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Florida is about to build some test roads using phosphogypsum, a radioactive waste product of the fertilizer industry that has been piling up and they want to u
by ck2 3y ago
Florida is about to build some test roads using phosphogypsum, a radioactive waste product of the fertilizer industry that has been piling up and they want to unload.
It contains high quantities of radium which decays into radon, this should end well.
> "Phosphogypsum contains appreciable quantities of uranium and its decay products, such as radium-226," according to the EPA. And because the fertilizer production process concentrates waste material, "phosphogypsum is more radioactive than the original phosphate rock," the agency notes.
> "The radium is of particular concern because it decays to form radon, a cancer-causing, radioactive gas," the EPA adds.
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/09/1174789570/florida-roads-radioactive-paving-phosphogypsum https://www.npr.org/2023/05/09/1174789570/florida-roads-radi...
- skybrian 3y agoIt’s outside though, so the radon wouldn’t normally accumulate unless something weird happens. Seems like this is the sort of thing you’d want experts to look at.
- bobthepanda 3y agoIt is a road, though, and we know all sorts of things already accumulate via stormwater runoff.
- myself248 3y agoAre you suggestin' that gases accumulate in runoff? That's the thing about the uranium decay series. Just after radium, it has this gaseous stage called radon, which doesn't matter one whit when it's sealed into a rock; an atom of radon in the middle of a piece of granite just sits there for a few days and then goes right on into being lead. But if it's near the surface of a grain of sand or something, that radium turns into radon and the radon escapes into the surrounding air. And it goes wherever the air goes for the next day or two, before turning into lead. So if that radon is in the runoff, it just fizzes out like any other dissolved gas, and blows around in the air along with all the other gases that make up the air, exactly like any other radon that had an escape route when it was created. There's radon in the air everywhere, right now, a brief stop on the decay chain that is otherwise all solids. And those atoms of radon are undergoing alpha decay all the time, turning into atoms of lead, minuscule bits of dust popping into existence, everywhere.
- ck2 3y agoThey have looked. For 30 years. And it was continuously banned. Until the previous president decided all regulation was silly and unprofitable. Now we have states trying to override federal regulations because superpac donations.
- skybrian 3y agoWho is "they?" What did they find?
- hammock 3y ago>It’s outside though, so the radon wouldn’t normally accumulate Well, no more than any other heavier-than-air gas, like say, fog.
- BenjiWiebe 3y agoA lot less, actually. Fog gets quickly dissipated (most places) by wind and sun, even though it can form extremely quickly. Radon forms very slowly.
- westmeal 3y agoWhat the hell...
- sbierwagen 3y agoUh oh, nobody tell NPR about granite countertops.
- gwbennett 3y agoGreat point and made me laugh!