Re[2]: Comment on "Short essay on plutonium"

[sandy_perle@email.fpl.com]

     Gary is absolutely correct. Anytime one speaks to an audience, they 
     must ensure that they don't talk down to them, taking into account the 
     group's population, geography, education and knowledge of the topic 
     being addressed. I provided the essay to the Radsafe forum NOT as a 
     scientific document for detailed critique, but only as a good basic 
     discussion on the issue of plutonium in the "big picture" ... for 
     interest and basic information. I believe it serves that function very 
     well. If you recall, I mentioned that this was found in the Health 
     Physics and Radiation Protection Home page, a site more often than not 
     visited by non-health physicists. It is an excellent document for the 
     lay person.
     
     Sandy Perle
     Florida Power and Light Company
     Nuclear Division
     
     sandy_perle@email.fpl.com


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Comment on "Short essay on plutonium"
Author:  radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu at Internet-Mail
Date:    10/20/95 2:58 PM


Before alot is said in reference to the short essay, please bear in 
mind that it was written for laymen, not Health Physicists. The primary 
purpose was to provide an individual with a sense for how outrageous 
the "One pound of Pu could kill everyone on earth" claim is.
     
No one should use the short essay on Pu as a basis for internal dosimetry.
     
 ********************************************************************* 
 * Gary Masters, ALARA Program Coordinator, RFETS   gmasters@csn.net * 
 *         Get Totally Warped - Use a Mac as a Unix terminal!        * 
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On Fri, 20 Oct 1995 TOOHEYR@ORAU.GOV wrote:
     
> The essay states:
> 
>      Since plutonium is an alpha particle emitter the Annual Limit on 
>      Intake is based on critical organ dose rather than on whole body 
> dose. 
> 
> This is misleading; the ALI is based on dose to bone surface because the 
> tissue weighting factor is less than 0.1 (actually 0.03); thus one could 
> exceed 0.5 Sv to the organ without exceeding 50 mSv EDE; being an
> alpha emitter has nothing to do with it.  Same thing goes for iodines, 
> because thyroid weighting factor is also 0.03. 
> 
> Hate to nitpick, but it comes with the infernal dosimetry business. 
> 
> Dick Toohey
> Radiation Internal Dose Information Center 
> TooheyR@ORAU.GOV
> 
>