[ RadSafe ] Article on Wired on Thorium reactors

Fri Jul 8 23:22:03 CEST 2005

Franz et al

My experience with NORM includes radiation protection "training" in the
northern British Columbia "oil patch" and as a member of the ANSI TE NORM
committee. I thought that the radium isotopes
that are Th-Nat progeny (Ra-228 and Ra-224) and thoron progeny were of more
concern than thorium itself.

FYI, The last I heard, the ANSI report will be published "soon" and I have a
"final draft" (Feb. 2005) of a Canadian report on the management of NORM in
waste.  I can see if this draft can be forwarded if anyone is interested.

Regards

John

-----Original Message-----
From: Franz Schönhofer [mailto:franz.schoenhofer at chello.at]
Sent: July 7, 2005 2:56 PM
To: 'John R Johnson'; 'Franta, Jaroslav'; radsafe at radlab.nl; Gottschamel
Georg (Gottschamel Georg)
Subject: AW: [ RadSafe ] Article on Wired on Thorium reactors

John,

Your message is of big interest for me, not only because of the thorium fuel
cycle. According to a European Union Directive, legislation has to be
installed in memberstates for exposure of workers to naturally occurring
radioactive material. We have industry in Austria, where thorium exposure
has to be taken into consideration.

I know, that methods for thorium uptake monitoring have been developed since
1984, using sophisticated analytical methods like activation analysis and
others which I am not so much convinced about. I forward your message to a
collegue, who might be interested in your experience. Several people,
including me are working at the Austrian Standardisation Institute on a
standard to monitor workers for NORM. Therefore your experience would be of
great value for us.

Best regards,

Franz

Franz Schoenhofer
PhD, MR iR
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
AUSTRIA
phone -43-0699-1168-1319

> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] Im
> Auftrag von John R Johnson
> Gesendet: Donnerstag, 07. Juli 2005 23:28
> An: Franta, Jaroslav; radsafe at radlab.nl
> Betreff: RE: [ RadSafe ] Article on Wired on Thorium reactors
>
> Jaro and other radsafers
>
> I'm sure Jaro knows this but others may not. AECL had a thorium fuel cycle
> R
> and D program in the seventies and eighties because there was no "proven"
> supply of U-Nat for the CANDU reactors.
>
> One of the problems with Th-Nat is that intakes of the ALI can not be
> detected by in vivo, urine or fecal monitoring. That is why we developed a
> thoron in breath monitor (TIBM).
>
> A discription of thoron exhalation can be found in A MODEL TO DESCRIBE
> THORON EXHALATION FOLLOWING AN INHALATION EXPOSURE TO THORIA POWDERS; J.R.
> Johnson and B.F. Peterman;  Published in the Conference Proceedings of the
> Workshop on Lung Modelling for Inhalation of Radioactive Materials,
> Oxford,
> UK, 1984 March.  EUR Report 9384, Commission of the European Communities,
> Luxembourg (1984) 193-196.
>
> We also developed a personal air monitor for worker. See  PERSONAL AIR
> SAMPLING AT AN EXPERIMENTAL FUEL FABRICATION LINE; F. Kalos and J. R.
> Johnson; PNL-SA-14225, CONF-8510235 (1987) 349-355.
>
>  _________________
> John R Johnson, Ph.D.
> *****
> President, IDIAS, Inc
> 4535 West 9-Th Ave
> Vancouver B. C.
> V6R 2E2
> (604) 222-9840
> idias at interchange.ubc.ca
> *****
> or most mornings
> Consultant in Radiation Protection
> TRIUMF
> 4004 Wesbrook Mall
> Vancouver B. C.
> V6R 2E2
> (604) 222-1047 Ext. 6610
> Fax: (604) 222-7309
> johnsjr at triumf.ca
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl]On
> Behalf Of Franta, Jaroslav
> Sent: July 7, 2005 1:49 PM
> To: 'radsafe at radlab.nl'
> Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] Article on Wired on Thorium reactors
>
>
> The specific reply to Marco's comment is this :
>
> <quote>
> Intrinsic proliferation-Resistance of 232Th-233U and burning plutonium in
> fast neutron reactor in 'once-through cycle'
> <snip>
> Th-based fuels and fuel cycles have intrinsic proliferation resistance due
> to the formation of 232U via (n,2n) reactions with 232Th, 233Pa and 233U.
> The half-life of 232U is only 73.6 years and the daughter products have
> very
> short half-life and some like 212Bi and 208Tl emit strong gamma
> radiations:
> 0.7-1.8 MeV and 2.6 MeV respectively.
> Hence, 232U could be utilized as an intrinsic proliferation-resistant
> barrier for diversion of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and weapons grade
> plutonium (W-Pu) for nonpeaceful purposes.
> For incineration of WPu or civilian Pu in fast reactors utilizing
> 'oncethrough' cycle, (Th, Pu)O2 fuel is a better option, as compared to
> (U,
> Pu)O2 [15]. In thoria matrix fuel, plutonium is not bred, instead 232U is
> formed in the spent fuel which ensures proliferation-resistance because of
> the high gamma radiation associated with the daughter products. In
> addition,
> these fuels could be directly disposed in permanent repositories taking
> advantage of the high chemical stability of and inertness ThO2.
> <end quote>
>
> ......from
> http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PubDetails.asp?pubId=7192
> Thorium Fuel Cycle - Potential Benefits and Challenges
> IAEA-TECDOC-1450, 2500, ISBN 92-0-103405-9, English. 15.00 Euro  Full
> Text,
> (File Size: 1900 KB).
> http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/TE_1450_web.pdf
>
>
> Jaro
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Franz Schönhofer [mailto:franz.schoenhofer at chello.at]
> Sent: Thursday July 07, 2005 2:49 PM
> To: 'Marco Caceci'; radsafe at radlab.nl
> Subject: AW: [ RadSafe ] Article on Wired on Thorium reactors
>
> <SNIP>
> I wonder, what the opinion of the RADSAFE community is. Most of all I
> believe that there are collegues out there, who might know much better
> than
> I do....
>
>
>
>
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