Contamination on WIPP waste container

[Susan Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>]

It seems to me that the anti-WIPP faction would like to make a big deal
of something that is likely of natural origin and is far below any
levels of concern anyway.  Carlsbad, NM, received tens of millions of
dollars to do background studies of the WIPP region and its people
(through environmental monitoring and the "lie down and be counted"
campaign), but they seem to have overlooked what might adhere to the
outside of containers.  Since the TRUPAKs have traveled all over the
country, you'd think they could have done some baseline scans on them. 
I know that plastic hard hats and polyester/nylon clothing will attract
radon; if the paint on the waste containers is a plastic-based paint,
perhaps it too would be susceptible.  Has anyone else looked at this
possibility?  The degree of risk is so laughably small, it's a shame to
waste resources on it, but the public perception factor gives it undue
weight.

My own opinion,
Susan Gawarecki

>- (NEW MEXICO) -- DOE officials have revised their  explanation
>of how a minute amount of radioactive  contamination got on the
>outside of a nuclear waste  container that was sent to WIPP. DOE
>officials no  longer believe that a spot of radiation that
>showed up  last Wednesday was polonium-210... a radioactive 
>element that's a decay product of naturally occurring  radon
>gas. But DOE officials still maintain that the  source of
>contamination was naturally occurring  radiation, and not
>radioactive waste. 
-- 
==================================================
Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director
Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee, Inc.
136 South Illinois Avenue, Suite 208
Oak Ridge, Tennessee  37830
Phone (423) 483-1333; Fax (423) 482-6572; E-mail loc@icx.net
VISIT OUR UPDATED WEB SITE:  http://www.local-oversight.org
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