Thanks Susan -- I am "better informed" now, as you say :-)
Just a few nuggets I spotted in that article by Ricciuti & Kelly :
"...lethal uranium oxides mined in the western United States, Canada and Africa..." [hmmm, I better watch out for that lethal water coming out of the water tap...]
"...Ferro Electronics, which is next door to Niagara University, currently manufactures electronic instruments using radioactive zirconium sand of uranium content sufficient to be refined into bomb-grade material." [this seems to imply that nat. U consists of U-235 ! ...wonder what all those enrichment plant were for.]
".... the Manhattan Project, leading to astronomic increases in the amount of hazardous waste produced.......MED's tolerance levels were astronomically high by Today's standards" [ ...could this be astronomic exaggerations ? ]
"....in commercial industries like those in and surrounding Niagara Falls such studies were never done......No comprehensive health studies have ever been conducted anywhere in the region to determine the possible effects of radioactive waste on the well-being of residents. " [ yeah, right, like all the studies of Port Hope, where uranium ore sent to the US was refined...]
" Most scientists understood that radiation could be deadly before the Manhattan Project began, but the scientists working on the MED recommended acceptable levels of exposure for factory workers--and therefore perhaps surrounding neighborhoods--that some scientists today would consider virtual death sentences." [...like Bertrand Goldschmidt, one of the first MED nuclear chemists, who died last June 11 at age 89 in Paris -- wish I live to match his "death sentence" ! ]
"....radioactive contaminants are heavy metals with long half-lives that may still exist along whatever pathway they were carried. Wherever they are, they are still radioactive." [ sounds like an excellent description for un-mined uranium -- but let's not mention that, it might ruin the wonderful scare story !]
"The average concentrations of radium-226 and thorium-230 in the residues are 520,000 Pico curies per gram and 54,000 Pico curies per gram, respectively. That is a massive amount of radiation contained in a relatively small area. This waste, 4,000 cubic yards worth, represents the greatest concentration of radium-226 in the world." [ this would have looked more impressive if stated as 520,000,000,000 atto curies per gram - stay tuned for the next edition...]
"Also stored somewhere on-site are the remains of animals used in radiation experiments at the University of Rochester. Many of the animals were injected with plutonium, which even in the smallest quantities can be lethal." [ are there still people that buy this BS, or did Kelly & Ricciuti just wake up from years of suspended animation ?]
" According to Dr. Arjun Makhijani, the president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, some workers at ElectroMet were exposed to 6,000 rem....... Makhijani....is a globally recognized advocate of nuclear responsibility "
"...Higher doses of radiation are worse, but any dose is dangerous. There is no safe dose, says Dr. John Gofman..."
" The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is one of the most respected journals of its kind...."
...and so on & so forth.
Jaro
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-----Original Message-----
From: Susan L Gawarecki [mailto:loc@icx.net]
Sent: Friday June 06, 2003 1:04 PM
To: RADSAFE
Subject: RE: Niagara Falls Electromet
The debate might be better informed if RadSafe readers have a look at
THE BOMB THAT FELL ON NIAGARA, co-authroed by Geoff Kelly and Louis
Ricciuti. This is found at
http://www.ask.ne.jp/~hankaku/english/niagara_fall.html.