Re: Advice to teachers (reply)

[Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 20:15 04.03.97 -0600, you wrote:
>Brian Rees wrote:
>
>  Is there anybody in a position to ask a commercial disposer to
>  accept HS
>  waste w/o charge as a public service?  That would send a responsible
>
>  message from "our industry" to students.
>
>  Opinions are my own
>  Brian Rees
>  brees@lanl.gov
>
>Hello Brian and All,
>
>I feel just the opposite!  By going to extreme lengths to dispose of
>HARMLESS quantities of radioactivity, we send the wrong message!  We
>give the false impression that any detectable amount of radioactivity is
>hazardous.  What ever happened to QUANTITATIVE risk assessment??
>
>Cheers, Wes
>.............................................

Wes,

Having been a teacher once upon a time I feel very uneasy when reading your
comments. I would of course agree that all radionuclide solutions which are
below the limit for discarding can simply be drained. But this condition has
to be verified. It would even be a good example to give young people an
idea, how legislation works and the importance of limits. But if you state
simply that "harmless" quantities of radioactivity should be disposed of by
draining I absolute disagree. When you state "HARMLESS" in capital letters
it seems to me that you are probably not in accordance with legislation and
that you replace limits by your personal feeling. This would be the worst
you could do to young persons - to show them that one should not care for
legislation!!!!! Many (especially elderly) people complain about the young
people that they do not respect anything - and you want to show them or even
convince them that they need not respect legislation?

Nobody has stated that everything which can be detected is dangerous. And
the question of disposal has nothing to do with quantitative risk research,
but only with legislation. 

Franz
Schoenhofer
Habichergasse 31/7
A-1160 WIEN
AUSTRIA/EUROPE
Tel./Fax:	+43-1-4955308
Tel.:		+43-664-3380333
e-mail:		schoenho@via.at