March 20, 2009 · 4:47 am
- From Gulf War Veterans and Depleted Uranium, prepared for the Hague Peace Conference, May 1999 By Dr. Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D., G.N.S.H., which is posted on the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility’s website:
- http://www.ccnr.org/du_hague.html
- Excerpt: Uranium 238 has a half life of 4.51 E+9 (or 4.51 times 10 to the 9thpower, equivalent to 4,510,000,000 years). Each atomic transformation produces another radioactive chemical: first, uranium 238 produces thorium 234, (which has a half life of 24.1 days), then the thorium 234 decays to protactinium 234 (which has a half life of 6.75 hours), and then protactinium decays to uranium 234 (which has a half life of 2.47E+5 or 247,000 years). The first two decay radioisotopes together with the U 238 count for almost all of the radioactivity in the depleted uranium. Even after an industrial process which separates out the uranium 238 has taken place, it will continue to produce these other radionuclides. Within 3 to 6 months they will all be present in equilibrium balance. Therefore one must consider the array of radionuclides, not just uranium 238, when trying to understand what happened when veterans inhaled depleted uranium in the Gulf War.
Kay Cumbow
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Tagged as Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, depleted uranium, Dr. Rosalie Bertell, Gulf War Veterans and Depleted Uranium, Hague Peace Conference 1999, NRC, protactinium 234, radioisotopes, radionuclides, thorium 234, U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION, uranium 234, Uranium 238
March 19, 2009 · 4:01 pm
No. 09-052
March 18, 2009
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has directed the agency staff to draft amendments to regulations regarding low-level radioactive waste to accommodate disposal of large amounts of depleted uranium.
In a Staff Requirements Memorandum issued March 18, the Commission accepted the staff’s recommendation that the agency continue to consider depleted uranium as Class A low-level waste, but amend regulations in 10 CFR Part 61 to require a site-specific analysis for the disposal of large quantities of depleted uranium and the technical requirements for such an analysis. The Commission also directed the staff to develop a guidance document for public comment that outlines the parameters and assumptions to be used in conducting the site-specific analyses.
The Commission stressed that the rulemaking was not intended to change the current classification of depleted uranium as Class A waste. “Eventual changes to waste classification designations in the regulations must be analyzed in light of the total amount of depleted uranium being disposed of at any given site,” the Commission said in its memorandum.
The Commission noted, however, that for “significant amounts of depleted uranium, there may be a need to place additional restrictions on the disposal of the depleted uranium at a specific site or deny such disposal based on unique site characteristics.” Those restrictions would be identified through the site-specific analysis, it said.
The Commission also directed the staff to conduct a public workshop with “all potentially affected stakeholders” to discuss issues associated with the disposal of depleted uranium, the potential issues to be considered in rulemaking, and technical parameters of concern in the analysis so that informed decisions can be made in the interim period until the regulatory changes are final.
Depleted uranium is the byproduct, or tails, of the uranium enrichment process, a key point in the production of fuel for nuclear power reactors. The staff proposal (SECY-08-147) fulfilled an earlier Commission directive in the adjudicatory proceeding regarding Louisiana Energy Services’ application for a license to construct and operate a gas centrifuge enrichment plant in New Mexico. That license was granted in June 2006, and the plant is now under construction.
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U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200
Washington, D.C. 20555-0001
E-mail: opa@nrc.gov
Site: http://www.nrc.gov
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News releases are available through a free listserv subscription at the following Web address: http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC homepage at http://www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC’s Web site.
For citizens’ comment or information contact:
Marci R. Culley, Ph.D
Assistant Professor of Community Psychology
Department of Psychology
P.O. Box 5010
Georgia State University
Atlanta, GA 30302-5010
(404) 413-6266 (office)
(404) 413-6218 (fax)
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Tagged as Class A waste, DEPLETED URANIUM DISPOSAL, Environmental, gas centrifuge enrichment, Louisiana Energy Services, low-level radioactive waste, Marci R. Culley, rulemaking, U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION, uranium enrichment
