Reply #50: Nope - none of my posts in that thread are in error.

[bananas]

And the person who said "I simply do not believe you have a doctorate in a field related to physics...too many basic errors" based it on their own knowledge.

Nobody said radioactivity was "contagious" - that was some weird tangent DrGregory went off on all by himself. As caraher pointed out in that thead:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=258185&mesg_id=259102

caraher (1000+ posts) Mon Sep-20-10 06:02 PM
Response to Reply #57

76. this is a matter of reading what I write and not words stuffed in my mouth

<snip>

The fact that the material was depositing in the generator by the coolant is immaterial. I never claimed that the activation occurred in situ; I was merely pointing out that the radioactive material is actually present within the physical object they are shipping. And that would pass any reasonable test for saying "the object is radioactive." For instance, one time I was in my shared office taking a background reading on a survey meter before doing a routine set of measurements and got a big countrate. One of the guys in my office said, "Oh, I just came back from having a thallium scan." Under any sane use of language, he was radioactive beyond the usual natural radioactivity we all have in our bodies. But by your reasoning, I'd be wrong to say this, because the thallium wasn't produced in his body by direct irradiation, but by becoming lodged in his tissues following injection?!?!?!

Now I have no problem with the proposed shipment; the risks seem minimal, and if this thing sinks to the bottom of one of the Great Lakes the worst-case harm is dwarfed by, say, the coming of Asian carp. But it's hard to put this kind of thing into perspective for those worried about the effects of radioactive waste when nuclear advocates spend so much effort arguing that things that are patently radioactive, are not!

And while caraher had no problem with this proposed shipment, the fact is that it is over the established limits and requires a waiver from the regulations. So in addition to the questions about the risks of this particular shipment there is the problem of setting a precedent for future shipments of radioactive waste from other sources. There's no compelling need for this waiver, the plan all along was to bury the waste according to the established guidelines, they're just doing this to make some extra money. This is another case of the nuclear industry shooting itself in the foot by needlessly antagonizing people.