Radioactive contamination is found at middle school

[Marlin]

Ohio town worries about safety after radioactive contamination is found at middle school


https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/14/health/ohio-middle-school-radioactivity-bn/index.html?no-st=1557882187

[Marlin]

Zahn's Corner Middle School closed due to enriched uranium, neptunium contamination

https://www.newswatchman.com/news_advisories/article_75033fdd-68a6-5b28-b887-1245aa099d92.html?fbclid=IwAR0fGo0zGc__YPQfGV3pgUVtp_5NGH4oim4T7n07hn72OHHh2oZbNEnwVwc

[Mounder]

This appears to be an impressive ruse to draw attention to this DOE site and fight the disposal cell being built.  Lot of people being scared of nothing, for the purpose of fighting this project.  Levels that that are scarcely detectable (thanks to incredible lab analytical techniques) are being claimed as "dangerous." I would compare this to sampling for benzopyrenes in the asphalt of the school parking lot and claiming deadly carcinogens are being tracked in from the asphalt.  Guess what, benzopyrenes are in asphalt and are actually dangerous in comparison to this fictitiously linked Neptunium, which is from a global release from a reactor in eastern Europe (and not from DOE Portsmouth.)  This report will be sliced and diced and chewed up by real experts and statisticians in the very near future. 

[GLW]

This appears to be an impressive ruse to draw attention to this DOE site and fight the disposal cell being built.  Lot of people being scared of nothing, for the purpose of fighting this project.  Levels that that are scarcely detectable (thanks to incredible lab analytical techniques)....

prompting the slippery slope of NDA >bkgd as an unrestricted use criterion,...


the better we get, the harder it gets,....

[Mounder]

Their crime of "Inducing Panic" is unfortunately only a misdemeanor.

[scotoma]

Yes, but ignorance is legal. It is, however, one of the seven deadly sins. It falls into the sloth category. I admit that I have been guilty myself. Sometimes the PTB have to make conservative decisions taking into consideration the ignorance of their constituents. Never underestimate the power of a large number of stupid people in one place.

[Marlin]

Yes, but ignorance is legal.

   Unfortunately true but the nuclear industry and in this case the DOE is to blame. Public education on radiation is woefully inadequate.  I am sure that anyone who works in the business continually encounters "civilians" who have no idea that radiation is natural or what the real hazard is which can be demonstrated by charts of risk by industry or the fact that the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements reported that aircrews have the largest average annual effective dose of all US radiation-exposed workers. Making the radiation dose chart by Randall Monroe more public and in use in RadWorker and in public training may be a good start.

   "Reality what a concept" Robin Williams

[Mounder]

In their own NAU sampling report, the highest neptunium level found in the soil outside of the school calculates out roughly to 0.000002 pCi/gm and the Governor wants more sampling.  More work for health physicists!

[Marlin]

   Maybe they should have involved appropriate stakeholders in the first place. It can be a pain, the goal posts were moved a few times in the Mound remediation project but probably less painful than this. Now they will be dealing with public mistrust more than normal.

Energy Secretary Perry sending scientists to assess radioactive contamination at Pike County school

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2019/05/25/perry-says-help-way-pike-county-middle-school/1236010001/?fbclid=IwAR2q24faDiA0hyCsm1yNu9H77T6yH_sixzc-sfQmgrfVvJJcjpVEElZqbzc

[RFaunt]

  "... the fact that the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements reported that aircrews have the largest average annual effective dose of all US radiation-exposed workers. Making the radiation dose chart by Randall Monroe more public and in use in RadWorker and in public training may be a good start.

   "Reality what a concept" Robin Williams

But airline crews don't have dose limits, correct? I know the FAA has recommended limits (2 Rem/year averaged over a 5 year period), but I recall learning from someone involved in policy discussions that the airline unions fought to keep crews from being classified as radiation workers and monitored due to the limitations it could place on earning potential. So they can pick up 1000s of mRem a year unmonitored without anyone batting an eye, but this "incident" becomes fodder for public outcry. The industry has definitely missed the boat on public education, and it's coming back to bite them.

[Mounder]

The FAA does have an "Advisory Circular" document for recommended dose limits.  You're right about the pilot unions fighting limits of flight time and monitoring. Former Air Force pilots with health claims still had their legal teams pointing at this Circular as recorded documentation of the FAA hazard acknowledgement and control.     https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC_120-61B.pdf

[Mounder]

and now Anne White gets the boot over "positive findings" of contamination at Portsmouth. Positive being within the LOD.    https://www.exchangemonitor.com/anne-white-doe-nuclear-cleanup-office-boss-sources-say/?printmode=1

[GLW]

The FAA does have an "Advisory Circular" document for recommended dose limits.  You're right about the pilot unions fighting limits of flight time and monitoring. Former Air Force pilots with health claims still had their legal teams pointing at this Circular as recorded documentation of the FAA hazard acknowledgement and control.     https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC_120-61B.pdf

the medical types fight adopting the IAEA 20mSv/year a lot harder than the commercial nukes do,...

pretty much the same reasons,...

dose for dollars!!!!!

I brand it, "the prerogative to choose",...

https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/PUB1785_web.pdf