Residents of a Mobile home site in Tollerton Nottinghamshire are concerned about homes built on a former WW2 Airbase where over 1200 planes were dismantled, burned and buried. Cockpit dials containing Radium -226 are said to be the cause of low levels of radiation that have been detected.
Radium -226 soil contamination fears.
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swampyankee
Chief Master Sergeant
- 4,306
- Jun 25, 2013
This is not a foolish concern; Marie Curie's house in Paris still has artifacts that are dangerously radioactive. There are also cemeteries near where I live where the girls who painted those dials are buried. You can find their graves with a Geiger counter.
yosimitesam
Senior Airman
Radium-226 is an alpha emitter, so as long as it stays buried and doesn't get in the water supply it is not a huge worry. (The thinnest tissues or the dead skin on your body will block alpha particles. That's why the Manhattan Project physicists weren't afraid to pick up the Fat-Man plutonium sphere (alpha emitter) in their bare hands to feel the radioactive warmth. It was still stupid of them since if you get some in your mouth it will go into your body and then you've got real trouble. Inside your body alpha emitters wreak havoc vis-a-vis DNA mutations.) It's Ra-226's daughter decay products, especially Radon-222 that is the real danger. Even though Rn-222 only has a half-life of a few days, it is a gas and can leak into poorly ventilated homes and breathed into the lungs by the occupants. (It's the 2nd leading cause of lung cancer in the U.S.) Ra-226 has a half-life of about 1600 years, so it will take over 10,000 years for it to decay to 1% of its current amount (6.6 half-life's.) And it will keep producing Rn-222 the whole time, albeit at a diminishing rate. The best course may be to move everyone away and demolish all the structures on top of it. Then mark the area as "radioactive" for the next 10,000 years or so.
Radium is found naturally in tiny amounts in the soil and rocks throughout the world. It is a decay product itself of U-238, the most common isotope of uranium which is also just as widely found in the world. Uranium->Radium->Radon is part of the normal background radiation we are all exposed to every minute of the day.
Here's a link to Wiki on it: Wiki Radium
Here's an EPA link on radium: EPA Radium
Radium is found naturally in tiny amounts in the soil and rocks throughout the world. It is a decay product itself of U-238, the most common isotope of uranium which is also just as widely found in the world. Uranium->Radium->Radon is part of the normal background radiation we are all exposed to every minute of the day.
Here's a link to Wiki on it: Wiki Radium
Here's an EPA link on radium: EPA Radium
swampyankee
Chief Master Sergeant
- 4,306
- Jun 25, 2013
I live in a part of the USA where radon in basements is a real health concern, as the bedrock is granitic and contains uranium.
We don't really worry about radon. It's natural methane leaks building up in confined spaces and causing explosions.
swampyankee
Chief Master Sergeant
- 4,306
- Jun 25, 2013
Thar would be a rather faster doom
Tony Kambic
Airman 1st Class
I do know it is a concern in aircraft restoration projects. Some places maintain vigilance with dosimeters for staff working around instruments with radium painted dials. When I visited the USAF Museum to view the interior of the B-26 Marauder, one of the staff who escorted me was the radiation safety officer. At that time I was only viewing the bomb bay and did not enter the cockpit area.
Scotland has had an on going radioactive particle problem at Dalgety Bay on the north side of the Fifth of Forth for 20+ years. It was the location of the Donibristle Royal Naval Air Station where hundreds of aircraft were scrapped post WW2.
inis.iaea.org
Despite a long running clean up operation odd radioactive particles were still turning up last year.
www.fifetoday.co.uk
As for Radon, there has been problems in some areas of the UK. This is an interactive map showing the probability of Radon being an issue
www.ukradon.org
Dalgety Bay - Managing Legacy Radioactive Contamination in a New Scottish Town - 23325
Dalgety Bay has been one of the most contentious land management issues in the UK for over 20 years. WSP has supported the UK's Defence Infrastructure Organisation at Dalgety Bay since 2009. Royal Naval Air Station Donibristle located in Fife on the north shore of the Firth of Forth was operated...
Despite a long running clean up operation odd radioactive particles were still turning up last year.
