[ RadSafe ] Re: radioactive contamination of silver

[Bernard Cohen]

Slight radioactivity is much more important if the silver is to be used 
for photographic film than if it is to be stored in Fot Knox to support 
U.S. currency.-- the silver in Oak Ridge came from Fort Knox and was 
returned there.

sontermj at tpg.com.au wrote:

>Regarding the thread on contamination of silver:  
>
>Can I suggest that an often-unrecognised pathway for silver to get contaminated with radionuclides is from 
>usually-tiny amounts of NORM in the silver ore that can carry over into the final refinery process.  At a 
>Copper-Uranium-Gold-Silver mining and processing facility where I was once the RSO, we had to hold 
>back the initial silver shipments because we had found unexpected Po-210 contamination in it (and Kodak 
>didnt want it!).  We made adjustments to the metallurgical process to reduce this carry over.
>
>Mark Sonter
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