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Where can I buy radioactive isotape with higher power?
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Gyro:

--- Quote from: Cerebus on November 14, 2019, 07:32:24 pm ---
--- Quote from: LaserSteve on November 14, 2019, 07:13:58 pm ---It does mention its use in Nuclear Power Plants..

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It has to be given to all nuclear plant workers to stop them from dying.

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Although, for safety, they sometimes have to boil it and include herbal and hydrocarbon additives.
jmelson:

--- Quote from: Cerebus on November 14, 2019, 01:31:42 am ---
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).

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  No, it is CARIBU at Argonne National Lab., it is to make various short half-life isotopes for acceleration in an ion accelerator (ATLAS).  You can get a bunch of different isotopes far off the stability line, but the problem turns out you get a witch's brew of stuff that is hard to filter out to the exact isotope you want to study.  So, you end up with as bad as 90% contamination of what you hoped would be a single isotope.  And, yes, the shielding is a total nightmare.

--- Quote --- 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.

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QUITE PLEASANT??!!??  Are you kidding?  1 Ci of 60Co is also pretty serious stuff, and will cook you in seconds if you are ever exposed to it without the shield.
Yes, the sterilizers have massive shielded rooms with a conveyor running around and into the shielded area, and if the conveyor ever jams, it is a huge deal to get the source safed so somebody can run in for a few seconds and knock the jammed carton out of the way.

Jon
jmelson:

--- Quote from: aheid on November 14, 2019, 07:55:11 am ---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.

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Radioactive sources up to several uCi are quite common in labs that work with nuclear detectors.  They are used to make sure detectors are working, as well as providing calibration of energy and efficiency.
If sealed, as a Gamma source can be with no trouble, they are pretty safe to handle.  Alpha, Beta and fission sources need to be more "open" to avoid absorbing the particles, and are thus more
easy to damage and lose some of the radioactive material.  Therefore, you have to handle them very carefully.

All of these things generally require an NRC license to possess.  The only things I can think of that you can legally have are the Americium sources in a smoke alarm and pieces of Corelle and similar glazed ceramic plates.  I know the level of protection we need to provide here.  Safes with 5-number combinations, locked doors, monthly inspections to verify the sources are still here, lead "pigs" and other shielding when carrying sources from room to room, having our rad safety people move a source even to a building across the street, and on and on.  And, these are uCi - level sources, not whole Ci level stuff!

Jon

Jon
jmelson:

--- Quote from: magic on November 14, 2019, 12:36:41 pm ---That being said, you don't just produce radioactive elements, you have to get them from somewhere. Which makes we wonder if whatever sources that people used back then are still available to anyone or have been found and are guarded. No idea :-//

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Yeah, a pitchblende mine, the source for radium ore.  Quite nasty stuff, makes Uranium ore look VERY tame by comparison.  Miners had really short lives, with lungs filled with radium dust.

Jon
SiliconWizard:

--- Quote from: dicky96 on November 14, 2019, 09:20:04 am ---Madame Curie managed to produce strong radioactive sources without much in the way of technology or anywhere to buy one from or anyone's permission to do it

Maybe just read up on her and do it the same way she did? :-//

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Yeah, she didn't end well either.
 ::)
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