Re: RADSAFE Rock Collectors

[Stuart Prosser <s.prosser@unsw.edu.au>]

At 11:38 30/10/97 -0600, you wrote:
>Good afternoon!
>
>A number of you have responded to my message about disposing of 
>radioactive rocks by offering to take some or all of them off our 
>hands.  Glad to hear from you all!  We're in the process of getting 
>an inventory of these rocks from the Geosciences Department though it 
>may be a couple of weeks before we have the full inventory.  Assuming 
>that the powers-who-be are interested in getting rid of the rocks by 
>donating them to you all and that it won't take excessive effort on 
>my part, once I have an inventory,  I can respond to those of you who
>are interested and let you know where things stand and what we've got 
>available.
>
>By the way, I got one specific suggestion for  disposing of the 
>rocks, which came from someone who'd had the same problem. 
>If I understand correctly, my contact consulted an NRC representative 
>who suggested throwing the rocks into a lake - which returned the 
>rocks to nature but isolated them from unwary members of the general 
>public and provided all that water shielding besides.
>
>I'm still interested in hearing from any of you who've had to deal 
>with this before.   Thanks to all of you who took the time to 
>respond!
>
>Sue Dupre
>
>=======================================================
>Sue M. Dupre, Health Physicist
>
>Office of Environmental Health and Safety       
>Chemical Sciences Building/Forrestal Campus    
>Princeton University                           
>Princeton, NJ  08544-0710
>
>E-mail: dupre@princeton.edu
>Phone:  (609) 258-6252
>Fax:    (609) 258-1804
>
>Visit the EHS Web site at http://www.princeton.edu/~ehs
>=======================================================
>
>
Sue,

A similar story from the UK some years ago -

Two uranium bearing rocks collected from a Cornish cliff had found great
use as demonstration examples.  So much so that they were forever being
borrowed.  Some misguided person therefore decided to register them
officially as radiation sources, giving them an inventory number etc and
thus ensuring that they were returned after use in lectures etc

Come the time when they were no longer required, I had the job of disposing
of them.

As each contained a documented three times the limit of alpha activity
which was permissible in the normal waste, our brilliant solution after
much head scratching was to divide each source into three subsources which
were then disposed of to landfill.

Oh that all such non-problems could be solved with a sledgehammer.

Regards

Dr Stuart Prosser			tel: (02) 9385 2912
Radiation Safety Coordinator		fax: (02) 9385 2365
The University of New South Wales	email: s.prosser@unsw.edu.au