Re: Some questions on Pu

[rkathren@tricity.wsu.edu (ron kathren)]

The United States Transuranium and Uranium Registries serves as a
clearinghouse for information regarding the hazards and health physics
aspects of plutonium.  Our home page contains a great deal of information on
the Registries as well as abstracts of our publications.  To find us, just
do a search on USTUR (or plutonium, for that matter) or go to the WSU home
page address: www://tricity.wsu.edu and proceed from there.

Suggest you have your friend call the Registries at Washington State
Uninversity (1-800-375-9317) or me direct at 509-375-5643.


Ron Kathren
Director, United States Transuranium and Uranium Registries

  >Radsafers:
>
>Below are some Pu questions from friend -- a reading member of the
>public.  While I can respond to some of these questions, I'm no expert
>on Pu & could also benefit from hearing from those who are!
>
>The person who wrote the questions understands that external radiation
>exposure isn't the same thing as radioactive contamination.
>
>I don't (at this time) know the author/date/source of the referenced
>article on Pu in space.
>
>Anyone care to recommend articles or other references that do a good job
>of addressing these sorts of questions or to respond to my friend's
>questions directly?
>
>
>BTW -- Thanks to all who responded to my earlier query on NEI.  I will
>be contacting a few of you directly & also NEI!
>
>Elsa Nimmo
>
>
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>If Pu is not  an external radiation hazard, does that mean that it does
>not burn your skin and that it is not absorbed by your skin?  And what
>are
>critical mass quantities (in layman's terms)?  Does that mean a
>specific number or concentration?
>
>So, I assume that when someone describes plutonium as a "radioactive
>material so toxic that less than a millionth of a gram can give a person
>cancer" they are referring to ingestion?
>
>If ingestion includes inhalation, are the concerns raised
>by an article I read about plutonium in space valid?  The article
>stated that a 1997 mission to Saturn will have 72.3 pounds of
>plutonium, to be launched atop a Titan IV rocket, which has been
>plagued by explosions on launch.  So, if the 1997 rocket explodes on
>launch, and if the container holding the plutonium breaks, will there
>be plutonium in the air for people to breath?
>
>About the 8.3 pounds of plutonium on the Apollo lunar excursion
>module (LEM): the LEM was to have been left on the moon, but instead
>came back down.  NASA aimed it a a spot off New Zealand, and, according
>to NASA (per this article), the plutonium container survived re-entry
>and was "deposited intact in the Tonga Trench in the South Pacific where
>it is effectively isolated from man's
>environment".  Potential consequences?
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>
>