From: fyl@fylz.wa.com (Phil Hughes)
Newsgroups: talk.environment,sci.environment,alt.activism,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: NEWS: Radioactive Sand Proves Nuclear Reprocessing Unlawful
Date: 9 Sep 92 15:32:15 GMT
Organization: FYL
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3

mfriedma@uucp (Michael Friedman) writes:
: Gotta love Greenpeace propaganda.  See below.

: In article <Greenpeace.1Sep1992.8am1@naughty-peahen.org> jym@mica.berkeley.edu (Greenpeace via Jym Dyer) writes:
: >[Greenpeace Press Release from Greenbase -- Redistribute Freely]

: >GERMANY, August 18, 1992 (GP) In an old bunker in the free port 
: >of Hamburg Greenpeace is today presenting to the press 
: >radioactive sand contaminated with plutonium. 

: How contaminated is it?  There is a big defference between detectable
: levels of contamination and dangerous levels of contamination.

In the case of plutonium, I beg to differ.  One gram of plutonium is
enough to give everyone in the United States lung cancer.  Yes, this
requires proper distribution but a detectable amount is enough to
cause cancer in something alive.

: >  Scientists from Bremen University conducting gamma- 
: >spectrometric analyses detected in the samples Greenpeace 
: >took at Sellafield in May up to 9,435 becquerels of caesium 137 
: >and 8,520 becquerels of americium 241 per kilogramme of earth.  
: >Their alpha-spectrometric analyses revealed up to 
: >6,747 becquerels of plutonium 239/40.  These analyses were 
: >made on the basis of the samples' weight when wet.  
: 
: Sounds scary, no?  But how much is that compared to normal background
: levels? 

Considering that plutonium and americium and "manufactured" elements I
would suspect that the answer to this question is fairly obvious.
But, in case it isn't, the following is from page 178 of _Poisoned
Power_ by Gofman and Tamplin:

	The worldwide inventory of plutonium is manmade.  It was
 	viturally nonexistent in the earth's crust before the U.S.
	atomic bomb program was initiated.  By far the major use of
	plutonium today is in the manufacture of nuclear bombs.

	...

	The cancer producing potential of plutonium is well
	known.  An amount as small as on ten-millionth of an
	ounce injected under the skin of mice has caused cancer.
	A similar amount injected into the blood streams
	of dogs has produced bone cancers.  However, it is the
	lung that is the most vulnerable to plutonium.

	The vulnerability of the lung to plutonium exists
	because plutonium exposed to air ignotes spontaneously.
	As it burns, it forms numerous tiny particles of plutonium
	dioxide.  These particles are intensely radioactive.  If
	inhaled, they are deposited in the deepest portions of the
	lung.  There they remain, immobilized for hundreds of days,
	and during this time their radiation is able to affect the 
	cancer-sensitive cells of the lung.  The tissue around the
	particle is exposed to a very intense localized dose of
	radiation.

	Our college, Donald Geesaman, has made an extensive analysis
	of the scientific data related to the hazard of these
	radioactive particles.  His analysis pointed up a very
	sobering fact: The experimental data indicated that when small
	portions of tissue are exposed to extremely high dosages
	of radiation, cancer is an almost inevitable result.  In
	other words, irradiation by plutonium oxide particles appears
	to represent a unique carcinogenic hazard.  Somewhere
	between a few and a few hundred such particles would be
	enough to double an individual's chance of developing
	fatal lung cancer.  An ounce of plutonium can form
	10 trillion such particles.

There is more but I think that should make the point that plutonium is
quite a different issue from most (extremely dangerous) nuclear waste.
For those unfamiliar with Goffman and Tamplin, they are nuclear
scientists that worked at Lawrence Livermore Labs and studied the
effects of radiation on man and the environment.  This book was
originally written in 1971 and revised in 1979, after Three Mile
Island.
-- 
Phil Hughes - FYL - 8315 Lk City Wy NE - Suite 207 - Seattle, WA 98115 
Phone: 206-526-2919 x74      Fax: 526-0803
E-mail: fyl@fylz.com or nwnexus!fylz!fyl or cpac.washington.edu!fylz!fyl
Newsgroups: talk.environment,sci.environment,alt.activism,talk.politics.misc