Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff
Where can I buy radioactive isotape with higher power?
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coppercone2:

--- Quote from: jmelson on November 13, 2019, 09:27:41 pm ---
--- Quote from: ejeffrey on November 12, 2019, 06:12:11 pm ---That was my point.  If you should be handling a 1 curie (=3.7 * 10^10 decays/second) source ORNL will sell it to you.  If not, then you shouldn't be handling it.

--- End quote ---
Oh my god, I missed that he wants 1 Ci in the OP!  Obviously either a troll or a complete imbecile.  I work at a place that has 1 Ci of Californium, they had to build a separate building for it.  It has all sorts of radiation safety alarms and intrusion alarms, only a couple people have clearance to enter the building, and they spend a couple minutes a year cumulatively inside the place.  Then, the radioactivity that boils off the Californium is sucked into another building, sorted for isotope and fed into an accelerator.

OH, and this is INSIDE a national laboratory which has quite strict security, too!  Having 1 Ci around requires somewhere close to the same security as an operating nuclear reactor.

Jon

--- End quote ---
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I don't see why a venture capitalist should not be interested in owning such a building if its useful. Maybe someone is just shooting the shit and wanted a quick answer to something dubious.
Cerebus:

--- Quote from: jmelson on November 13, 2019, 09:27:41 pm --- I work at a place that has 1 Ci of Californium, they had to build a separate building for it.  It has all sorts of radiation safety alarms and intrusion alarms, only a couple people have clearance to enter the building, and they spend a couple minutes a year cumulatively inside the place.

--- End quote ---

A very different beast is Californium. Assuming you're talking about a 252Cf source (the commonest) nearly all the decays are alpha, which you can laugh off with a thick piece of paper for 100% shielding, however you can't laugh off the neutron emission from 252Cf. Neutrons are the hardest thing to shield needing lots of material, and have this unpleasant habit of gradually making parts of the exposed shielding itself radioactive. Have some element in the shielding that gets neutron activated to an isotope with a short half life and you can have very radioactive materials on your hands. From what you said about pulling off particular isotopes I presume that this source is being deliberately used to neutron activate other materials, possibly for analysis purposes (that's what your description sounds like).

 A (principally gamma) emitting 60Co source is, only by comparison, quite a pleasant thing to have around and relatively easy to manage. Still fry you if you get it wrong though. Remember that 60Co sources are regularly used to sterilise things like single use medical supplies in production line quantities and at production line speed.
exmadscientist:

--- Quote from: ejeffrey on November 12, 2019, 05:19:25 pm ---You can get radioisotopes of all different types from Oak Ridge National Lab.

--- End quote ---
Or, if your proclivities lean more Eastern Bloc, the Mayak Production Association can supply many nuclear needs, even... unusual... ones.

Just be very, very careful if they happen to cancel your source order after starting work on it....
aheid:
I assume OP missed the u prefix on the second unit.

That said I am not qualified to tell if a >1uCi source is safe to handle or if so where one could get one.
mjs:
Easy, just buy the whole banana production of the world for 4 years and you'll have 1Ci of 40K.
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