[TheForge] Hellooooooo!

[wmullett at bright.net]

You have to add in a time & quantity factor to your statement.  

I had a hyper active thyroid that was diagnosed and then treated with iodine (I-131). Real short half life and yes, it killed most of my thyroid.  But in a couple of months, I wasn't radioactive and not a threat.  

I can't say that would be the same for Strontium-90.  Would you handle or drink that stuff?

From: "Darrell" <darrell67 at machinemaster.com>
Date: Mon May 8, 3:14 PM
To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: Re: [TheForge] Hellooooooo!

Medical waste is NOT the problem. It is just more dangerous.
Uranium has a half life of 704million years. Unless you build your entire 
house out of it with at least 6 foot thick walls it would probably not be 
hazardous to you.
It is the stuff with the very short half life that can be harmful if not 
handled properly. We already have the technology to do that.
Burning coal releases more radioactivity into the atmosphere than almost any 
other thing that we do today.
It is not whether something is radioactive or not that makes it hazardous. 
It is how many of the high speed particles pass through you in a given 
period of time that determines whether or not it is dangerous.
Anything that has a LOOOOONG half life has that long half life because it is 
not giving up very many of those particles. The longer the half life, the 
less the danger.

Darrell

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <wmullett at bright.net>
To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, May 08, 2006 9:30 AM
Subject: Re: Re: [TheForge] Hellooooooo!


> Medical waste is NOT the problem.
>
> "Reactor waste remains hazardous for a very long time. Most medical waste 
> from treatment and diagnosis is hazardous for a very short time. Research 
> and industrial waste can contain small amounts of some long-lived 
> radioactive materials.
>
> Among the radioactive elements commonly found in nuclear reactor 
> "low-level" waste are: Tritium, with a half-life of 12 years and a 
> hazardous life of 120-240 years; Iodine-131, half-life of 8 days, 
> hazardous life of 80-160 days; Strontium-90, half life of 28 years, 
> hazardous life of 280-560 years; Nickel-59, half life of 76,000 years, 
> hazardous life of 760,000-1,520,000 years, and Iodine-129, half-life of 
> sixteen million years, hazardous life of160-320 million years.
>
> By contrast, common medical waste elements include Technetium-99m, with a 
> half-life of 6 hours and a hazardous life of 2.5-5 days; Galium-67, 
> half-life of 78 hours and hazardous life of 1-2 months; and Iodine-131, 
> with its half-life of 8 days and hazardous life of 80-160 days.
>
> The vast majority of medical waste is hazardous for less than 8 months. 
> Yet, it is in the same category as reactor waste that will be hazardous 
> for hundreds of thousands to millions of years.
>
> Clearly, the definition of "low-level radioactive waste" must be changed. 
> It would make sense to redefine the more concentrated and/or longer-lived 
> waste as high-level. Active recontainerization and operational control 
> must be provided for the entire hazardous life of the waste, yet the NRC 
> requires only 100 years of passive institutional control. Thus, waste 
> hazardous longer than 100 years could be forgotten. Retrievability is 
> essential. "
>
>
> From: "Chris Kilpatrick" <crimsonkil at lycos.com>
> Date: Mon May 8, 10:52 AM
> To: "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] Hellooooooo!
>
>> It would be challenged, and rightly so.  Nuclear is not a good
>> long term solution, methinks.  The wastes are just too nasty.
>
>
> If you want to get rid of 94% of all nuclear waste in this country, stop 
> the medical community from using nuclear medicine.
>
> It is I who formed the blacksmith,
> who fans the flame into a fire and
> fashions a weapon fit for it's work.
>
>
> -- 
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