Re: Radon emanation from farm fields

[Grimm <largrimm@pacbell.net>]

Bill:

If you are interested in field and stream realease of radium and uranium
in to water, check with Prof. Roy Spalding at the University of Nebraska
- Lincoln.  He has some good studies on the increase in the environment
of these isotopes due to farming.  You would have to extrapolate the
amount of radon from the radium quantities, which might be an
interesting project for a student.  One other are of occupational
exposure is in the world of paleontology.  A lot of old fossils have
uranium and radium in them.  In one storage area at UNL I was able to
measure 5 mr/hr with a pancake probe from some of the old bones.  During
the University's "Sunday Afternoon with a Scientist", which was held in
their natural history museum, I used to show the public this kind of
activity in about one third of the bones on display.  It helped enliven
my presentation.  One amusing anecdote, the hottest bone that I found
came from the area where they are trying to build the LLRW site in
Nebraska - so much for worrying about contaminating the area, it's
fairly active anyway.

Larry Grimm
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