Re: Re[2]: cpm conversion to mrem/hr

[schoenho@via.at]

At 16:03 28.08.1996 -0500, you wrote:
>     Please attempt to make a positive contribution along with your 
>     whining.  Nobody likes to only listen to negative commentary.
>     
>     I could see how such tables could be derrived with certain boundary 
>     conditions.  You would certainly need to know your energy spectrum, 
>     probe efficiency, etc., but I would certainly think a table or 
>     nomograph could be constructed.  I would be interested in looking at 
>     such a table and boundary conditions myself.
>     
>     Tables and graphs are excellent user aids for those who work with 
>     radiation.  Nomographs are, or were about 5 years ago, the primary 
>     method of determining nuclear, biological, and chemical hazards in the 
>     U.S. military (probably all NATO countries).  Calculations could be 
>     made by anyone with the least bit of common sense.  The Rad Health 
>     Handbook also seems to be constructed almost entirely of tables, 
>     graphs, and nomographs.  When it is all said and done, I guess all 
>     that really matters is that we end up with the right answer and it 
>     really doesn't matter how you obtain it.
>     
>     
>     Sincerely
>     Glen Vickers
>
>===========================================================================

Glen, 

Thank you for your comment - you repeat my arguments about the "conversion"
in other words. 

Please be careful with nomographs. We had all kind of nomographs for nuclear
war and for nuclear accidents in Austria, mostly derived from Swiss army
nomographs. I agree that anyone with the least bit of common sense can make
the calculations - but they might be wrong. They were totally wrong in the
case of the Chernobyl accident and its consequences on contamination in
Austria. If we had not installed modern equipment for sampling and nuclide
specific measurements some years before the accident, we would for instance
still not know, what the I-131 contamination in air (and the inhalation
dose) or the ingestion of I-131 and Cs-137 would have been. All nomographs,
some even relating to "gross alpha and beta" measurements gave totally wrong
results on the deposition, not to talk about the food contamination.
Politicians and the public are not satisfied at such an occasion with rule
of the thumb measurements.

Best regards,   Franz
Schoenhofer
Habichergasse 31/7
A-1160 WIEN
AUSTRIA/EUROPE
Tel./Fax:	+43-1-4955308
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e-mail:		schoenho@via.at