Re: seeds recovered at TURP procedures - response to reply

[Chris Alston <alstonc@odrge.odr.georgetown.edu>]

Bob

Actually the iodine is adsorbed onto a silver (oxide?) matrix. And, yes,
it's fortunate that the iodine does not readily leave the seeds, when they
are broken. The palladium seeds contain two rods of graphite, onto which
the Pd is plated. Separating the pieces of graphite is a piece of Pb, which
serves as an x-ray marker. There have been a number of times when seeds
have been cremated. Just at the moment, I can't cite you chapter and verse
of a study of such incidents, but I'll try to do so, in the (hopefully) not
too distant future.

cja
alstonc@odrge.odr.georgetown.edu

But what we don't know yet is whether those seeds will rupture from the
>intense heat of the crematorium; I suspect they will.  Fortunately, the
>I-125 is bound to some type of resinous material, because we have broken
>3 seeds at different times, with no airborne activity occurring.  Thus,
>if the seeds rupture, will the bound I-125 go up the stack, or become
>bound to the walls of the crematorium?  Also what about Pd-103?  I don't
>know what that is bound to inside the seed cladding.  So there still are
>some questions that need to be answered in this context.
>
>Bob Scott, RPO 
>Roger Williams Medical Center
>Providence, Rhode Island
>bobscottchp@juno.com
> 
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