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Is it time to buy a Geiger counter yet?

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jpsmith123

Thu Apr 14 2011, 04:33PM

Registered Member #1321 Joined: Sat Feb 16 2008, 03:22AM
Location:
Posts: 843

Well I'm reading stuff that makes me think the time is approaching when a geiger counter would be a handy thing to have...after all, you never know when you might happen to pick up a quart of radioactive milk these days.

I might be forced to try to make one, if I can find a GM tube that I thought I had somewhere around here.

I would much rather buy one already made, in which case I'd like to get a "Monitor 4"...but there's just one problem: so does everyone else; and they seem to be not available, accordingly.

Patrick

Thu Apr 14 2011, 05:21PM

Registered Member #2431 Joined: Tue Oct 13 2009, 09:47PM
Location: Chico, CA. USA
Posts: 5639

jpsmith123 wrote ...

Well I'm reading stuff that makes me think the time is approaching when a geiger counter would be a handy thing to have...after all, you never know when you might happen to pick up a quart of radioactive milk these days.

I might be forced to try to make one, if I can find a GM tube that I thought I had somewhere around here.

I would much rather buy one already made, in which case I'd like to get a "Monitor 4"...but there's just one problem: so does everyone else; and they seem to be not available, accordingly.

if you want to detect the presecnce of atomic nuclei in milk a GM may not be sensitive enough to make a health decision, i think you would need to consider a scintillator. I could be wrong, but i think the best way to detect radioactive elemental contamination is with traditional Mass-Spec-GC, but youll need to be an ace chemist to use one.

James

Thu Apr 14 2011, 05:31PM

Registered Member #3610 Joined: Thu Jan 13 2011, 03:29AM
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 506

Yeah if your milk is making a geiger counter go nuts you've got serious problems!

People freak out when they hear about radiation, but the vast amount we are exposed to is naturally occurring, with the next biggest slice coming from medical imaging. Even bananas are very slightly radioactive due to the (natural) potassium they contain but you don't see people spazzing about those.

Dr. Who

Thu Apr 14 2011, 05:35PM

Registered Member #326 Joined: Sat Mar 18 2006, 01:12PM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 66

IMO the radiation threat is low. Far higher risks to all of us are road accidents, lack of exercise and poor diet. These are the areas anyone concerned about their health, safety and welfare should prioritise.

radiotech

Thu Apr 14 2011, 05:43PM

Registered Member #2463 Joined: Wed Nov 11 2009, 03:49AM
Location:
Posts: 1546

One thig to consoder, if you are a beachcomber, is to
add a scintilometer to your kit. In about 2 years debris
from the flooding will start washing up.

By the time significant levels of contamination is
in your environment, there probably wont be any
place to go, and you would have been forewarned
long before it got there.

jpsmith123

Thu Apr 14 2011, 06:49PM

Registered Member #1321 Joined: Sat Feb 16 2008, 03:22AM
Location:
Posts: 843

I'm not so sure you can say that "the risk is low".

The problems are several. First and foremost, we unfortunately don't have a functional government; instead, we have some kind of a political whorehouse on the Potomac filled with criminally insane psychopaths whom I believe could not tell the truth if their "lives" depended on it. So as usual, the peasants are on their own. We should know from experience by now that nothing our Masters say can be taken at face value.

Second, we've never been here before, have we? I mean, this disaster is already deemed worse than Chernobyl and it's still evolving. As I understand it, there are vast remaining stores of radiopoison that could potentially be released.

A few years from now, we could be dropping like...well like the 9/11 first responders in NYC are today, after breathing air that the government said was safe to breathe.

James

Thu Apr 14 2011, 08:59PM

Registered Member #3610 Joined: Thu Jan 13 2011, 03:29AM
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 506

To say that the disaster is worse than Chernobyl is misleading at best. They are both classified as level 7, but that's the highest level there is. A student who scores 59% and a student who score 0% both get an F, but is the one who got 59% as bad as the one who got a zero?

Chernobyl suffered a full meltdown and steam explosion that dispersed the core of a reactor that had no containment vessel. Fukushima had a hydrogen explosion but the core is largely intact, the reactor has a containment vessel and the leaked radioactive materials have a very short half life. That's not to say that it is not a catastrophe, but there is a huge amount of fear mongering and irrational hysteria parroted by folks who's knowledge of radiation consists of what they've learned from Hollywood and comic books.

The world is not out to get you, "the government" is not a gigantic monolithic conspiracy engine and the radioactive boogieman is not hiding under your bed. Put away the tinfoil hat and do some research before reacting. There's a gigantic uncontrolled nuclear reactor in the sky spewing harmful radiation all day long and yet countless people deliberately bask in it.

Chip Fixes

Thu Apr 14 2011, 09:52PM

Registered Member #3781 Joined: Sat Mar 26 2011, 02:25AM
Location:
Posts: 701

Radiation Chart --> http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/radiation-dosage-chart/

Geiger Counters --> http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/products.asp?dept=1468

klugesmith

Fri Apr 15 2011, 12:31AM

Registered Member #2099 Joined: Wed Apr 29 2009, 12:22AM
Location: Los Altos, California
Posts: 1716

I'm not so sure you can say that "the risk is low".
... We should know from experience by now that nothing our Masters say can be taken at face value.

But it's not just "the government" or "big industry" that says there is NO hazardous contamination in the USA from Fukushima leaks. It is anybody with suitable instruments and knowledge - for example, thousands of universities and colleges, and many gifted amateurs, on alert for isotopes like astronomers scan for new comets.

Do we get into conspiracy theories when the national weather service says "It is raining right now at LAX, and clear at SFO"?

Patrick

Fri Apr 15 2011, 12:33AM

Registered Member #2431 Joined: Tue Oct 13 2009, 09:47PM
Location: Chico, CA. USA
Posts: 5639

jpsmith123 wrote ...

The problems are several. First and foremost, we unfortunately don't have a functional government; instead, we have some kind of a political whorehouse on the Potomac filled with criminally insane psychopaths whom I believe could not tell the truth if their "lives" depended on it. So as usual, the peasants are on their own. We should know from experience by now that nothing our Masters say can be taken at face value.

YES! I feel the same way !!!

jpsmith123 wrote ...

Second, we've never been here before, have we?

well there is nothing wrong with having your own ability to detect radtiation for these instances, i was merely warning you that your gieger wont detect iodine in milk, even in totally harmful levels.

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