Jeff Liebermann said:
For hunting radioactive antiques, I used a home made scintillation
counter. I intentionally made it *NOT* look like the traditional gun
for obvious reasons. It's about 10 times as sensitive as my Geiger
counter and is perfect for sweeping large areas. In about 1986, I
found a bottle of Radithor, which is Radium Water. I later sold it to
a collector.
Since about 1995 Coleman lantern mantles use Yttrium Oxide and have no
radioactive material. I have some of the really old mantles that use
Thorium, an Alpha particle belcher. The old mantles are fairly hot in
the plastic bag which blocks most Alpha particles. However, when
removed from the bag, the mantles send my counter into hysterics at
about 8,000 counts per minute.
My idea of fun was in 1989, when Chernobyl did the meltdown thing, I
dragged a 1950's era Civil Defense Geiger counter to the local
supermarket and used it to check the produce. The manager was a
friend so I wasn't arrested, but I was adequately amused by all the
panicky customers and irate staff.
Here's another of my medical adventures with radioactivity and my
1950's era Geiger counter:
My favorite radioactive material is potassium (no sodium) salt. The
Potassium 40 is mildly radioactive and will do about 100 counts per
minute. Background is about 10 cpm. Sea salt will do about 50
counts. This is always fun to demonstrate in a health food store.
--
Jeff Liebermann
[email protected]
150 Felker St #D
http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060
http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
Are you related to this guy?
The Radioactive Boy Scout: The True Story of a Boy Who Built a Nuclear
Reactor in His Shed
"
David Hahn, a boy scout, wanted to earn his science merit badge. He could
have done an experiment with bicarbonate of soda, like most other kids. But
he didn't. He built a nuclear reactor in his shed instead.David Hahn's
gospel was The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments. While his friends were
learning to play baseball or dreaming of owning their first car, David was
in the middle of an increasingly hazardous trail of chemical experiments.
Moving on from routine explosions that forced his work from his bedroom to
the garden shed, David quickly determined to build a nuclear reactor. For
this he had to make a neutron gun, dupe officials at the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission to provide him with information and imitate a professor of
nuclear physics in order to obtain purified radioactive elements, all of
which he did.David, sporting a gas mask for protection, took to the potting
shed with his ever more unstable and dangerous load. His diligence and
ultimate success triggered the Federal Radiological Emergency Response Plan:
a team of men in moon suits who deconstructed the shed and loaded it and all
its contents into steel drums emblazoned with radioactive warning signs.
This is a true story. Through it, man's innocent obsession and fatal
engagement with nuclear reactivity is told with surreal wonder.
"
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