[ RadSafe ] Radiation in San Fran's water

[BLHamrick at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/22/2005 11:05:32 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
ncohen12 at comcast.net writes:

“Ordinary garbage” does not normally include radioactive   
elements. As a matter of fact, none of these elements are ordinary;  they  
are manmade.
Technically, "ordinary garbage" generally does include radioactive  elements. 
 And, harm associated with exposure to radioactive materials  emanates from 
both the "natural" and "man-made" forms.  That's really an  artificial 
distinction that serves political, but not scientific purposes.

Here’s  the kicker, and an even greater concern if they did dump these   
barrels into the bay: water isn’t just wet. Water is corrosive. And  when  
it meets metal, it steals the ions and causes rust. If you have  a  
55-gallon drum eroding from the radiation inside, and the water  outside,  
you have a potentially deadly experiment going on.
This  is one good reason to stop the Lennar home building project that is   
slated to break ground soon on Parcel A at the Shipyard. The need  for  
housing does not outweigh the damage to the health of local  people should  
this turf be razed, liberating an incredible amount of  toxic dust and  
exposing arriving community members to a water table  that is nothing less  
than uranium soup.
Not to be cynical, but, in my experience, housing developments are  generally 
opposed in California by nearby populations due to traffic  concerns.  Since 
this will rarely garner sufficient political capital to  halt a development, 
the opposition coalitions generally turn to some  alleged critical 
environmental concern (e.g., an endangered species, residual  contamination, etc.) to turn 
the issue into something other than "I don't want  more traffic on my 
commute."  The tactic has been reasonably successful,  and I expect it to continue, 
because it is politically expedient.  I  suspect the politicians all think 
they're the next Erin Brockovich (which, in my  opinion is nothing to be proud 
of...but they did make a movie about her,  starring Julia Roberts, no 
less...so...there's obviously some mileage in  it).

There is no excuse for selling a  
community on housing  when they will end up in their grave.
Which, just BTW, is where we will all end up.  Just FYI - life is 100%  fatal.

Carl Sagan, on  page 322 of “Cosmos,” explains that  “Rongalup residents 
ended up with  strontium concentrated in their bones,  and radioactive iodine 
concentrated  
in their thyroids. Two thirds of  the children, and one third of the adults  
later developed thyroid  abnormalities, growth retardation or malignant   
tumors.”
No offense to Dr. Sagan, and maybe this is substantiated somewhere, but I'd  
really be interested in seeing a peer-reviewed study of this population, 
rather  than hearing anecdotal comments on it, which have little scientific  weight.

Not  everyone is killed by the flash of a bomb or the meltdown of a reactor   
or even the fallout. However, the fallout will be around for quite  some  
time as Sagan tells us. Most strontium 90 decays in 96 years  and cesium  
137 in 100 years.
Technically, they both have a half-life of about 30 years, so this  statement 
alone calls into serious question any other comments made in the same  
document.

Dennis  Kyne is a combat veteran with 15 years in the U.S. Army. He holds a   
degree in political science cum laude from San Jose State University  with  
an emphasis on nuclear proliferation. 
And, it was pretty clear from this article, even without his  CV, that he has 
virtually no technical expertise in this area.
 
Barbara L. Hamrick