[ RadSafe ] Radioexcretia, etc. in municipal solid waste

[Jim Hardeman]

George *
 
I beg to differ ... I seem to recall a story (perhaps apochryphal) from my colleagues in Tennessee, and their environmental monitoring program around Oak Ridge. Seems that occasionally they were seeing I-131 in the Clinch River, and they were able to track it back to thyroid therapy patients. If memory serves, they figured that one (1) patient elminating would not exceed EPA maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for I-131 in surface water, but that more than one (1) patient eliminating simultaneously could. We OCCASIONALLY saw I-131 "blips" downstream of Augusta and upstream of Vogtle and Savannah River Site (SRS).
 
Bottom line ... the more you look, the more you're going to find.
 
Jim

>>> "George J. Vargo" <vargo at physicist.net> 4/28/2005 13:03:43 >>>

Not really.  The difference is that it's almost impossible to detect in a
sewage stream.  The paradigm is that "if you can see it, it's bad"

By the way,  I have deleted all but your most recent reply to this thread.
It makes me crazy to have to scroll through endless duplication of entire
threads for perhaps a single line of new contribution.  I know that
bandwidth is cheaper than ever, but our time remains precious.

George J. Vargo, Ph.D., CHP
Senior Scientist
MJW Corporation
http://www.mjwcorp.com
610-925-3377
610-925-5545 (fax)
vargo at physicist.net


-----Original Message-----
From: John Jacobus [mailto:crispy_bird at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2005 12:47
To: vargo at physicist.net; RADSAFE
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radioexcretia, etc. in municipal solid waste


My assumption is that waste regulators do not want
short-lived radioactive matieral as NRC and state
regulators do not allow ANY radioactive waste to be
disposed in non-NRC licensed facilities.  Maybe it is
time for a pardigm shift to exempt short-lived waste
for landfil disposal.  You can dispose of the
radioactive patient waste into the sanitary sewage
systems.  Do you see the contradiction between the two
disposal streams?


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