From ROLAND FINSTON
The purposeful injection of plutonium-237 into consultant nuclear scientist
Eric Voice has been interpreted as a daring challenge to those who question
nuclear safety (Forum, 18 July). There are however several facts that Voice
failed to disclose to the reader.
Plutonium-237 is not an emitter of alpha particles (save for 1 in every
20,000 decaying atoms). It decays to nearly stable progeny, so there is
no chain of children with which to contend. Its emissions are garden variety
gamma and X rays, and conversion electrons, which are considered to be 20
times less hazardous per rad than alphas.
Couple all this to the minor quantity administered (20,000 becquerels)
and one calculates the dose to his liver or bone surfaces is about 20 millirems
from this exercise, equivalent to that from 10 or so weeks of natural background
radiation.
It is laudable that the metabolic data from this experiment will be
gleaned, and with such a low dose. But if Voice survives, I will not be
surprised; nor will he disprove the hazard of longer-lived plutonium-238
and 239 which are 10,000 times more hazardous than uranium 237 per unit
of activity.
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Roland Finston Stanford University, California
