radium disposal

[Lester.Slaback@nist.gov]

>No doubt:
>Ra-226,  greatest headache . Geological repository is necessary... but
>such a repository does not yet exist anywhere in the world...and probably
>will not be in operation for some decades.

Given the natural abundance of radium in the oceans I have never
understood not using this 'site' for this particular radionuclide (other
than of course the environmental politics 'rationale').  I presume this
has been discussed by the relevent authorities in the past (i.e., radium
specific disposal, not ocean dumping in general).  Is anyone familiar with
the arguments (technical, not political) on this method?

Politically is it possible that a 'natural' radionuclide might be viewed
differently than those nasty man-made ones?

Ocean concentration : .05 pCi/L  (from Kathren)
Ocean volume (a guess): 4 e+18 L
Total est. activity: 1E5 Ci




-- 
the above are the personal musing of the author,
and do not represent any past, current, or future
position of NIST, the U.S. Government, or anyone else
who might think that they are in a position of authority.
NBSR Health Physics
NIST
Gaithersburg, MD 20899
301 975-5810
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Lester.Slaback@nist.gov
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