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Don't Forget the Baseline!
Mar. 16th, 2012 10:10 amOkay, now that's amusing. I may not have the figures exactly right, but basically...from the news last night.
One of the small towns here in Japan hit by the earthquake and tsunami last year has carefully converted a lot of the trash into a pile of woodchips, ready for slow burning. Let's be honest, it was more like a small hill of woodchips. They understood that it would take a while to truck and burn, but at least they were ready for the next step of clean up.
However, someone got nervous, and insisted that they measure the pile for radiation. This is well outside the area of the Fukushima contamination, but... what the heck, right?
Well, the pile showed about 64 becquerel per kilogram! And suddenly, the truckers, the trash burners, everyone said "No, no, we can't handle this."
The town people were puzzled, and then they did something smart. They got someone to do the same measurements on woodchips from a number of normal sources, just the kind of stuff that is going into the burners every day.
The result? Normal levels averaged 70 becquerel per kilogram, higher than their woodchips.
Apparently the town is going to be able to dispose of their woodchips after all.
I think it's amusing. A measurement without a baseline... I have to remember that for the next time I'm teaching research methods.
One of the small towns here in Japan hit by the earthquake and tsunami last year has carefully converted a lot of the trash into a pile of woodchips, ready for slow burning. Let's be honest, it was more like a small hill of woodchips. They understood that it would take a while to truck and burn, but at least they were ready for the next step of clean up.
However, someone got nervous, and insisted that they measure the pile for radiation. This is well outside the area of the Fukushima contamination, but... what the heck, right?
Well, the pile showed about 64 becquerel per kilogram! And suddenly, the truckers, the trash burners, everyone said "No, no, we can't handle this."
The town people were puzzled, and then they did something smart. They got someone to do the same measurements on woodchips from a number of normal sources, just the kind of stuff that is going into the burners every day.
The result? Normal levels averaged 70 becquerel per kilogram, higher than their woodchips.
Apparently the town is going to be able to dispose of their woodchips after all.
I think it's amusing. A measurement without a baseline... I have to remember that for the next time I'm teaching research methods.
