Re: Natural Radioactive Isotopes in Diesel Exhaust

[AndrewsJP@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 1/5/2002 11:12:23 AM Eastern Standard Time, RuthWeiner@AOL.COM writes:



> The NORM in coal comes from the uranium content of coal, and there wouldn't be any uranium in refined product.  there would be some C-14 from the natural abundance of C-14, just as in any organic compound or inorganic carbon compound (wood, gasoline, sugar, carbon dioxide).  



Ruth, the amount of C-14 in diesel fuel is negligible because it has decayed almost completely. The half-life of C-14 is only about 5700 years and the petroleum products used for producing diesel fuel (the original question, not coal) are millions of years old.  If the original material was alive 57,000,000 years ago, then the number of half-lives would be maybe 10,000 or so.  C-14 is in constant production in the upper atmosphere and is produced at a constant rate, essentially the same today as it was millions of years ago, so there wouldn't be any of the original left today in crude oil.



John Andrews

Knoxville, Tennessee