Everyone is frustrated by this. There is an old joke about an environmentalist in Seattle who died from a heart attack. He had the heart attack when he witnessed a spotted owl eating a Pacific salmon.
We are all talking about "what is background," the original subject, but we are also indeed talking about what level of MDA is acceptable. Do we really feel unsafe enough that samples must be counted for weeks to appease the e-6 people? The tax dollars versus the risk just seem unreasonable to me. As far as pollution goes, how can you slightly radioactively pollute an already radioactive Earth? Yes there should be a release limit, but we should not have to clean up fallout that is barely indistinguishable from natural background, unless we pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to count each soil samples for 3 weeks.
Companies should not be held accoutable for natural radioactivity or fallout.
They should all clean all sites up to ALARA levels. They should demonstrate that they are pretty sure that it is all gone. We have a 15 mRem/yr limit, but we always go way below that. Proving e-6 is very expensive though. I am not for 3 week counting periods of samples nationwide. I say dig until you see it no more. When you know that you are below an acceptable MDA to your regulators, then you are done.
We always go way below 15 mRem/yr. We try to get it all. The environmentalists don't believe this though. This what causes all of the gray areas previously discussed. We are accused of trying to leave harmful levels behind. We never do that though. We always try to get it all!
This is a matter of trust and perception, not of law, in my opinion. For goodness sake, the Earth is radioactive. I still say what is the difference between 390 mRem/year and 405 mRem/yr? That is why I started the risk thread. If someone can tell me this, then I will listen. Otherwise, I cannot understand why this is even an important topic. I do agree that it is affecting all of us and it needs to be discussed. This is why I keep jumping in.
That is my 2 cents on this for today.