Exploring Regular Things With A Geiger Counter

im now wishing i didnt sell mine...years ago

Richard Vickers

Survey meter so you probably wont get much deflection even in high radiation environments.

AESFTW

My ludlum Geiger counter goes everywhere with me.

AESFTW

the americum pellet is pretty well stabalized in side the sensor, its not going to leak dust

Adric Menning

well many of them have a small sample spot on them of tape with a small radioactive patch. yes some could be contaminated in other ways, but not very likely.

Adric Menning

“Banana for scale” isn’t something I’d expected in the context of radiation measurements! :-) Ewen

Ewen McNeill

I had radioactive iodine treatment a couple years ago. To give me something to do I bought a geiger counter on Amazon. The first one would not read high enough. I bought a second and by the time it arrived the level had dropped down to where the first could handle it. It was an interesting project that kept my mind busy. I have an old Yellow Civil Defense Geiger counter that registers in Roentgens. It uses some strange batteries so I've never used it. Thanks for the information Fran.

John N Nelson

I worked in the nuclear industry for nearly two decades, specializing in radiation monitoring systems (RMS). The final project in that part of my career involved helping design and implement a wide-spectrum directional gamma detection and isotope identification system. While this system had many applications, the project sponsor was Homeland Security, intending to use it in public areas to detect "dirty bombs": The goal of Dirty Bombs isn't to destroy as much as to make a facility unusable. The system used multiple extremely sensitive scintillation detectors arranged in a 3D array along with custom shielding to optimize both sensitivity and directionality. The hard work was the software. Measuring radiation is one of the best examples of the need to apply statistics in the real world. The limitations of the math (and underlying physics) I was using often caused the system hardware to evolve accordingly. As the system improved, background radiation became an increasing concern. The first issue was interference from our own very low-level radioactive sources: We had to upgrade our certified shielded storage cabinet (which weighed hundreds of pounds) to one designed to house high-level sources (which weighed over a ton). We also bought a pallet of lead bricks (another ton) to put inside the cabinet. Then we had to move the whole thing to the other side of the lab, over 30 feet away (the inverse-square law is your friend). Then we had problems with the concrete slab our lab was on. Turned out the rebar used in the slab was lightly radioactive, so we had to put two layers of lead bricks between the lab bench and the floor. We went quite a way down this rabbit hole. For example, the gammas we *were* looking for would also hit the shielding material we used inside the system to improve system directionality, causing an effect called "X-Ray Fluorescence", leading us to design a whole new shielding technology to minimize it (which was actually inspired by an old technology we rediscovered in some declassified Manhattan Project documents). Watching this video made me shudder: My instrument would probably be screaming with multiple alarms were it placed anywhere near FranLab!

BobC

Oh, but I meant to also suggest smoke detectors to test. I've used compressed air to blow dust & cobwebs out of mine and many friends' detectors, fully aware that there is a radioactive element in there we should not contact. So far, I've not grown extra appendages, etc. It would be fun to see how your detector performed with smoke detectors.

Jan Snyder-Ellerman

Woman, you are Mary to my Rhoda Morgenstern. Hug, no, fistbump, no, wave from 6ft.

Jan Snyder-Ellerman

I've got the smart Geiger attachment for my smart phone, not as sensitive or accurate as a proper tube, but fun for exploring the radiation around you.

Dr Andy Hill

I've been thinking of buying a Geiger Counter for a number of years, other than the Army Surplus devices, are any of the cutrently produced devices any good?

Is it possible the Geiger counter itself could be radioactive when it is a used one depending on how it was used?

Leigh