no dose rate

>elevation can be noticed has been well confirmed by the International

>Mururoa Study conducted by the IAEA on the atolls of Mururoa and

Fangataufa.

><SNIP>

><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

>

>Thanks for your comments, Franz.

>I have no problem with what you said in the rest of your message.

>

>But the snippet above intrigues me -- are you saying that the NZ

>laboratory's methods were inadequate to detect those middle- to long-lived

>radionuclides from atmospheric testing ?





No, definitely no. I am not saying this and I have not said it. Reread my

posting, I have nowhere said, that the NZ laboratory's methods were

inadequate. Middle- to long-lived radionuclides are irrelevant for short

time exposure of soldiers and a study on radionuclides performed decades

after exposure can verify the safety of people living in the respective

environment, but is - once again - more than irrelevant for the soldiers

exposure.





>Perhaps someone on this list who is more familiar with that study can

answer

>that question, please ?

>

>Please recall that at similar bomb test sites which really WERE

>contaminated, such as some of the Marshall Islands atolls (Bikini,

Rongelap,

>Enewetak, etc.), the contamination has NOT gone away because of rain or

>tropical location or whatever, and is easily detectable decades after the

>events.



It is difficult to find any real numbers. You have some? This effect is well

known as recycling radionuclides in a closed environment. Much work has been

done by Bill Schell on this phenomenon and we have as well found it after

the Chernobyl accident in large forest areas. The only numbers I have

received once by RADSAFE show, that the contamination of foodstuff by Cs-137

(which is the only chain of importance) is comparable to the one we have in

Europe after the Chernobyl accident. BTW: The contamination from Cs-137 and

Sr-90 from weapons tests fallout could easily detected as well. Again this

is not a matter of presence of radionuclides, but of their concentrations.



Even more important: You forget to put figures into perspective. The US have

detonated dozens of megatons in the atmosphere of the Marshall Islands.

France did detonate relatively low yield nuclear weapons, the largest being

about 2 Mt, if I remember correctly. I do not know by heart (but could

probably find out), what the yield of the tests at Christmas Islands were,

but I would assume, that they were of relatively low yield. It seems that

only the USA was competing with the Sovjetunion in the race to higher

explosion yields, culminating in the 62 megaton explosion of the Sovjetunion

at Novaja Semlja.



>The characteristic RAMs are still there for anyone to verify (and a great

>deal of money is still being spent & even more sought, for further

>decontamination remedial work...  way beyond what HPs consider reasonable).





These considerations should be addressed at another thread.



Franz







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