Public Questions regarding uranium processing

["Joey Michael" <joey-michael@uiowa.edu>]

This morning I received a phone call from a member of the public who had

some questions about living near a uranium processing plant in Wilmington,

North Carolina.  Basically, she wanted to know if this would be safe.  I

felt a little inadaquate with some responses, and was wondering what things

I should have said.  Maybe one at a time we can dispell some of the

radiation myths and become unemployeed.  Below is a legthy detail of the

conversation.



 I responded that I don't know much about uranium processing, but that I do

work in radiation safety and could speak generally about the

nuclear/radiation industry.  I told her that radioactive materials are very

heavily regulated to ensure that the public as well as the workers in the

plant aren't harmed.  She was concerned about either a leak or even going to

a resteraunt and sitting next to ao contaminated worker.  I assured her that

the workers are most likely checked for radioactivity both entering and

exiting the plant so that that very thing doesn't happen.  She was also

wondering about the stuff blowing up.  I explained to her that to create an

atomic bomb type explosion (chain reaction) was extermly difficult to

achieve.  That the enrichment, amount, and geometry had to be just right and

that it just wasn't very high on the probability scale.  I then explained

that if someone blew up some of the uranium with a regular bomb that it

would just disburse pieces of uranium metal and maybe create a small dust

cloud that you wouldn't want to breath.  I summed up that the problems would

come from inhaling or ingesting the material and that the effects would

probably be due more to the fact that uranium was a heavy metal like lead.

At this point  she decided that the chance of suspending something as heavy

as lead in the air was pretty unlikely, she concluded for herself that the

material would quickly settle and have little chance for her or her family

to breath it.



The conversation then moved to a few questions about x-ray machine in

airports and transportation of radioactive material.  Again I answered and

explained what I could.  She had been concerned about being in traffic next

to a truck with radioactive placards.  I told he she could lean against the

side of a truck like that all day and receive less radiation than from an

x-ray at her doctor or dentist office.  I also told her about some of the

testing for the lowest level of RAM packaging (30 ft. drop, 13 lb bar, etc)

and that I had conducted some of these tests myself.  I told her that the

higher the level of the RAM, the more robust the packaging and that an

accident involving high levels of RAM are more likely to result in someone

being crushed by the container than the container leaking.



I recommended that she look at the HPS website (ask the expert) and maybe

sign up and post her questions to radsafe (I warned her to be ready for a

large volume of e-mail if she did so :)).  In the end I told her I thought

N.C. is a beautiful state and that I would not hesitate to live even right

next door to a facillity like this.



In the end she seemed to be comfortable with the idea of a uranium plant in

her town.