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RE: Missing Exit Signs



John,

You've hit the proverbial nail on the head. Without a liquid scintillation counting unit and some scintillation cocktail to mix with the sample collected with a bubbler, then dark adapt the sample and then count it in a lab environment.....no one is going to know there is any isotopic content to the explosive effluent. BUT.....If the press gets a hold of anything such as an announcement by the bomb maker...that there is ANYTHING with more than one syllable in it's name....and ends in ium ... They will do more to further the terrorist's agenda than the bomb ever could. There is money and recognition in creating a panic. That's what the terrorist is trying to do. Unfortunately, that is also what the press is trying to do. You could fill a grenade with bird crap and set it off right after a story on histoplasmosis airs on 20/20 and the press will have half the state in dust masks, screaming in the streets that the end is near. The press would be uninterested in reporting that a

!

 pp!

roximately 3 metric tons of bird crap dries up and is carried around on the breeze every day in California alone. Keep in mind....which will be more likely to sell a newspaper ....a molehill or a mountain?



Floyd W. Flanigan B.S.Nuc.H.P.



-----Original Message-----

From: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

[mailto:owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu]On Behalf Of John Jacobus

Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 7:14 AM

To: Jaro; Radsafe

Subject: RE: Missing Exit Signs





I would think that the purpose of a radiological

dispersion device is to creat fear an panic.  If the

first responsers could not detect the radionuclide,

i.e., tritium in any form, because they were using GM

or exposure rate meters, the terrorist would have lost

the edge in creating panic.



--- Jaro <jaro-10kbq@sympatico.ca> wrote:

> Franz wrote:

> I would say, that trying to use tritium exit signs

> as an RDD, is ridiculous.

> If they were of the type I know - filled with

> gaseous HT - sure no cleanup

> would be necessary and would not cost a single cent,

> because within a few

> minutes all of this gas would have been dispersed

> and diluted to ambient

> levels. There would be no mess <SNIP>

> 

> I wonder about that -- presumably an RDD involves

> some sort of explosion.

> Wouldn't that cause at least some part of the HT to

> burn and form HTO ?

> While most of that would also disperse as vapour,

> some might also cause a

> mess.... any guesses how much ?

> By the way, a colleague pointed out that the 55 Ci

> in the exit signs would

> by now have decayed to 25 Ci, due to 14 years of

> decay (12.3 yr half-life).

> 

>  Jaro

> http://www.cns-snc.ca/branches/quebec/quebec.html

> 

> 

>

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=====

+++++++++++++++++++

""A fanatic is one who cannot change his mind and won't change the subject."  Winston Churchill



-- John

John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist

e-mail:  crispy_bird@yahoo.com



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