Re: Advice to teachers (reply)

[Wes Van Pelt <VanPeltW@IDT.NET>]

Schoenhofer wrote:

  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

 Franz,

You have misinterpreted me.  Perhaps I should have been more explicit,
and thereby wordy. This thread was about LICENSE EXEMPT quantities of
radioactive material.  The US legislation and regulations allow disposal
of this material by any means at all.   (If you properly possess it
without the need for a license, you do not have to follow the NRC
radwaste disposal regulations of part 20 which apply only to licensees.
THIS is the law.)  The reason that disposal of exempt quantities by any
means is allowed is that this disposal is HARMLESS.

If we HPs create the false impression that additional precautions are
warrented (especially costly ones), we ingore our own quantitative risk
assessments.

Always interesting to hear from you Franz!

Best regards, Wes
--
Wesley R. Van Pelt, Ph.D., CIH, CHP                KF2LG
President, Van Pelt Associates, Inc.
Consulting in radiological health and safety.
mailto:VanPeltW@IDT.net
http://shell.idt.net/~vanpeltw/index.html