[ RadSafe ] Salsman RE: Gardner Sellafield cluster

[John Andrews]

James Salsman wrote:

> Ivor Surveyor wrote:
>
>> ... the Dickinson H and Parker work which in fact is (or should be) 
>> the end of the Gardner hypothesis.
>
>
> They did rule out Leo Kinlen's population mixing infection
> alternative hypothesis conclusively, but they reported only
> about half the risk ratio that Gardner had reported.
>
> The COMARE report -- to which Fred Dawson posted this link:
>   http://www.comare.org.uk/reports/comare7threport.pdf
> -- treats the controversy fairly, but it never considers or
> even mentions the possibility of actinide metal contamination.
> This is as close as it gets:
>
>     7.8  It remains possible that an undiscovered factor was
>     operating in Seascale in the 1950s and 1960s that added
>     to or perhaps interacted synergistically with a dose-
>     related radiation effect that would otherwise have been
>     too small to measure....
>
> I wonder if the Sellafield radiation worker parents could ask
> the Depleted Uranium Oversight Board to measure their urine.
>
> After all, if one group of safety researchers forgot that the
> "not infrequently ignored" (according to Gmelin) oxidation of
> U3O8 can produce monomeric uranium trioxide gas -- which is
> essentially impossible to filter, takes years to settle out of
> the air, and is at least as toxic as uranyl nitrate -- then it
> stands to reason that another group might had missed it, too.
>
> I wonder now that the UK has a freedom of information law, how
> hard it would be to find out whether the Sellafield labs were
> heating U3O8 above 1000 Celsius back in the 50s and 60s.
>
> Sincerely,
> James Salsman
>
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This is an interesting conversation.  However, I wonder how long this 
UO3 will stay in the vicinity of the vehicles that were damaged and 
continue to be an exposure hazard.  If it has a very slow setteling rate 
(is this true?) then it will disperse with the normal air movement and 
not be a significant problem because of dilution and dispersion.  
Individuals who are exposed to the DU inferno inside a tank when struck 
by DU munitons are likely to die at once.  Those cleaning up the 
destroyed vehicles are unlikely to be exposed to UO3 because it has 
diffused and dilluted and is no longer present at that location.

John Andrews, Knoxville, Tennessee