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Re: Correction: 0.026 mR/hr 1' from 120lb KCl, 2x background
Interesting topic, thought I'd jump in. We have a professor here that
bought a 50 lb bag of commercial garden fertilizer at our local Walmart.
He uses it in one of his classes as a low dose rate gamma source demo.
Just for kicks, I surveyed it with a pancake GM meter and saw a solid
0.15 mR/hr at contact with the bag. GMs are known to over-respond at low
energy (which this isn't), but in any case we're still talking mR, not
microR. I can't imagine tons of that stuff sitting in one place!
-Russ
farbersa@optonline.net wrote:
>
>
> Hi all:
>
> Many years ago, I happened to go to a local BJ's Wholesale Club to buy
> some quick melt which happens to be KCl in 50 pound 5 gallon buckets.
> They had them stacked up on pallets between the checkout lines. Each
> pallet was about 6 buckets wide by 8 buckets deep by 5 buckets high.
> So each pallet had about 12,000 pounds [6 tons] of KCl and the direct
> gamma exposure rate near the pallet [measured with a digi-dose meter]
> was 40 or 50 micro-R/hr. I used to have some interesting photos of a
> mother with her young child seated in the cart in the checkout line
> backed up to the center between two large pallets of KCl -- 6 tons to
> either side of the cart with mother/child.
>
> I used to chuckle at the thought that some salt mines out West were
> being mined to sell the KCl to the public in situations where
> maximally exposed individuals might see gamma dose rates of 35 to 45
> micro-R/hr above background. At the same time anti-nuclear activists
> were protesting these salt mines [or some very similar] being filled
> in with stabilized nuclear waste that would NEVER, EVER yield offsite
> doses to any member of the public from theoretical leakage, whether
> 10,000 years in the future or longer, from the levels from the
> increased radiation exposure that can be realized from the KCl being
> extracted from the mines.and exposing people in the present. Rather
> droll.
>
> Stewart Farber
> Consulting Scientist
> [203] 367-0791
>
> ===================
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: howard long <hflong@pacbell.net>
> Date: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 0:21 am
> Subject: Correction: 0.026 mR/hr 1' from 120lb KCl, 2x background
> > Correction confirmed and thank you, Stewart Farber.
> >
> > Readings vary, still doubling (0.016 to 0.032 mR/hr) when 1' from
> > 120 lb KCl, giving a mountain state dose to coast residents.
> >
> > Howard Long
> >
> > farbersa <farbersa@optonline.net> wrote:
> > On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 11:21:25 -0700 (PDT), howard long
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Even now, we can get around LNT based regulation. I just now
> > counted 26
> > > mR/hr one foot from 3, 40 lb sacks of KCL (water softener salt
> > > available from Lowes or Home Depot for <$20) in a room otherwise
> > showing
> > > 13 mR/hr (half the gamma) on my Palmrad. This is about the
> > difference
> > > between non-exposed nuclear shipyard workers and those exposed
> > to 0.5
> > > rem (who had less cancer and better longevity).
> >
> > ====
> > Hi all:
> >
> > The units above in the prior note excerpt are undoubtedly
> > typographicalerrors and should read 13 micro-R background and a
> > doubling to 26
> > micro-R/hr one foot from 120 pounds of KCl. A background reading
> > of 13
> > mR/hr would equal 114 R/year gamma -- not very likely or desirable
> > by any
> > measure.
> >
> > Even at the center of an infinite volume of KCl the gamma flux
> > would not
> > equate to much more than a few hundred micro-R/hr.
> >
> >
> > --
>
> >
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