Re: Contaminated Crates?

[xat@inel.gov (Alden Tschaeche)]

dwayne.gardner@po.state.ct.us wrote:

> Her question is should she be concerned about continuing to use these
> crates. I'd be interested to hear what everyone thinks about this. 

Of course, my first thought is: she should NOT be concerned about
continuing to use the crates.  However, I would need a little more
information in order to advise her, such as: what are the dose rates
from the crates?  Could you determine that piece of information?

I might hazard a guess that there is little radioactive material in the
wood of the crates.  Five years ago is about 5 years after the Chernobyl
accident.  Therefore, the trees from which the crates were made only had
five years' worth of time to accumulate radioactive material.  Most of
the radioactive material in the trees would be in the outer 5 rings of
the trees.  Most of that material would be stripped off during
processing in the lumber mill.  Therefore, there should be esentially no
radioactive material in the wood of the crates.

Finally, I suspect that no one in her household spends much time near
the crates.  Even if there were measurable dose rates from the crates,
the occupancy time would reduce the personnel dose to extremely low
levels.

Does this reasoning make sence?  Al Tschaeche xat@inel.gov