Re: Ugly Sampling and Analysis Problem

[c0etxlim@mrd42.mrd.usace.army.mil (Luke I. McCormick)]

 Been there , done that, couldn't eat for a week.  We did come up with some 
 ideas in hindsight.
   1. Freeze the container then open in up and drive a soil type sampler into
      the drum.
   2. If you think some gamma emitters were there, do an external assay.  (we
      had tritiated rats and dogs and some unknowns in mice so this was a no
      go)
   3. Using process knowledge, (we knew the source labs and everything they were
      authorized to use and the limits)  calculate what could probably be in
      the drum.  
  
 We thought of the latter too late to implement.  I have used the latter 

 method for guesstimation of what is in disposal cells that we have unearthed
 and shipped to American Ecology.  AE bought off on the methodology and so 
 did the state of Washington.  So it can be done.  
 From a health and safety point of view, the biohazards from opening and 
 sampling the drum far outweigh the benefit of a "scientific" analysis of the
 contents. 
 Luke McCormick c0etxlim@mrd42.mrd.usace.army.mil
> 
> Here's one for the books.  Someone has asked what to do about
> a drum marked as having radioactive animal carcuses.  It is believed
> to be properly packaged, overpacked with lime but no other information
> as to isotopes is available.  It's been sitting arround a facility
> at room temperature for a few years.
>  
> Nobody really wants to open it but they can't leave it there for
> ever.  Anybody got any ideas about how to tackle it?  My idea off
> the top of my head would be to expose the inner drum, hopfully there
> will be an access hole or bung that can be unscrewed.  Think I'd 
> recommend a charcoal filtered supplied air respirator for comfort.
> Then something like a sampling thief, that is a rod to be pushed
> through the carcus remnants, they may be semi-liquified anyway.
> If a sample could be obtained that way then it could be digested
> with acid, concentrated and counted on a MCA and LSC and some isotopes
> identified and numbers generated.
>  
> This is a nasty problem for sure but has anybody out there encountered
> one like it befor or got ideas?
>  
> Thanks in advance.  
> Peter G. Vernig, VA Medical Center, Denver vernig.peter@forum.va.gov
>  
> You may want to respond directly as I doubt there's a whole lot of 
> interest in this, or maybe there is?
>