[Stoves] Fly ash cement and levels of levels of radioactivity?

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

>As you guys delve into fly ash cement, I was curious if the levels of some of the ashes radioactive elements (Cs-137, Sr-90 and K-40) have been measured. The fly ash concentrates these natural occurring isotopes and could be problematic. 

 

A good, and common, question.

 

There are two that I know of personally, the first of which is the investigation of radioactivity in the area of Johannesburg, mostly chasing the rumour that crusher dust (mining) and or coal ash was a radiation health risk. The result of that was the location of serious contamination that was not caused by those sources (which were negligible), but by a careless uranium fuel processing industry.

 

A example second is the investigation of the coal ash radioactivity in Ulaanbaatar where a British guy kept claiming for years that the concentration of natural isotopes was a health risk for the very specific reason that people put the stove ash on the ground then camped yurts on top of it which would lead to ‘dangerous exposure’ to radon gas and ionizing radiation. He claimed to be an expert on the matter and offered himself as a consultant to deal with ‘this dangerous problem’.  

 

It was investigated years before by nuclear physicist Prof Lodoysamba from the National University of Mongolia who worked for a dozen years in Dubnya, Russia, on the team that first synthesised element 105 – in short he ‘has a clue’ about the issue.  He reported that the ‘concentrated’ radiation was a small fraction of the difference between stepping into or out of a concrete building (granite is radioactive too). It was also a small fraction of, for example, the exposure one got standing outside under the shower of radiation streaming in from outer space. I believe the number involved in the ‘concentrated’ ash was <500 microSieverts (µSv).

 

If anyone was worried about that much radiation, they should avoid eating bananas as bananas selectively concentrate K40 and are a well-known trigger for nuclear radiation detectors used by Customs officials at ports.  Eating a banana exposes you to 0.1 µSv (each). 

Flying from NY to Tokyo exposes a passenger to an additional 200 µSv per trip. 

Living on planet Earth means an exposure of about 3650 µSv per year = 225,500 in 70 years and equal to eating about 2 million bananas. 

Working in a uranium mine in Australia has a slightly higher dose of 4400 µSv which is the same on average as living to the age of 96.  

Smoking 1-1/2 packs of cigarettes a day for a year gives 13,000 µSv exposure = 130,000 bananas.

Food from farms applying phosphate fertilizers contains Radium, Lead-210, and Polonium-210. 

Living in Chennai, India gives an annual exposure to 30,000 µSv or 2,100,000 µSv in 70 years. That is about the same as living to the age of 652 somewhere else (but not parts of Iran, Brazil and Sudan which are ‘worse’).

 

According to the EPA, no one lives in Chennai, India (pop. 9m), or in the State of Kerala (pop. 35m) because if they did, they all would have died of radiation poisoning years ago. </sarc> 

 

[I made that up.]

 

Whenever there is a discussion of coal combustion someone pops up with a rumour of the quality of this one. <http://healthybuildingscience.com/2012/04/27/radioactive-granite-and-quartzite-risks-from-radon/>   Anyone touching the ‘third rail’ of coal combustion exposes themselves to a toxic brew of trump, alarm and derision that flies on the wings of public ignorance. 

 

Coal ash in the US (which is an ordinarily radioactive place) is concentrated about 10 times on average through the burning out of the carbon. The resulting concentrate “can approach” or equal the radiation level of granite counter tops (ordinary stone). In Ulaanbaatar where Prof Lodoysamba did his research, the concentration is about 5 times and the concentration was lower to begin with (young coal). In short the claim was bunk.

 

The matter has been studied <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly_ash>  to death so there is a lot to read. 

 

Any time someone claims people are dying of this or that, always ask, “Habeas corpus?” (You have the body?) Subtract the background, deduct other risks and see what is left.

 

Regards

Crispin 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20150210/f4e4f931/attachment.html>