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Re: radium disposal



> Date:          Mon, 6 Jan 97 08:32:37 -0600
> Reply-to:      radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
> From:          Lester.Slaback@nist.gov
> To:            Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
> Subject:       radium disposal

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

	From the Encyclopedia Britannica (on-line version)

	Ocean area 		362x10^6 sq km
	average depth	3.7 km

	volume = 1.339 x 10^9 cubic km
	             = 1.339 x 10^18 cubic meters

	using a slightly fudged figure of 1000 liters per cubic meter

	volume = 1.339 x 10^21 liters 

	total Ra =  .05 x 10-12 oCi/l x 1.339 x 10^21 l 
	total Ra = 0.670 x 10^8 Ci

	Hmmm. Can anyone quote concentrations of Uranium and Thorium? It might 
	be instructive to calculate total ocean activity for lets say 10^6 cu km and 
	compare that  to  the recent Pu that landed in the Pacific.

Frank R. Borger - Physicist - Center for Radiation Therapy
net: Frank@rover.uchicago.edu   ph: 312-791-8075 fa: 791-3697

Have you heard of the ship called the good Reuben James
manned by bold fighting men, both of honor and of fame.
She flew the Stars and Stripes, of the land of the free.
But tonight She's in her grave, at the bottom of the sea.
- Woodrow Wilson Guthrie