Re: Bugs May Spread Radioactivity - this is new news?

[Joel Baumbaugh <baumbaug@nosc.mil>]

	Radsafers,

	Oh-oh, another story,

	Once upon a time, long - long ago in a far - far away land, when I was working at a University (unnamed) - here in sunny San Diego, I was surveying around the Radioactive Waste building and found a similar problem.  Robber-Ants had "broken into" a "fresh" bag of multi-millicurie (GBq range) P-32 contaminated waste and were transporting their new found treasure back to their queen and her progeny.  If memory serves me well, the single-file trail (about 50 feet in length) was reading about 2,000 CPM [120k Bq] (at about one inch [2-3 cm]) with a Pancake G.M. - sorry Franz, but this is as exact as I can be...  I bug-sprayed the living (I think that it was "Black Flag" Sandy), and tried to dig up the "nest" which I could EASILY detect with a Ludlum (utilizing both 44-9 pancake and a 44-3 Scintillation probe) from above ground at waist height (3.5' [117 cm])(probably some bremstrahlung?)  but had to give up as the P-32 (ants and waste) was "dispersing" in the wind as I dug (well, I've always read that "the solution to pollution is dilution" [grin]). I finally gave up and buried the nest under a mound of dirt and just let it decay.  Try THAT at a power plant!!!  The ants probably dug themselves out the next day, but I carefully ignored them - sealed up their entrance point into the building and let them (and the waste) decay to background levels.  



	Joel Baumbaugh (baumbaug@nosc.mil)	
	SSC-SD

At 09:58 AM 10/8/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Anyone have a large can of RAID :>
>
>Wednesday October 7 10:15 PM EDT 
>
>RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) _ Insects ranging from fruit flies to gnats 
>and ants may be spreading radioactive contamination
>among offices and shops at the Hanford nuclear reservation.
>

Joel T. Baumbaugh, MPH, MHP
baumbaug@nosc.mil
Radiation Safety Officer
SSC San Diego, CA


	NOTE:	The contents of this message have not been reviewed, nor approved by the Federal Government, the U.S. Navy, my bosses or my wife... 

	

     "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

	A. Einstein
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