I'm not in any way discounting the politics of it. I'm simply saying, from a strictly technical and scientific point of view - how much of a problem is it, really? "Akin to watching your TV" is a rough approximation, and it's useful in that sense - but I would like to know what the actual dose of radiation somebody can expect from the ore (assuming they're standing right next to it, for the sake of discussion) might be. Given that I'd expect that to be negligible (since thorium's an alpha emitter, and alpha particles are pretty much stopped dead in their tracks by the dead layer of skin on the surface), I'm also curious as to just how much radioactivity thorium gives off, in Bq, and how it compares to typical background radiation.
Now, if you were to ingest the thorium, or uranium, you're going to be in very real trouble - have a look at the Wikipedia page for Thorotrast if you're curious. Alpha emitters inside the body == very bad news. Don't let it get into the food chain - check. But alpha emitters outside the body shouldn't be a big deal.
As I said - the politics of it all is significant, and I'm not looking to downplay that. I'm just after an objective indication of the actual level of danger. To be fair, that's only marginally on topic here, since the political side of things trumps the scientific reality.
PEK Price at posting:
47.5¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
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