Unsealed thorium in TIG welding rods & trash sorting

["TOSH USHINO" <ushinot@songs.sce.com>]

     RADSAFE'rs,
     
     I tried posting this few days ago but my mail server was experiencing 
     problems so I don't know if it ever made it. My apologies if this is a 
     repeat....

There's been few discussions on unsealed thorium in TIG welding rods, and 
discussions a week or two ago about waste sorting.  When we were first trying 
out a waste sorting table and a bag monitor few years ago, we took clean trash 
from non-radiological area and ran it through the monitoring/sorting process to 
evaluate the process flow. One particular set of trash kept alarming the 
monitors. Turned out that these particular trash were old discarded protective 
curtains from welding area and all the activity was apparently from vaporized 
thorium deposited on the curtains. So if you are planning to do waste sorting, 
you will have to figure out how to deal with trash from TIG welding.
     
Usual disclaimers applies.....
====================================================== Toshihide Ushino  CHP  
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