Attention scrappers! Be careful!!

Tony Wells

President Emeritus (Retired)
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OK guys........I know some of you are getting material from scrapyards, and who knows where else. But it is important to know a little something about where the material comes from. Here's one example of why:


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49045210/
 
"Hey, anybody around here seen a small metal canister? Slightly, radioactive, big warning letters on it. Should you be worried? No no, nothing to be concerned about..."

Whoops...
 
Rant ON
With all the x ray equipment and components being lost per year, there is enough material to make many dirty things attached to things that go boom and spread the debris over a large highly populated area to scare the masses. Until that happens there are no controls on the commercial use of fissionable materials that have any teeth. Not that we need more ridiculus laws but industry users are not helping things.

At the local border crossing there are detectors that will sound off even after you went to the clinic for a CAT scan 2-3 days before. If one wanted to, just toss a smoke detector into the back of an open load truck and tie up the border for hrs or days, depending on the IQ of the local money wasters.

Smoke detectors are considered Hazardous waste and are not picked up by garbage collection but they are not allowed at the Hazardous waste centers either. What is that about???? So the people just toss them in with the rest of the garbage and they are tossed into your local land waste site. Anybody want to go mining for fissionable materials?

Rant OFF
Pierre
 
There are plenty of company rules and government regulations regarding the storage and handling of these materials. There is more material like this on the highways than most people know about, and around their homes, if they, like me, live in oilfield country. The problem right now, the way I'd guess is that because the industry is picking up, they are hiring less experienced hands, and perhaps they aren't taking this seriously enough. Those radioactive materials are specially containerized, and a strict CoC is supposed to be maintained at all times. Somewhere, someone is sweating on this one because when they find the paperwork, the last guy to sign for it will probably lose his job, and not be able to work in the field again. It's viewed pretty seriously, as it should be. That container, although not very large, or really all that potent as these things go, could easily poison a body of water that a municipality sources water from, or as mentioned earlier, spread atmospherically with not much technical knowledge or skill, or effort.

In other industries who also have to deal with this and similar issues, we probably just don't hear about mishaps. I have read about this issue on an international scale and one that bothers me perhaps most is all the nuclear generators that were basically abandoned by the USSR. They issued small scale (two man carry sized) generators for their far north observation stations that were no longer needed after the breakup. Now, the material gives off a nice warmth, and farmers are using them for space heaters! But many (dozens? hundreds?) are completely unaccounted for. And they are much larger and more potent than this little package Halliburton lost.
 
OK guys........I know some of you are getting material from scrapyards, and who knows where else. But it is important to know a little something about where the material comes from. Here's one example of why:


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49045210/

Tony,

Thanks for the warning. The scrap yard that I haunt went down the path of reciving radioactive material in the past and after the big cleanup, installed sensors at the entrance. Hopefully this will prevent it happening again. Anyone using a scrap yard for a source of materials might ask to see if their material source uses the same precautions. However I will be more carefull about picking up materials along the road being sure to read all warning labels before getting very close.

Benny
 
A couple of years ago the company I work for lost a small nuclear source( its used to monitor flow in process piping). Any way, Automic Energy Canada does a yealy aduit, We have around 50-60 of these units on site, during the audit they detected 1 unit missing. The company spent close to $200,000.00 digging up landfill site on the property but never found it.
They also paid a huge fine.
 
I love this quote:

"It's not something that produces radiation in an extremely dangerous form," said Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services. "But it’s best for people to stay back, 20 or 25 feet."

Having to stay back 25 or 30 feet makes it sound pretty dangerous to me. :confused:

Tom
 
That made me chuckle too, Tom. If it will put you at risk @ 25 feet, that's dangerous. Makes you wonder where they get the guys who write this stuff. I wonder if it's turned up yet.

Maybe they draw the line between making you sick on a temporary basis, like sick at your stomach or a headache @ 25 feet, and make all your hair fall out or burn your hand if you pick it up. Who knows?
 
I love this quote:

"It's not something that produces radiation in an extremely dangerous form," said Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State HealthServices. "But it’s best for people to stay back, 20 or 25 feet."

Having to stay back 25 or 30 feet makes it sound pretty dangerous to me. :confused:

Tom

Ya that sounds pretty sketchy to me, something's not right there!
 
Hey anybody for woodworking ?
I got a giant stump of cottonwood !

dickr
 
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