shadis replies to farber

[Norman Cohen <ncohen12@HOME.COM>]

Raymond Shadis wrote:



> Dear Mr. Farber,

>      Please reconcile your notion of limited offsite consequences for

> radiological sabotage with the offsite dose estimates and dose distributions

> in appendix A of  the NCRP Draft Report SC 46-14 " Radiation Protection

> Issues Related to Terrorist Activities That Result in a Dispersal of

> Radioactive Material, " September 2000.

>

> Graphs in that document show some extraordinary doses ( 600 REM) at about

> 110 kilometers 24 hours Post-Blast for 100 kg of 5 year old fuel distributed

> by 1000 lbs of TNT ( equivalent). As near as I can tell the estimates were

> modeled by Tom Dahlstrom of Bechtel in Nevada. The graphs and accompanying

> tables were thrown out in the final report NCRP 138,October 24, 2001,  as

> was the title.

>

> 138 avoids quantification of radioactive material dispersal and dose and is

> accordingly retitled, "Management of Terrorist Events Involving Radioactive

> Material."

>

> Some interesting, though strained, language remains in NCRP 138 on page 16,

> " Spent nuclear fuel elements could also be targeted, but they contain much

> less radioactive material than an operating reactor plant because of the

> rapid decay fission products.

> Concerning the affected area, health hazards would be similar to that which

> occurred at Chernobyl, but on a significantly smaller scale...Areas at risk

> from high-level radioactive waste dispersed by a large explosive device can

> be many miles from the source. With a smaller amount of source material and

> explosive, the area of concern is more in the range of several city blocks

> or a few miles from the target area."

>

> Coincidently, I had lunch today with a CNO from a large nuclear utility who

> stated quite emphatically that he did not disagree with the consequence

> figures in the SC 46-14 Draft.  Could you please put a rosy hue on all this

> so that I don't engage in too much hand-wringing?

>

> Thanks for all your diligent work in protecting the public health from

> radiation hazards, minimal though they may be.

>

>                                                                     Raymond

> Shadis

>                                                                     Friends

> of the Coast

>                                                                     Staff

> Advisor

>                                                                     New

> England Coalition

>

> ----







************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.