r/Radiation

Blue glow around a dental X-ray tube, I was not in the room while the tube was active.

Just wanted to share my little Trinitite investigation. I have a 1‑gram sample (visually very glassy, green‑golden tones, some tiny red‑metallic bits, plus bubbles and cavities). I got this sample from eBay UK; the seller claims it's the real thing…

It comes with lots of papers and so called "certificates" - but that is just paper right, does not mean anything.

On the bench I tried to measure the contact activity with my BC412: I see an incremental 300CPM on contact. Nice.

Equipment:

• GS‑CsI(Tl)‑1515 detector
• GSMAX8000 spectrometer

I ran a long background‑subtracted spectrum inside a lead castle with copper shielding (2 hours). The sample is small, but I clearly see parts of the classic Trinity fingerprint:

• Ba X‑rays (~32 keV) – from Cs‑137 decay
• Am‑241 (sharp peak at ~59 keV) – trace activation product
• Cs‑137 (main photopeak at 662 keV)
• Eu‑152 – very weak peak at ~124 keV and a weak shoulder on the low‑energy side of the K‑40 peak (~1406 keV) – or am I just overinterpreting?

Given the visual features (glass fusion, metallic spherules) and this gamma suite – Cs, Am, Ba, and especially Eu‑152 – is this the real thing?

Not a perfect spectrum, but for 1 g and an amateur CsI detector it's at least way better than my son's RC102 result…

The last image is the spectrum taken in 2001 from the bulk (the lower one), its the one supplied from the ebay seller; it's quite similar, and also quite weak in those peaks…

Please share your thoughts on whether that's legit or not…. I guess faking those materials would be too much of an effort?

Why did I buy this? I am not a collector - I am just curious on low radioactive materials I can throw at my gamma spectrometer, to see nuclides I have not seen before. So I thought I can see Eu152.....but now I am a bit disappointed. Of course I know that Eu152 has a HL of only 13.5 years, so about 6 HL have passed so far, quite a lot.

Made from 51mg of depleted UO2 powder sealed in adhesive plastic sheets. Yes I work in a lab, yes this is safe - it is a sealed source which was leak tested. Cheers! NOTE: this is not a very accurate source, however I wanted to have a non-contamination-prone source of depleted uranium.

Found this online and couldn’t find very much info on it.

Hi! I have been stressing about our well water ever since finding out I live in/near a cancer cluster. A lot of people around my area blame it on radioactive/ toxic fill being used during new home construction (this was confirmed) , then leaching into well water. So I decided to test my water and got these results. We’ve never drank the water , but we’ve bathed in it for the past 4.5 years. Thee company said it “should” be safe to bathe in. Anyone here that is knowledgeable that can put my mind at ease ? Thank you !

My first of hopefuly many radioactive items

I understand that Europium-152 decays primarily (72.1%) via Electron Capture, which produces Samarium-152 that has an excited nucleus. The Samarium-152 then emits a gamma to drop to its ground state. I'm not finding any decay chain charts that show this gamma emission, which is confusing to me. (I also understand some charts leave out gamma under some circumstances.)

My question is, does Electron Capture usually produce daughters with excited nuclei, which then emit a gamma, so it isn't normally listed? I must have missed that correlation in my studies if that is the case.

Thanks.

Weak bremsstrahlung radiation can be detected by KC761.

The compass reads higher in the bag by a lot than with the compass itself, does this mean the bag had radium dust falling into it, or does is that bag of carbon trapping radon inside with it?

Just thought it was interesting.

I recently picked up this radioactive vacuum tube, I couldn't find what isotope it used online but I deduced it wasn't a gas since it's more radioactive at one end than the other. Today I was shining my UV light on it, for some reason, and I noticed some fluorescent dust at the bottom, upon closer inspection it turns out there's just a blob of radium lume on the cathode.

the DM160 was also used in early transistor computers. i also think that the radiation is from either a thoriated filament or the fluorescent coating of the anode. i don't think it was documented radioactive online too (like the 313C, 427 and 6141)

>!no, i'm not an old person.!<

Hello, one of my coworkers has an old Radium Spa sitting high up on shelf with no cover on it (I just put aluminum foil over it). We briefly walk pass it everyday for the past year without realizing it... no one noticed it or would have thought "hey be on the look out for a radium spa from the early 1920s in our back rooms"... it looks like pottery for a plant. I only figured out what it was when I was cleaning the top shelves and read the label on it...

My big question is to what extent are they dangerous when stored like it was and how safe is it to leave it there now?

edit: I told my coworker what he had, how old/somewhat rate it is, now he's wondering how much it's worth lol

Hi everyone,

I recently inherited a large mineral collection and I'm currently in the process of identifying and securing various specimens. I came across this piece labeled as "Gold Ore" from the Gold Reef City mine in Johannesburg, South Africa.

According to the label, it is a "Quartzitic Sandstone Conglomerate."

The issue: Under UV light, the specimen shows intense, widespread neon green/yellow fluorescence (see attached photos). I also noticed that there is glowing "dust" or debris on the wooden board where it was sitting, which makes me concerned about potential contamination or friable secondary uranium minerals (like Autunite or Urancalcite).

Given the location (Johannesburg/Witwatersrand is known for uranium-gold associations), I suspect this is quite "hot."

Based on the fluorescence, is it safe to assume these are secondary uranium minerals?

Link : here