tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post8264312893481931858..comments2023-04-07T05:19:44.951-04:00Comments on Yes Vermont Yankee: Cesium in the Biosphere: Guest Post by Stewart FarberMeredith Angwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02737538041807740424noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-86623775887352487192016-05-13T16:01:21.154-04:002016-05-13T16:01:21.154-04:00PART 2 OF 2 TO COMMENT BY DR. PARTHASARATHY
After...PART 2 OF 2 TO COMMENT BY DR. PARTHASARATHY<br /><br />After the flap with the national lobbying group for the Pulp and Paper Industry (P&PI) of the Science News article and the headline "Wood ash-The Unregulated Radwaste", the P&PI hired a group of academic researchers to measure Cs-137 from an Industrial boiler at a Kraft paper mill burning wood waste. Based on very detailed measurements made of Cs-137 in wood being burned, and Cs-137 in the bottom and fly ash, it was determined from the Cs activity balance, that more than 90% of the Cs-137 was volatilized and exited the boiler up the stack. This is a VERY INTERESTING finding. Based on this study carried out by a group of radiation specialists from a University in the south hired by the P&PI, the amount of Cs-137 being released from this one Kraft Paper Mill as of 1991 exceeded the routine Cs-137 being discharged from the average nuclear plant. There are 100 large Kraft paper mills in the US. There are roughly 100 nuclear plants in the US releasing trivial amounts of airborne Cs-137. The 100 Kraft paper mills as of the 1990s may have volatilized and discharged up the stacks of their industrial boilers more Cs-137 from wood burning which contained residual weapon's test fallout, than the Cs-137 discharged in airborne effluents from nuclear electric generating stations producing 20% of US electric power. I was never able to pursue further measurements of Cs-137 in domestic wood ash or any other wood waste streams. After leaving the nuclear industry in 1993, I submitted a proposal to the EPA to make a large number Cs-137 in wood ash measurements but the EPA rejected my proposal. Despite having gathered data from my 1991 HPS presented study:<br /><br /> Cesium-137 in Wood Ash --Results of National Survey (or 'Woodburners and Organic Farmers: Is it Time to Kiss Your Ash Goodbye?' )"<br /><br />the EPA reviewers of my 1994 proposal, which I prepared and submitted jointly with the University of RI Nuclear Research Reactor which would have done the gamma spec analyses, refused to fund the small study. The EPA "expert" reviewers (unidentified) amazingly claimed they did not believe that Cs-137 would be present in trees residual from atmospheric nuclear tests, the majority of which were conducted prior to the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Apparently the EPA experts did not believe actual data from measurements made by more than a dozen facilities across the US. Alternatively, the EPA had an agenda not to make any measurements related to radioactivity and wood burning so they let their prejudices and simple dogma trump any balanced decision about what represented a subject deserving of study.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15222699409418016634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-17832087228746567432016-05-13T15:59:50.612-04:002016-05-13T15:59:50.612-04:00PART 1 OF 2
Hello Dr. Parthasarathy,
The issue o...PART 1 OF 2<br /><br />Hello Dr. Parthasarathy,<br /><br />The issue of Cs volatility in ash from burning wood or wood residues is quite a bit more complicated than the general assumption about Cs being extremely volatile. <br /><br /> In 1991, I delivered a paper to the Annual Meeting of the Health Physics Society in Washington, DC presenting a talk titled: "Cesium-137 in Wood Ash --Results of National Survey (or 'Woodburners and Organic Farmers: Is it Time to Kiss Your Ash Goodbye?' )". I mention this because I noted in passing in my presentation that wood ash from the Northeastern US measured as high as 15,000 pCi/kg ash and that if the more than million tons of radioactive wood ash generated each year in the US from industrial wood burning (and hundreds of thousands of tons of wood ash from domestic wood burning) were subject to the same requirements as various low-level radioactive waste from hospitals and nuclear power plants, it would cost over $10 billion/year for disposal at 1991 disposal costs. A reporter, Janet Raloff, for the publication "Science News" happened to spend some time at the DC HPS meeting and include brief notes about 2 talks, including my presentation. Ms. Raloff summarized my presentation under the title: "Woodash-The Unregulated RadWaste." Well, this comment from Science News kicked off a panicked response from the pulp and paper industry which burns millions of tons of "hogged fuel" (which includes bark, trimmings, and waste wood) residual from making paper, and "black liquor" a concentrate of digesting wood with NaOH and other chemicals to turn cellulose from trees into kraft paper and other papers. After various steps, the "Black liquor" is dried in rotary heaters, and then burned in industrial boilers to make electricity while burning the organic soup, and recover various chemical used in digesting pulp. Black liquor contained very elevated concentrations of Cs-137 depending on the source of the wood. I'm telling the story about how wood and wood waste from paper manufacture is burned in industrial boilers in vast quantities because it gives an insight to Cesium-137 volatility in high-temperature Industrial boilers vs. domestic wood burning. From very limited data from my unfunded Cs-137 in (domestic) wood ash it appears there is relatively little Cs-137 volatility in burning wood at the temperatures achieved in domestic wood burning -fireplaces or wood stove. I posit that this may be because as wood burns, any Cs-137 in the wood may be intimately bound in a Potassium matrix and K is not very volatile. I measured Cesium-137 in wood chips from one unburned wood sample in 1990 and based on the Cs-137 in wood ash it seemed that very little Cs-137 was volatilized.<br /><br />PART 2 OF 2 TO FOLLOWAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15222699409418016634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-73261840113593649112016-05-12T23:03:31.414-04:002016-05-12T23:03:31.414-04:00Cs-137 volatilizes very easily. The actual concent...Cs-137 volatilizes very easily. The actual concentration in wood ash is likely to be much higher.This does not contradict the observation that environmental sampling can offer highly variable data.Dr.K S Parthasarathyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02426654312712788303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-46974194697948483812016-05-12T16:07:38.579-04:002016-05-12T16:07:38.579-04:00Great article!
Thanks Stewart and Meredith !Great article!<br />Thanks Stewart and Meredith !Jaronoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033288879708780106.post-83944029839352234692016-05-12T13:58:47.979-04:002016-05-12T13:58:47.979-04:00Good and poignant posting.Good and poignant posting.Leslie Corricenoreply@blogger.com