Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2012 7:04:47 GMT -5
Very interesting. I wonder how those people that made those clocks fared? Radium doesn't burn does it? Could you burn it out and just have ash to deal with? If you just cut off the end of the arm it would leave a reasonable pile to work with instead of something so miniscule that you can't even pick it up with tweezers. But then again you are a purist and will get it done one way or another through rain or sleet or dark of night. lol Low tech but it still keeps our brains active. Thanks. Jim
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Post by parfive on Aug 13, 2012 12:47:14 GMT -5
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chassroc
Cave Dweller
Rocks are abundant when you have rocktumblinghobby pals
Member since January 2005
Posts: 3,586
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Post by chassroc on Aug 13, 2012 13:03:53 GMT -5
What did my old boss say? Oh yeah , now I remember, "Trust me, this will be good for your career"!
It is amazing how easy it is for companies to get workers to go along with bad, even criminal practice, to keep the paychecks coming every week. We are easily bought out by the machine. Maybe the Supreme Court was right and Corporations are just like people.
Charlie
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2012 16:13:31 GMT -5
Getting off subject here but that is another sad story of greed and the suffering it caused. Really hard to comprehend that one person could do that to another. Honesty is the best policy will never be practiced by all. Jim
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cardiobill
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since March 2012
Posts: 880
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Post by cardiobill on Aug 15, 2012 20:56:02 GMT -5
I can't wait to see the look on our radiation safety officer at the hospital when I ask him if I can stick some rocks at the bottom of our decay in storage waste container This just may be the coolest post ever. Out of curiousity- What is the half life of radium? Bill
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cardiobill
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since March 2012
Posts: 880
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Post by cardiobill on Aug 15, 2012 21:03:15 GMT -5
OMG I looked it up and the half life is 1600 years!!!
I'm used to technecium compounds ( we use them in stress testing) which is about 65 hrs.
Incredible.
Bill
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Post by geoff on Aug 15, 2012 21:14:38 GMT -5
Jim, that story gives me chills every time I read it. There are some other incidents of lost sources and accidents that will make our skin crawl. One must have great respect for radiation to work with it.
Bill, 1601 years. From there it decays ino Radon. Radon sucks. Radon gas decays into a radioactive metal, and if there is any Radon in your lung at the time it decays, it will transform into a metal particle, and sit forever in your lung emitting radiation that your cells won't be all that happy about.
I once taped a quartz crystal in front of the source on our Co60 imaging unit in the army. The source was never exposed long enough to do anything. As far as the storage at your hospital, I say go for it. Just make sure you don't put anything containing beryllium in there. Beryllium emits neutrons when bombarded with alpha particles. Neutrons are bad.
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Post by geoff on Aug 16, 2012 0:46:57 GMT -5
Well crap. Science wins again. Went back to Kurt Nassau's book and noticed I overlooked a vital piece of info. The energy of the gamma ray should be greater than 1MeV. Gamma rays emitted by Radium are only .0067MeV. So... Looks like I'll be buying a cobalt 60 source.
Science: 1 joule is the kinetic energy of 100 grams falling 1 meter on Earth. 1eV is .000000000000000000016 joules. That's 19 zeros.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2012 7:38:40 GMT -5
Nothing to play with if you are ignorant like me. Glad to see that you are on top of the safety thing and know enough about what you are doing so you are cautious. A little fear goes a long way as far as self preservation goes.
Sky divers have the most accidents around 300 jumps which is the average point of getting comfortable and careless. Jim
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Post by geoff on Aug 17, 2012 2:13:45 GMT -5
Here we are at week three. The one is really getting darker, but the rest seem to have really slowed down. Ordering the Co60 source tomorrow.
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