Geiger Counter Fun

[Answerprancer]

Has anyone here had any fun with one of these?
I bought one recently and did some exploring with it...

Background radiation where I live: average 0.1 microsieverts/hour

'vaseline glass' sugar bowl I have: 0.8 (the glass contains uranium oxide)

Background radiation on a recent flight at about 30,000ft: 4.0!

Takumar 50mm vintage camera lens: 24.0!! (the glass contains thorium)

Porst 55mm lens: 20.0 (thorium again)

Vintage mantle-clock with luminous hands/dial owned by me Mum: 7.0

Also I got a higher than normal background radiation result walking under an old red brick railway bridge recently - which was odd.

[jomifl]

Your geiger counter fun sounds like errr fun....that's twice.
What kind of geiger counter is it? there are quite a few ex eastern block on Ebay.

[Answerprancer]

Hi Jomifl.
It's a modern Ukrainian one "R-Tracker GR 12-M" very basic model about the size of an iphone (but thicker) contains one SBM20 Geiger tube. Their more advanced models have two SBM-20s and are more sensitive.

There are quite a few modern ones from eastern block countries available on e-bay, some cold-war models which are old and scary looking and newer ones with back-lit LC displays, SOEKS defender is a popular one.

I think quite a lot were brought out after the Chernobyl disaster.

[jomifl]

I visited a biodynamic farm in a part of Europe that I won't mention to save the expat owners embarrassement. On talking to their local handyman I discovered that there was an abandoned uranium mine a few miles away.. I wish I had had a geiger counter with me.

[Togo]

I would suspect that the old red bricks were made of clay which could well hold higher than background levels of radiation. Or perhaps deposits left over from the old days of coal burning steam trains. You should immediately set out to walk the length of the entire rail network of Britain and meticulously log your results on a daily basis.

[jomifl]

a series of transects at level crossings might help..plus some measurements under old red brick road bridges.

[Answerprancer]

But that will take ages!! Do I have to go now?

[Togo]

Immediately if not sooner.

[EDDIE51]

Uranium in the mined ore is not very radioactive.
At one time I was working as a scientific officer at the Dept of Trade & Industry, I spent 6 months of that time filtering Uranium 'Yellow Cake' (Uranium Oxide)out of leach solution. I must have filtered 10 Kg or so of the stuff. They told me it was not dangerous unless I swallowed it!

[Answerprancer]

Sorry Togo - I have unfinished business here - will probably be finished in a couple of hours ;-)

[Answerprancer]

It's the same for the thorium used in 'hot' lenses apparently Eddie, safe unless somehow you ingest it in broken/powdered form ..like you would!

[jomifl]

But Eddie you didn't grow crops on it and then eat them.

[Answerprancer]

You say that Jomifl, but wildlife has flourished around the deserted land around Chernobyl, a lot of which would be grazing ruminants (deer etc) and I think it's more than likely they would be grazing on irradiated plant matter.

[EDDIE51]

Information on current radiation levels around Chernobyl is hard to come by but I did find this
https://www.flickr.com/photos/7577652@N08/5610637814/in/album-72157626476941444/
That is the actual reactor in the photo.

[EDDIE51]

Another one https://www.flickr.com/photos/7577652@N08/5610628888/in/album-72157626476941444/

[EDDIE51]

^^ That is grass 2 km from the reactor.

[jomifl]

Eddie, humans are a little more aware of radiation levels and the long term health hazards of high background radiation level than wildlife is.

[EDDIE51]

^^ Over 4,000 people refused to move out of the exclusion zone and still live there today. They show no difference in health compared to the general population.
I am not saying radiation is not harmful, (it is harmful) but the fear is far worse than the reality.

[jomifl]

Agreed it's more about perception than reality. We live a few miles from a nuclear power station and an American tourist was quite taken aback when after offering sympathy to Mrs jom for our plight of being in constant danger was told in no uncertain terms not to be so silly, it wasn't a problem...it's quite photogenic as the plumes of condensing water vapour from the cooling towers catch the last rosy effulgeance of the setting sun.

[EDDIE51]

Is it the Sellafield plant ( the old Windscale) jomifl?
When that had the fire the government banned the sale of milk produced near the site. Farmers had to tip the milk down the drain and claim the cost back as compensation. Suddenly milk production in the area increased to 10 x the previous level !
An official from the Atomic Energy Authority was giving a speech in Australia and made a joke about the beneficial effect of radiation on milk yield. Later he was horrified to find that the price of land near the Australian Nuclear test site had risen 500% overnight!

[jomifl]

No Eddie, it's purely a power station, no processing on site as far as I know, other than in the canteen kitchen. Also it is in SW France.