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OK, I can accept the argument about handling
excreta, but what's so hard about putting in a holdup tank for decay? I've
always found it absurd that most nuclear installations are fretting about loss
of a few uCi of I-131 while the hospital down the street is dumping curies into
the same system. If you have a thyroid cancer patient, they will receive
~200 mCi. 75% of this is excreted in the first 24-48 hours in the urine,
and the rest over the next week or two. This is not particularly short
lived material, like, say Tc-99m. I don't see this as a grave public
hazard, but I have always thought that a holdup tank used only for highly
radioactive patient excreta like this would be an application of ALARA.
Michael Stabin
Departamento de Energia Nuclear/UFPE Av. Prof. Luiz Freire, 1000 - Cidade Universitaria CEP 50740 - 540 Recife - PE Brazil Phone 55-81-271-8251 or 8252 or 8253 Fax 55-81-271-8250 E-mail stabin@npd.ufpe.br |