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Another aspect of this problem is that part of the CsCl will bind with
soil and building materials, such as concrete. One aspect that most folks
don't think about is that concrete and even stainless steel are pretty porous,
and much of the contamination may be "below surface" ... you clean the surface
today, and then come back a week later, and it's crapped up again. The only way
to truly remove the bulk of the contamination is to remove that portion of the
surface into which the contamination has seeped. CsCl disolved in water will
also seep down to soil in expansion joints in roadways, etc.
Just as an example, your federal government spent about $45 million
cleaning up an industrial facility in Decatur, GA into which approximately 10 Ci
of Cs-137 as CsCl had been released (this is the infamous Radiation Sterilizers,
Inc. incident). I won't go into all the gory details, but contaminated water
seeped down between expansion joints in the concrete deck surrounding the source
storage pool, requiring excavation of contaminated soil (after removal of the
contaminated concrete) down to a depth of 3' in some places.
Jim Hardeman
Jim_Hardeman@dnr.state.ga.us
>>> Tom Mohaupt <tom.mohaupt@WRIGHT.EDU> 2/27/2003 11:41:29 >>> According to the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (ancient edition, 1977), the solubility of CsCl is 162 g/ml in cold water and 260 g/ml in hot water. Tom BERNARD L COHEN wrote: > > Can someone explain why dispersed CsCl in a city is a long term > hazard? Isn't it highly soluble in water? If so, it should be easy to hose > away, using radiation detectors to locate hot spots. The water with CsCl > would go into the sewer system. Even without hosing, rain should wash away > most of it. > > Bernard L. Cohen > Physics Dept. > University of Pittsburgh > Pittsburgh, PA 15260 > Tel: (412)624-9245 > Fax: (412)624-9163 > e-mail: blc@pitt.edu > > ************************************************************************ > 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/ -- Thomas Mohaupt, M.S., CHP University Radiation Safety Officer 104 Health Sciences Bldg Wright State University Dayton, Ohio 45435 tom.mohaupt@wright.edu (937) 775-2169 (937) 775-3761 (fax) "An investment in knowledge gains the best interest." Ben Franklin ************************************************************************ 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/ |