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posted by cmn32480 on Monday February 15 2016, @12:07AM   Printer-friendly
from the why-are-we-glowing-green dept.

Many are going to ask, "What's so weird about this one corner?" and I'm here to answer.

The end of Irving Avenue, where it meets Moffat Street, in Ridgewood, Queens, is the most radioactive spot in the entire state of New York, and would be the northeast's if not for NJ's McGuire Air Force Base in Burlington County (called "the most contaminated base" in 2007 by the United States Environmental Protection Agency).

In 1918, chemical engineer Alcan Hirsch, and his brother, mining chief Marx Hirsch, opened a chemical plant where today sits most of the businesses on Irving Ave's north side. In 1920, they christen it Hirsch Laboratories, and later added the mining company Molybdenum Corporation (aka Molycorp). The Hirsch brothers sold the lab in 1923 to Harry Wolff and Max Alport, who renamed it Wolff-Alport Chemical Company, but continued their mining operations, and supplied W-A Chemical with the rare-earth metals needed to produce a huge list of products.
The plant processed Monazite sand, which, when treated with Sulfuric Acid, separates into the rare-earth Sodium Sulfate, but also the radioactive waste known as Thorium Pyrophosphate.
It wasn't till the United States' nuclear weapons program in 1942, known as the Manhattan Project, that Thorium became useful. Until 1947, when the Atomic Energy Commission began to purchase the fertile heavy element from Wolff-Alport, and for the full 20-years prior, the Thorium waste was simply dumped into the area's sewers.

"Thorium waste dumped into the area's sewers." Amazing.


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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday February 15 2016, @02:51AM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday February 15 2016, @02:51AM (#304429)

    Car exhaust is mostly combinations of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen... chemically nasty, but not elementally so.

    Thorium isn't all that bad (as compared to Uranium - Radium - Radon - Polonium), but still it's a different kind of threat than something like Nitric Oxide or Carbon Monoxide.

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  • (Score: 2) by Hartree on Monday February 15 2016, @03:28AM

    by Hartree (195) on Monday February 15 2016, @03:28AM (#304440)

    They said they observed 300 mRem/yr (3 mSv/yr). That's a bit less than twice the background for Denver if you excluding radon (1.8 MSv). About the same if you include radon which is probably worse as you breathe it and it's in close contact with the lung tissue.

    So, it's pretty low as far as exposures. Sounds like they largely told people not to sleep there. If you're only there 8 hours a day, it's equal to the 100 mRem recommended maximum dose for the general public.

    Frankly, even if I worked there, I'd be a lot more worried about the exposure to the degreasing solvents that a car repair uses.

    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday February 15 2016, @03:40AM

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday February 15 2016, @03:40AM (#304447)

      If I worked in Queens, I'd be more worried about getting mugged on the 7 train than any radiation hooey.

      Article said "most radioactive spot in New York," I'm sure there are spots in Colorado that were worse before Columbus arrived in America.

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    • (Score: 3, Informative) by fnj on Monday February 15 2016, @05:24AM

      by fnj (1654) on Monday February 15 2016, @05:24AM (#304476)

      1.8 MSv

      1.8 MEGAsieverts? That's a fuck ton of sieverts! I bet you mean mSv (millisieverts). You also left off the important rate part (per year I imagine).

      • (Score: 2) by Hartree on Monday February 15 2016, @05:48AM

        by Hartree (195) on Monday February 15 2016, @05:48AM (#304479)

        Yeah, I apparently had a typing spasm in that last one. It's the same as the others, mSv/yr.