radioactivity in soil

[JMUCKERHEIDE@delphi.com]

> Thank you to everyone who answered my post about levels of isotope in soil
> that theoretically (everyone wave your hands) produce a dose of 15 mr/yr.  I
> have plenty of information and resources to wade through.  Thanks again.
> 
> Barbara L. Hamrick
> BLHamrick@aol.com

I also was very impressed with the extent and quality of the work and the
information. Reminds of when such work on science led to understanding our
planet, and was wholely fascinating. 

I was a little surprized here though, that there's so little sense of the
ludicrousness of the very idea of actually doing this in terms of actually
"cleaning up dirt"; even without the enormous costs implied; for what benefit? 
for whose benefit? (R&D reported this month that DOE is spending $300
million/year doing environmental monitoring alone, much less cleaning anything 
up, or the costs of others doing such monitoring). 

While the typical rational taxpayer won't spend $500 to remediate radon at
"discharges" and personal exposures that are equivalent to 1000's of times
greater incremental source/exposure, rejecting EPAs radon nonsense. It's
pretty hard to justify the price being paid by the taxpayer for this kind of
effort, for this kind of non-benefit. 

Thanks.

Regards, Jim Muckerheide
jmuckerheide@delphi.com