RE: Water Irradiation?

[Marty.Bourquin@GRACE.COM]

UV is not an uncommon method of killing pathogens in water treatment 

systems.  It has been successfully used in several large scale 

facilities.  One drawback, and this would apply to Gamma irradiators as 

well, is that as you mentioned there is no downstream residual to 

insure the water does not become recontaminated in the distribution 

system.  This is one of the reasons that chlorination is often used in 

conjuction with UV.  It provides that residual protection during the 

rest of the process.  Unfortunately it also produces some unwanted 

by-products which create problemsof their own.  

 

Marty Bourquin

W.R. Grace

Manager - EHS

Marty.Bourquin@Grace.com



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

From: info@eic.nu [mailto:info@eic.nu]

Sent: Friday, July 05, 2002 9:35 AM

To: frantaj@AECL.CA; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

Subject: Re: Water Irradiation?









Both gamma and UV irradiators have to be on 100% of the time because, 

unlike chlorine, they do not kill downstream of your unit and any bugs 

that get by are home free. If UV irradiators need power to run, then 

they also need backup power and an operator 24/7 who knows how to run 

the system. 

 

How do you deliver the UV? It doesn't go through a steel pipe. If the 

water needs to be open to the atmosphere, that brings some more 

challenges. 

 

There are some advantages to passive systems.

 

Kai

 



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

From: Franta, Jaroslav 

To: Kai Kaletsch ; RadSafe 

Sent: Friday, July 05, 2002 7:22 AM

Subject: RE: Water Irradiation?





That's an interesting idea, but I'm pretty sure its impractical from 

the economic point of view, since such an irradiator would have to 

compete with a variety of commercial UV sterilizers of all sizes 

already on the market.



The one advantage a gamma sterilizer would have over a UV one is that 

the water would not need to be clean for the former to be effective -- 

UV sterilizers typically have reduced effectiveness in turbid water, as 

the bugs are shielded by bits of dirt.



Jaro 



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

From: Kai Kaletsch 

To: RadSafe 

Sent: Thursday, July 04, 2002 9:07 PM 

Subject: Water Irradiation? 





Not sure how aware the rest of the world is about this, but here in 

Canada there have been some issues with people getting sick or dying 

from bugs in the drinking water over the last couple of years. Water 

treatment has been a municipal issue but now the feds and provinces are 

getting more involved. 





Some communities absolutely refuse to chlorinate their water. I was 

wondering if anyone knew what kind of dose it would take to kill the 

bugs in the water. Could that be achieved by putting some Cs-137 or 

Co-60 next to a water pipe? Would it cause the pipe to fall apart? Any 

side effects to the water?





I would just love to see someone propose that to one of these 

communities:) 

  

Kai 









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