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RE: Brazil Nut Radwaste Standard
To add a European view to this, UK Environmental
Legislation has an exemption level of 0.4Bq/g ( 11pCi/g) for disposal
of wastes. As in the US, Brazil nuts are theoretically a radioactive
substance and the man selling them in our local market would be breaking the law
in disposing of them if they weren't Brazil nuts. The fact he is doing this
in an uncontrolled way, and he is selling these dangerous products for
human consumption, says a lot about people's concern for radioactive materials.
They do taste good though.
If you were to eat a bag of 100-200g of nuts per week (not really
a lot, about 30-40 nuts) then your resultant dose in a year has been
estimated to be 0.2 mSv (20mRem)*. 20 mRem with no
controls...
Of more interest may be a DRAFT IAEA document on commodities that
is trying rationalise the international approach to dealing with trade with
materials that are potentially contaminated with radioactive materials. They
have recommended values of 1 Bq/g (27pCi/g) ,10 Bq/g (270 pCi/g) and 100 Bq/g
(270 pCi/g) for alpha, long lived beta, and others isotopes, are used for exempt
materials. This a potential sign that there may be some rationality being
applied to this subject. Whether this gets issued and adopted by our respective
governments is of course the $64K
question.
George Sallit
These views are purely my own and do not represent
those of my employer.