additional information on Sr-90 exposure in Georgia

["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





The IAEA website contains only a one sentence notice in its Daily Press

Review, stating that IAEA experts have gone to Georgia.



I had received my information about the search for Sr-90 recently in France

at an Advanced Course of On Site Inspection of the Comprehensive Test Ban

Treaty Organisation, Prep Com in cooperation with French authorities. I just

looked at the video we received. The background information about the

missing sources given in the video is the following:



The video starts: "Following a series of accidents in different parts of

Georgia, locally investigations provided proof, that four sources of Sr-90

with radioactive levels of fortythousand Curie had gone missing. These

sources were in use for radioactive thermal generators and their containers

have been found empty."





-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----

Von: Bradford, Carla D <cbradford@LIFESPAN.ORG>

An: 'radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu' <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

Datum: Montag, 07. Jänner 2002 15:27

Betreff: RE: From AP and AOL about Sr-90 exposure of lumberjacks in Georgia





>Dear Radsafers,

>

>Could someone please explain this statement: "...strontium-90, believed to

>have been used in signal beacons during the construction of a nearby

>hydroelectric plant ...".  What is the purpose of using a radioactive

>material as a signal beacon during the construction of a hydroelectric

plant

>and how is it performed?  Just curious.





To my knowledge, Sr-90 have been used widely as "fuel" for thermal

generators (the decay produced enough heat to produce electricity to light

devices like buoys, or for light markers in areas, where no electricity was

available and where nobody was able to come by every few days to fill the

tank with gasoline. It seems to have been used also for other purposes like

transmitting signals in areas covered with ice and being a long way from

civilization. I remember faintly a story a long, long time ago, when it was

said, that such generators served in transmitting certain secret information

(I do not remember, what it should have been) from the slopes of Himalaya

and that some had been lost. (The probability for this story to be true is

low, but it is not zero.)



Sorry for my limited knowledge of English. In my understanding the word

"beacon", meant a tower at the sea shore, sending a very powerful light

around, When I looked it up to make sure in the dictionary it seems to

describe every device, which sends out light or electromagnetic waves to

guide somebody somewhere.



Best regards,



Franz









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