Dalgety Bay beach radiation: councillors welcome progress as numbers fall
The number of radioactive particles detected in Dalgety Bay in the first half of this year fell to below ten.
www.fifetoday.co.uk
As for Radon, there has been problems in some areas of the UK. This is an interactive map showing the probability of Radon being an issue
UKradon - UK maps of radon
Warning signs regularly appear in museum aircraft exhibits in the UK
MIflyer
Captain
The US Army had a problem. They had used old tanks and other vehicles as targets for missiles and guns. Once the targets had been reduced to scrap metal they piled it all up and listed for sale. Then they found out it was classifiable as radioactive waste. Radium was not just used for aircraft instruments but also for military vehicles.
And outfit in Mexico was making lawn furniture. Turned out that they had bought a bunch of scrap X-Ray machines and melted them down for use. Ended up with radioactive patio tables.
And outfit in Mexico was making lawn furniture. Turned out that they had bought a bunch of scrap X-Ray machines and melted them down for use. Ended up with radioactive patio tables.
Granite produces radon as it breaks down, I have rad about Aberdeen in Scotland being radioactive but I hadnt heard about Cornwall which is a county in the south west of England, some basements have monitors there to warn of a build up of radon gas. Some interesting stuff in here concerning units etc. https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/f...deen-worlds-most-radioactive-cities-find-out/
MIflyer
Captain
I did a radon test on the basement of my house in VA. It came back Okay. But only a mile or so closer to the Potomac some new homes were showing up with problems in that respect. Made me wonder what kinds of industrial activity was going on over there back around WW2.
swampyankee
Chief Master Sergeant
- 4,306
- Jun 25, 2013
It may be just the luck of geology.
There is a story -- I can't find the source, and it may be apocryphal -- that a worker at a nuclear plant in Maine was stopped going in because he set of a radiation detector. After a bit of research, they found he hadn't been stealing radioactives: it was his well water.
MIflyer
Captain
An old joke that may be true.
I guy looks at the glowing dial of his wristwatch and wonders if he is getting radiation from it. He asks an expert who scoffs and says, "You know the granite steps at the NYC Public Library? You are getting more radiation from them than from that watch."
As a result he got rid of the watch and no longer goes to the library.
A college professor I knew used to work at the Savannah River Nuclear Plant and said they had gotten a load of sand to act as a barrier for their reactors. Then they found the background radiation had gone UP. Turns out the spot where they got the sand, in the Horsecreek Valley, was a natural sink for that kind of stuff.
I guy looks at the glowing dial of his wristwatch and wonders if he is getting radiation from it. He asks an expert who scoffs and says, "You know the granite steps at the NYC Public Library? You are getting more radiation from them than from that watch."
As a result he got rid of the watch and no longer goes to the library.
A college professor I knew used to work at the Savannah River Nuclear Plant and said they had gotten a load of sand to act as a barrier for their reactors. Then they found the background radiation had gone UP. Turns out the spot where they got the sand, in the Horsecreek Valley, was a natural sink for that kind of stuff.
Crimea_River
Marshal
I live in a very active radon area. Tested my basement and found levels above allowables so had remediation work done which reduced the radon levels to less than 10 Bq/m3 from about 165. My daughter did the same at her place. She lent me her tester and when I had it on the shelf in the basement it was reading 7 Bq/m3. She told me that the thing was reading 13 sitting on the seat of her vehicle on the driveway.
When I did the research for this, radon presence can be extremely localized, even to the extent that one house could read above limits whereas the house right next to it could be below. It's all about the proximity of fissures in the rock below and if you happen to be sitting over one, the readings could be high.
A very long time ago I was an industrial radiographer as part of my job, so I had a "film badge" to measure any radiation I was exposed to. The "theory" of it all made my head spin all RADs and REMs Curies Sieverts milli Sieverts Becquerels...... I would strongly advise anyone with any concerns to get EXPERT advice on the subject.
SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
But did you get any super powers?
MIflyer
Captain
I recall being TDY to Denver, CO back in the 1980's and seeing a news report that they had found that the Colorado School of Mines had been built atop some mine tailings that could result in some Radon problems.
We have the same problem. Had a radon mitigation system installed a few years ago.
Of course about 30 miles away is the Coldwater Creek area that is the site if Manhattan Project waste that was illegally dumped. Residents in that area suffer from high cancer rates and cannot sell their homes. The area is a superfund site and they are removing the soil and cleaning it up finally.