Re: The Dutch Door Dilemma

["Ing. A. Klerk" <boudewijn.klerk@tip.nl>]

DEAR RadSafers!

Indeed, it was the same idiot that brought this one up! After making some
experience in RadSafe-EU with an artifact I found on the job, I knew I could
go to the WORLD (=USA) with the SI-units. So here I am again.
Don't worry: it is not really a problem, as long as these doors are still in
the building. But what if it is scrapped and Greenpeace finds it using a
survey monitor such as we have? That one is utterly sensitive (and comes
from the States!). Then we have to explain again (and MoD does everything
wrong, also in NL).
And do realize that thoron (Rn-220, 55,6 s) has a shorter halflife than
Rn-222 (3,8 days).

After all, I'm proud to be called a Professor so soon!

Regards,
Boudewijn

-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Willis <CAW@nrc.gov>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Date: woensdag 25 maart 1998 17:33
Subject: The Dutch Door Dilemma


>RADSAFERS:
>
>Does anyone have more on the story that was reported in the February
>"Nuclear Waste News" that a Dutch Physics Professor found that the
>fire doors in the building where he worked were releasing radiation  at
>levels of 0.8 microsieverts/hr (90 microrem/hr).  It also is said that
under
>Dutch law, the owner must have a license for such a door and that, if
>disposed, the door must be disposed as radioactive waste.
>
>This radiation level is a bit higher than that from the average piece of
>granite, but low enough to raise some interesting questions, such as the
>basis for the requirements, the lower limits of the requirements, etc.
>This brings to mind the papers we heard at a regional IRPA congress in
>Portsmouth a few years ago, where Dutch health physicists were
>pleading for a factor of ten relaxation in the requirements to avoid a
>shutdown of the economy.  I would like to hear from someone who
>knows what our Dutch friends are up to.
>
>Charlie Willis
>caw@nrc.gov
>
>