Re: Dirty bombs

[John Andrews <andrewsjp@chartertn.net>]

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

>

>  

>

I cleaned up an old spill of Cs-137 once.  The material had been cleaned 

up years earlier, but residual material remained on some of the 

concrete.  It had penetrated into the concrete up to one inch in 

discrete spots.  This indicated to me that actual grains of the spilled 

source material remained on the concrete and the cesium was sorbed by 

whatever reaction into the concrete.  There was low level general 

contamination just above backround in adjacent areas indicating 

migration from the hot spots.  Effective cleaning included jackhammering 

or intense needle-gun decon of the spots and scabbling the general areas 

to 1/2 inch.



I would expect the same from any Cs-137 spill.



John Andrews

Knoxville, Tennessee



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