RE: Deer With High Radiation Level Found at BNL

["Dukelow, James S Jr" <jim.dukelow@PNL.GOV>]

Ann Givens and Bill Field wrote

-----Original Message-----

From: R. William Field [mailto:bill-field@UIOWA.EDU]

Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2002 6:55 PM

To: RadSafe

Subject: Deer With High Radiation Level Found at BNL





Franz, from the quote below it looks like cesium-137 was detected in the

deer.



"The deer tested last week had 21 picocuries of radiation from cesium in its

system."



  --------------------

 Deer With High Radiation Level Found at BNL

 --------------------



 By Ann Givens

 STAFF WRITER



 February 17, 2002



 A 2-year-old deer found on the Brookhaven National Laboratory's campus had

more than twice as much radiation in its body as any deer the lab has

tested.



 This raises concerns for lab officials, who thought they had either fenced

off or cleaned up most of the site's radioactive material.



   <snip>



 The deer, which lab officials said had been hit by a car, was tested last

week. Lab officials routinely test deer that die on the property. Of the 120

deer the lab has tested since 1992, none has had more than 11 picocuries of

radiation from the chemical cesium in its system. The deer tested last week

had 21 picocuries of radiation from cesium in its system.



 Copyright (c) 2002, Newsday, Inc.



==========================



Using data from Kathren's Radioactivity in the Environment:



A 70 kg man will have 140 kg of potassium in his body.  The potassium will

have a potassium-40 specific activity of 855 pCi of K-40 per gram of K.

That gives our 70 kg man, 855*140 = 119700 pCi of potassium-40 in his

system.  The deer might not have weighed quite 70 kg, but the chances are it

had around 100,000 pCi of K-40 in its body.  If we used femtoCuries, we

could say it had 100,000,000 fCi of K-40 "in its system".



Am I missing something here?  Are we lost in the noise?  Maybe it IS about

dose.



Best regards.



Jim Dukelow

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Richland, WA

jim.dukelow@pnl.gov



These comments are mine and have not been reviewed and/or approved by my

management or by the U.S. Department of Energy.

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