Re: Dirty bombs

[BERNARD L COHEN <blc+@PITT.EDU>]

On Thu, 27 Feb 2003, Jim Hardeman wrote:



> Another aspect of this problem is that part of the CsCl will bind with soil

and building materials, such as concrete.



	--Then to solve the problem with leaking tanks at Hanford, all

they had to do was pour in dirt and small pieces of 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.



	--If it seeps down into soil so rapidly, why doesn't it continue

to seep down until it gets so far down that the soil above becomes an

effective shield

	--If stainless steel and concrete are so porous, why are they used

for tanks to contain high level waste after reprocessing?

	--Have there been tests where Cs tracer is spread on materials and

they are hosed with water after a brief time?

	--The enormous quantities of salt we spread on roads for de-icing

must result in large quantities splashed onto soil and buildings. A few

months later, are they salty? This can easily be tested with one's tongue.

Will grass grow on salty soil?



> 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



	--They were trying to reduce radioactivity to background, not just

to levels that make the area unsafe. Is there info available on what

fraction of the radioactivity was removed by hosing and washing, before

starting to remove building materials?



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