Re: Colorado radiation conspiracy

[bill_goldsmith@urscorp.com]

A useful reference for some state background measurements is ORNL/TM-7343

"State Background Radiation Levels: Results of Measurements Taken During

1975-1979."  Background measurements made by ORNL personnel in the vicinity

of or on the way to inactive uranium mill tailings sites or FUSRAP sites

are included in this document.  Background locations were selected

carefully to exclude the possibility of human influence on the

measurements.  Included in this document are measurements of external gamma

radiation at 1 m above ground and concentrations of Ra-226, U-238, and

Th-232 in soil.  Gamma radiation measurements were made with an

energy-compensated GM tube.  Of interest to this current discussion, 32

measurements were made in CO.  Range was 6.3 to 34 micro Roentgens per

hour.  Average was 14 with a standard deviation of 10.  Florida had 11

measurements ranging from <1 to 7.4 with average of 4.0 and std dev of 3.2.

Louisiana: 3 with range of 3.5 to 6.0, 5.1 av and  2.7 sd.  Wyoming: 13

with range 10 to 20, 14 av and 5.2 sd.  Delaware 2 with range of 5.0 to

6.9.  Utah: 32 range of 5.0 to 14, 8.7 av 4.5 sd.  New Jersey: 23 range 2.3

to 13, 6.1 av 4.8 sd.

According to the map included in the report, two measurements were made in

the vicinity of Denver.  One was 6.8 km east of the Eisenhower Tunnel (west

of Denver) at 34 uR/hr; the other was 27 km east of Denver at 17 uR/hr.

I have just scratched the surface of information available in this

document.  It is 120 pages long, so I would suggest that anyone who wants

to follow this further should obtain a copy.  Authors were T.E. Myrick,

B.A. Berven, and F.F. Haywood.  Publication date was November 1981.

These thoughts are my own and do not represent my company.

Bill Goldsmith

URS Corp.

865.220.8265

bill_goldsmith@urscorp.com