[Geysers] Fw: radioactive rodents related to YNP geology

[David Schwarz]

   I'm not sure what point the author is trying to make.  Because there are
natural sources of radioactivity entering the water and air, we shouldn't
sweat leaks from nuclear facilities?  The original writer's point was about
drilled well water contaminating downstream waterways, but considering the
relative volumes involved that sounds like a stretch.

   As far as the facts, I couldn't find anything in the scientific
literature to corroborate the claims, but they're not unreasonable, and John
Love seems to be a reliable source when it comes to Wyoming geology.

   Radium in particular is documented to be present in the water of numerous
springs and creeks in Yellowstone, and the biological half-life of radium
(how long it takes to eliminate half of it from the body once ingested--not
to be confused with the physical, decay half-life) is fairly long because it
gets incorporated into bones.  In humans, it's been estimated at 15 years
according to one journal article.  It seems plausible that rodents that
spend their entire lives drinking radium-bearing water and eating plants
grown from the water could accumulate enough to create images on
photographic plates.

   Is there anything useful to conclude from this?  Well, if it's true,
don't eat the chipmunks.  If you must eat the chipmunks, try to eat young
ones that haven't had very long to concentrate radioisotopes.  Regardless,
like farmed fish (often contaminated with small amounts of heavy metals)
don't eat them too often, and your prognosis will be indistinguishable from
someone who has never tasted radioactive rodent.  How often that is depends
on the actual amount of radioactive material in the average chipmunk, how
much of that is in edible tissue, and the rate, type and energy of the
radioactive emission.

David Schwarz

On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 9:19 AM, <Lee_Whittlesey at nps.gov> wrote:

>
> Considering that you geyser guys are usually interested in the subsurface
> geology that is so responsible for our thermal features, I'd be interested
> in seeing your comments about the link below, which has to do with alleged
> radiation and radioactive rodents on Crawfish Creek, Polecat Creek, and
> Pitchstone Plateau. The link is below.
>
> Lee Whittlesey
> Park Historian, NPS
> YNP
>
> http://soundpolitics.com/archives/014699.html
> _______________________________________________
> Geysers mailing list
> Geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu
> 
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </geyser-list/attachments/20110406/1db9b689/attachment.html>