As many of you may know, the three owners of RSCS are all alumni of the University of Massachusetts – Lowell’s radiological health program. Their college mentors, Ken Skrable, George Chabot and Clay French, performed an exhaustive and compelling analysis of the potential cause (or lack-thereof) of global warming and prepared a scientific article that details their conclusions (links below). 

Most people believe that global warming is due to increases of CO₂ released to the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels by humans (i.e. anthropogenic CO₂). Here are a few things you may not know.

1. ‘Most’ carbon in the environment contains a radioactive isotope of carbon (carbon-14) at low but measurable levels. This is formed by nuclear reactions in the upper atmosphere from radiation emitted by the sun at a very constant level over the eons. We use this fact to do carbon-dating of old bones and other old organic matter. The exception to this is fossil fuels, which has virtually no C-14 remaining because of its age and the 5,730 year half-life of C-14.
2. NOAA has been conducting air sampling at 2 mountain-top locations since 1959 where they measure CO₂ and C-14 in the atmosphere.

If burning fossil fuels were the culprit for increasing CO₂ levels then we would see a predictable decrease of C-14 specific activity, as the lack of C-14 in fossil fuels would dilute the predictable C-14 in the atmosphere. As indicated in the Figure above, as the anthropogenic component increases, the specific activity of carbon-14 decreases in a very predictable way as a result of the dilution of the initial specific activity in 1750 by the anthropogenic fossil component. In 2020 (i.e. 270 y since 1750), the specific activity is 13.81 dpm/gC, and the anthropogenic fossil component is 51.07 ppm, which is 12.4% of the total carbon dioxide of 411.36 ppm (not shown in Figure). Thus, carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere in 2020 from the burning of fossil fuels does not dominate the total, and it cannot be the primary cause of global warming.

Attempts to present this analysis to NOAA with the hope of obtaining a review and constructive criticism of the approach and methodologies taken have not been successful. We believe the research conducted by Ken Skrable, George Chabot and Clay French provides an unbiased analysis that has scientific merit. While the conclusions provided may be contrary to what many believe, we are presenting this research as it may have significant implications on the issue of global warming, its world-wide cost, and global politics.

Three separate documents describing this issue in detail are available for review; a synopsis of the research, an essay “Anthropogenic-fossil and Non Fossil Components of Mauna Loa and Niwot Ridge Annual Mean Carbon Dioxide”, and the article “Anthropogenic Fossil Carbon Dioxide and Claims of Its Dominance and Role in Global Warming“.

Over the past several weeks, RSCS has been providing essential services to our customers at medical facilities, nuclear power plants and government agencies. We are proud to be able to continue to support the nation’s critical infrastructure during this time of unparalleled disruption.

Anticipating the implications of the COVID-19 outbreak earlier in the year, RSCS revised our Business Continuity Plans to address the unique risks that this novel virus posed to the safety of our employees and customers and to ensure we could provide essential services without interruption. As most of the States in the country enacted suspension of non-essential services, we were prepared with plans to protect our workforce to ensure the consistent delivery of services to our clients. As this situation has progressed, we have adopted the evolving guidance in our workplaces to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These plans and protocols have kept our workers healthy, and have allowed us to supply our services to the medical, energy and government sectors on time and with the same level of quality that our customers have come to expect from RSCS.

Patients requiring nuclear medicine procedures cannot wait for the COVID-19 outbreak to subside. Hospitals providing these services depend upon us for instrument calibration and repair services to ensure that their equipment used to survey hospital facilities are in tolerance. As more workers are telecommuting, and children have substituted remote learning for classroom education, the need for electrical power to support these operations is critical. Our project management services at operating nuclear plants have been delivered without interruption to ensure that the power grid is stable. Hazardous conditions at various nuclear sites and at government cleanup sites cannot be left unattended while we await the return to the new normal. These sites require that the efforts to safely remediate them stay on track. First responders and government agencies rely on us to maintain various instruments in the highest level of readiness for them to use. Our dedicated workers have stayed on the job, using best practices to stay healthy while performing this important work.

As the COVID-19 outbreak is contained and mitigated, we will continue to do our part to provide essential services at sites throughout the country and at our headquarters and laboratory in NH. We look forward to the day when our country is back open, but until then, we will do our part to help support our critical infrastructure.

In response to the COVID-19 viral outbreak, RSCS has updated our Business Continuity Plan, which includes requirements for responding to an outbreak of contagious disease.  This plan details several measures to protect our workers, minimize business disruptions and respond to worsening conditions as they are identified by Local / Federal Government.  Specifically, our plan details the following:

• Personal hygiene measures
• Enhanced cleaning / disinfecting of work areas
• Use of PPE for contamination control
• Increased on-hand inventory of consumables / parts
• Staff training on health & safety precautions, use of cloud-based file storage/sharing systems for remote work, implementation of response plans
• Social distancing, split shifts and remote work schedules
• Safe handling of incoming / outgoing packages
• Travel restrictions
• Quarantine measures and temporary office closures if ordered by Local / Federal Government or if in-company outbreak detected
• Notification to customers / vendors

RSCS plans to minimize the impact of this emerging COVID-19 outbreak through the following measures:

• Defense in depth – Staff in the Business Services Group and Calibration Laboratory are cross trained, health physicists and engineering staff working on projects have a similar knowledge base, pool of available radiological technicians typically exceeds staffing needs, staff substitutions are available in the case of illness.
• Escalating levels of response based on changing conditions

  Initial response plan calls for social isolating as much as possible through use of remote work for corporate and projects staff and split shifts for Calibration Laboratory to allow for increased distancing of staff during the work-day.

  If conditions worsen, or in-house staff contract the illness, then the next level of response includes isolation of ill staff and quarantine and monitoring of staff who had close contact with ill staff.  As the majority of our staff can work remotely, quarantines should have minimal impact on the delivery of services to clients.  Calibration Laboratory staff can substitute for each other minimizing the impact of absenteeism on instrument calibration turn times.  Staff who work at client sites have substitutes available from our bench of health physicists, engineers and radiological technicians to ensure schedules can be maintained.

If mandatory quarantines, travel bans or other Local / Federal Government orders are imposed, then RSCS will comply as required and will resume projects and calibrations once orders are lifted.  While we have no control over this contingency, we commit to supporting our customers through work that can be accomplished remotely as much as possible. 

We will continue to monitor this situation closely and will update information on our webpage on our response plans if they should change in the future.