You're surrounded by secondary particles of cosmic rays even as you read this.
Want to see them?
Fun fact;
Worked with gamma ray exposure for radiation hardness testing of semiconductor devices for a short while. Source was cobalt-60. I never got exposed that I am aware of. We had to wear exposure monitors when working with the gamma cell. No one in the factory received sufficient exposure to cause concern according to the monitors.
I was around a lot of depleted uranium ammunition back in the day.
I'm exposed to huge amounts of radiation every day just walking out my door.
Define "large" and "radiation."
Yes. Commercial nuclear power. Getting gamma dose is a near-daily part of the job.
Highest dose rate I've been in was a 1.3 rem/h field. Nice and toasty, not great, not terrible.
Highest dose rate I've been in was a 1.3 rem/h field. Nice and toasty, not great, not terrible.
You must have been in a reactor building while the unit was running.
Steam tunnel, yeah. Gotta love that 16N
Same here, nuke plant. I paid attention to my PED, and dosimeter. Use of cold zones as needed.
I avoid it, although I do collect radioactive things. I have some highly radioactive ore that I keep in a lead pig. I have other stuff that runs the gamut from barely radioactive to "quite". I have a couple of geiger counters and used to collect antique ones (lost them in a divorce), so I like to just randomly check stuff. I keep forgetting to check my RO filters since we do have uranium in the water here.
I have uranium glass pendants and wear one or the other of them 24/7, but they are stupidly low radiation (or else I wouldn't wear them).
When I was a young boy my father gave me a USA CD (Civil Defense) box, Had a calibration sticker from early 80's that had a full setup of geiger counters, one with wand and one that appeared to be for ground detection. Also had personal wearable RAD pens. Metal pens with a clip that had a eye glass to see max dosage. Those would be used with a light unit that the pens would sit in and the light would shine through the bottom of the pen and you would look down the pen eyesight and it would show a range. Hope I'm explaining this well. I loved it and as far as I know it still worked, took D cell batteries. Unfortunately it was lost years later. I still miss it.
I am still very interested in it today. Had a few cheap chinese geiger counters. I too have some ore, not highly active.
Can you recommend a good decently priced and accurate geiger counter. I appreciate your input.
Forgive the messy phone edit. The GQ GMC-600+ does alpha, beta and gamma. The white one GMC-300E does beta and gamma. I like the alpha one because it picks up my tritium necklace and seems to be much more accurate.
I have a few antiques left. I usually use them as doorstops ;). The green box has some Russian dosimeters in it and is a doorstop, currently.
For modern, it's expensive to get one that will do alpha but the 600 is really good just comparing it to the 300.
Oh, and since someone mentioned above, the planes. Oh yeah. I've flown hundreds of times, only a handful since 9/11 and only did the naked body scanner once just to see. I make them pat me down or go through whatever alternative they have, although I don't fly much anymore no matter how much I love it.
I try to even limit my dental x-rays though my dentist kinda poo-poos me. Hmm. I'll bring my geiger counter next time and see if he'll let me use it.
Thanks for the suggestion. I will look into those. And the unit I had from CD was exactly the yellow one in your picture. I would love to bring a geiger counter to an X-Ray, I don't think my dentist will mind, good idea!
Yes. Who’s asking and why?
Yes. No further questions please
Radon growing up in new england. 20 minute showers as a boy will probably kill in my 70's.
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