Skip to main content

Livermore investigated for nuclear contamination

Originally, the first link was broken but it is ok now. Poster: thanks for your prompt response and he extra links. 

 Livermore investigated for nuclear contamination on and off-site


https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2024-01/Notification%20of%20Intent%20to%20Investigate%20Lawrence%20Livermore%20National%20Security.pd

Comments

Anonymous said…
“All team members were tested for exposure,” the NNSA statement said. “Results for some of them showed a detectable uptake of I-125, but at levels well below regulatory and administrative limits, and well below levels of any clinical concern.”

Tested when after initial exposure? Gamma emitting Iodine 125, has a half life of 60 days.
Anonymous said…
8:15 -- the biological half life matters as well, iodine is retained in the thyroid for several months, but some is excreted more rapidly. It seems to be the testing was within a month or so, so the internal exposure claims are probably true.
Anonymous said…
Looks like another investigation, just a few weeks ago there was a story on newsline about the Office of Inspector General requesting employee data from LLNS.
Anonymous said…
September 25, 2023

“Six LANL Employees Tested Positive For Iodine-125 In March Following Foreign Travel As Part Of Multi-Laboratory Team”

https://losalamosreporter.com/2023/09/25/six-lanl-employees-tested-positive-for-iodine-125-in-march-following-foreign-travel-as-part-of-multi-laboratory-team/

Anonymous said…
“Looks like another investigation, just a few weeks ago there was a story on newsline about the Office of Inspector General requesting employee data from LLNS.”

Regarding what?
Anonymous said…
Evidently it's a very low energy gamma ray emitter so a NaI scintillator is needed for detection:

https://ehs.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Iodine-125.pdf

for reference 1 microcurie = 2.2 million dpm approximate (dpm is already corrected for detector efficiciency) so the camera strap was a 2.5 microcurie source at the time measured

If this were ingested, the numbers indicate 3 rem to the thyroid, 125 mrem whole body dose, so not a really large amount of contamination despite the high number of counts:

Committed Dose Equivalent (CDE) - Organ Doses Based on Intake (not uptake)
833 mrem / uCi (thyroid / inhalation / Class "D")
1250 mrem / uCi (thyroid / ingestion / all compounds)
Committed Effective Dose Equivalent: 25 mrem / uCi (WB / inhalation)
(Whole Body / CEDE) 50 mrem / uCi (WB / ingestion)

Annual Limit on Intake (ALI):
 40 uCi (all compounds) (ingestion / CDE / 50 rem to Thyroid)
 100 uCi (all compounds) (ingestion / CEDE / 5 rem to Whole Body)
 60 uCi (all compounds) (inhalation / CDE / 50 rem to Thyroid)
 200 uCi (all compounds) (inhalation / CEDE / 5 rem to Whole Body)
[1.0 ALI = 40 uCi (ingested) = 50,000 millirem CDE to Thyroid]
[1.0 ALI = 60 uCi (inhaled) = 50,000 millirem CDE to Thyroid]
[1.0 ALI = 200 uCi (inhaled) = 5,000 millirem CEDE to Whole Body]

Here's an article on thyroid dose limits in general, why they are so high:

https://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q7303.html

Popular posts from this blog

Plutonium Shots on NIF.

Tri-Valley Cares needs to be on this if they aren't already. We need to make sure that NNSA and LLNL does not make good on promises to pursue such stupid ideas as doing Plutonium experiments on NIF. The stupidity arises from the fact that a huge population is placed at risk in the short and long term. Why do this kind of experiment in a heavily populated area? Only a moron would push that kind of imbecile area. Do it somewhere else in the god forsaken hills of Los Alamos. Why should the communities in the Bay Area be subjected to such increased risk just because the lab's NIF has failed twice and is trying the Hail Mary pass of doing an SNM experiment just to justify their existence? Those Laser EoS techniques and the people analyzing the raw data are all just BAD anyways. You know what comes next after they do the experiment. They'll figure out that they need larger samples. More risk for the local population. Stop this imbecilic pursuit. They wan...

Trump is to gut the labs.

The budget has a 20% decrease to DOE office of science, 20% cut to NIH. NASA also gets a cut. This will  have a huge negative effect on the lab. Crazy, juts crazy. He also wants to cut NEA and PBS, this may not seem like  a big deal but they get very little money and do great things.

tcp1 looking good

I just received my annual TCP-1 letter from LLNS and a summary of the LLNS Pension Plan. Looked in pretty good shape in 2013. About 35% overfunded (funding target attainment percentage = 134.92%). This was a decrease from 2012 where it was 51% overfunded (funding target attainment percentage = 151.59%). They did note that the 2012 change in the law on how liabilities are calculated using interest rates improved the plan's position. Without the change the funding target attainment percentages would have been 118% (2012) and 105% (2013). 2013 assets = $2,057,866,902 2013 liabilities = $1,525,162,784 vs 2012 assets = $1,844,924,947 2012 liabilities = $1,217,043,150 It was also noted that a slightly different calculation method ("fair market value") designed to show a clearer picture of the plan' status as December 31, 2013 had; Assets = $2,403,098,433 Liabilities = $2,068,984,256 Funding ratio = 116.15% Its a closed plan with 3,781 participants. Of that number, 3,151 wer...