re: cooling towers

["JERRY ROSEN" <rosen@rso.radsafe.pitt.edu>]

Engelbretson, David wrote:
> > I recently had a question asked by a member of the hazardous waste team
> > at our facility that I did not know the answer to and was wondering if
> > anyone could help me.
> >
> > He told me that a waste hauler friend of his had dismantled an old water
> > cooling tower (~40 yrs old) from the top of an office building and had
> > attempted to take it to a landfill.  The tower material  was rejected
> > because it was emitting radiation above the landfill's acceptable
> > limits.

Cooling towers by design have a large exchange capacity between air 
and the cooling medium.  In a power plant thermal exchange occurs 
between the air circulating thru the tower and a water curtain.  
While designed to exchange heat, particulates in the air are also 
exchanged with fair efficiency.  There's radioactive materials in 
that air folks.  Check the sludge from any cooling tower you'll find 
fallout cesium, strontium, natuarally occurring Raa, Th, Pb-210 and 
all the non-radioactive pollutants that you can think of.


Jerry Rosen

University of Pittsburgh
Phone:  412-624-2728
Fax:    412-624-3562
Email:  Rosen@radsafe.pitt.edu