ENDERS GAME, And How I came to Love the answer.

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 2011-06-13 12:55

In the SciFi classic, Enders Game, Ender's Brother and sister turn to the internet, where the most intelligent and gifted of society exchange information......
...I am likening this forum to the best of what our culture has to discuss this disaster.

Now, We had FGLabratories run a gross Alpha/Beta test on our Trinity County vegi garden soil, and it came back with a result of...

SOIL SAMPLE RESULTS 6/6/11
Constituent Result ± Error
Gross Alpha 2.41 ± 2.58 pCi/g
Gross Beta 8.16 ± 2.58 pCi/g

I Believe that 8.16pCi/g converts to roughly 300bq/kg

Now, The question we and our neighbors have that has yet to be fully answered for us is...
IS 8.16 pCi/g of BETA RADIATION DANGEROUSLY HIGH FOR CHILDREN TO LIVE IN AND GROW FOOD IN?

Are there any Nuke scientist that can point us to whether this is worrisome,
And WHERE ELSE CAN WE SEND SOIL TO BE CROSS TESTED?
Is Berkeley labs receiving agricultural samples?

Thank you for your patience with my ignorance everyone,
Hang in there!
A

‹ Fukushima video 6/14 chernobyl fallout in the states greater than fukushima, so far? ›

Adam- I thought about this

Submitted by BC (not verified) on Mon, 2011-06-13 13:42.

Adam-

I thought about this further over night, and am certain that nearly all of that beta is from K-40. Please refer back to the chart I posted yesterday, and you will see that normal activity of K-40 ( a beta emitter) in top soil is 1-30 to picocuries/gr, and your soil's level of beta activity is 8.16 picocuries/gr. Well within normal.

Also, yes, that's 302 becquerels per kilogram. See this link and you will see that 8.16 picocuries converts to .302 becquerels, times a thousand to convert from grams to kilograms, and there we go - 302 bq/kg. But to give perspective, the normal range is 37 to 1,110 becquerels/kilogram.

BRAWM's most recent topsoil test showed 0.58 bq/kg of Ce-134 and 1.17 bq/kg of Ce-137, for a total cesium activity of 1.75 bq/kg. It is way doubtful that you have a level orders of magnitude above that.

I hope you do get some more testing done, and wish I could recommend someone, but please don't freak out. You are OK.

Apologies, I forgot the uCi

Submitted by BC (not verified) on Mon, 2011-06-13 14:04.

Apologies, I forgot the uCi to bq link.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=8.16+picocuries+to+becquerels

This site is very useful for all conversions.

There is a prior quesion that needs to be answered

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2011-06-13 13:25.

And that's "What is the normal radioactivity level to be expected in a soil sample?".

The "normal" radioactivity of soil will vary quite a bit from one location to another. Perhaps the following link will help some. It contains some info on natural soil radiation:

http://www.physics.isu.edu/radinf/natural.htm