[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Quiz: Nuclear Extraction in Georgia
Greetings,
The today's question is:
Why Georgia needs "Experts from the United
Nations' nuclear watchdog agency" to help with
extraction of two radioactive containers?
a) The radation source extraction is a very
expensive procedure and can be done ONLY with an
outside international economical support.
b) It is a very complicated technical procedure
and can be done ONLY with an international
technical support.
c) In this mountainous region is not a custom to
handle beta emitting source but only alpha.
d) Sr-90 is an alpha emitting source but locals
are confused and they need an international
support to determine the type of radiation. Sr-90
is written on the outside container but they are
not sure if they can believe it without an
internationally respectable linguistic experts.
e) There is a plexiglas shortage in the Caucus
Mountains region and the closest plexiglas
supplier is located in the Vienna region of the
Alps mountains.
f) There is plenty of lead but the local people
are bremsstrahlung allergic and they need an
international expert to build a plexiglas or any
low-Z material shielding device.
g) They have lead and plexiglas but do not have
IAIA certificates to ship it from "Dzhvare to the
capital, Tbilisi".
h) The news story is misleading by dramatizing
"difficulties" associated with the source
extraction and not pointing out on irresponsible
misuse and mishandling of radioactive materials.
Local authorities should've taken
responsibilities at some point, stop crying for
money, help and more of that for the publicity;
stop finding excuses, for all present problems,
in the past sins of the former Soviet Empire
which had disappeared over 10 years ago, in the
end of the past 20's century.
Facts:
In the end of 20's century Georgia use to have
Sukhumi Technical Physics Institute with a Modern
High Energy Accelerator Laboratory and now they
can not handle thermogenerating strontium-90
sources?????
I hope, those experts will bring with them not
only lead shielded containers but some Plexiglas
plates....
and..... put the damn Plexiglas first and then
the lead.
or
We all will read in the next issue of AP, IAEA or
magazine of Science about how dangerous it was to
extract the sources that EVEN international
experts were so dangerously expose to the deadly
and penetrating (bremsstrahlung) radiation.
Remember Guys!
Modern electronic dosimeters (ED's) WILL under
response to the bremsstrahlung with comparison to
TLD's and even more to the Films!
So keep it low or use CORRECTION FACTORS to keep
it below DEADLY 5 REM per year or whatever your
agency's administrative limit is.
And Good Luck in any case.
Regards,
Emil.
You wrote:
-------------------------------------------
Nuclear Extraction in Georgia
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Experts from the United
Nations' nuclear watchdog agency
are planning to extract two radioactive
containers from a remote area of Georgia, a
spokeswoman said.
Experts will encase the objects in a protective
shielding before transporting them
from the rugged area where lumberjacks discovered
them in December, said Melissa
Fleming, spokeswoman for the International Atomic
Energy Agency. The containers
will be taken to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi,
for special handling.
Local authorities said the containers were used
as fuel for signal beacons during the
construction of a hydroelectric plant 30 years
ago. An article appearing in Friday's
issue of the magazine Science describes the
devices as thermogenerators that use
the heat of strontium to create electricity.
After being alerted by Georgian authorities, the
agency sent a medical team to treat
the woodsmen for injuries caused by the
radioactivity. Two of them remain in serious
condition, Fleming said Thursday.
Bad weather has stalled efforts to remove the
containers.
``It's not so snowed-in now and there's a good
chance of us recovering them this
weekend,'' Fleming said.
Fleming downplayed concerns that the material
could fall into the hands of terrorists
because of the inaccessibility of the terrain.
Fleming said the material, which is known as
strontium-90, was so potent ``it's
certainly almost life-threatening to handle it''
- though terrorists might not find that to
be a deterrent.
The agency's longtime efforts to help countries
handle nuclear materials safely have
gained greater attention in recent months in
light of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on
the United States.
Georgian authorities fenced off the area and kept
outsiders away from the site in a
forest near the village of Dzhvare, about 135
miles southwest of the capital, Tbilisi.
- -----------------
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Send FREE Valentine eCards with Yahoo! Greetings!
http://greetings.yahoo.com
************************************************************************
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. You can view the Radsafe archives at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/