Re: Contaminated Crates?

[steven t hand <hand@wam.umd.edu>]

As there are "no stupid questions" are the workers at the lumber mills	
exposed to increased levels of radiation from processing timber which	
contains radioactive material ?  Is there an inhalation hazard ?	

steve at umcp
hand@wam.umd.edu

On Fri, 21 Feb 1997, Alden Tschaeche wrote:

> 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
>