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Tag: radiation detector

Reflecting on Todayʻs Radiation Safety Environment from the Medcom Lab

Please note this post was hacked and words were inserted into it that were not mine and did not reflect my viewpoint.   I am scanning the website as time permits to remove any offensive content that was inserted without permission.

To me Geiger Counters have always been about inquiry – what is there around us that we cannot see? How does it affect us? What do they tell us about the world and the universe that we don?t know. It?s all fascinating to me, and I love to get time in the lab or the field to satisfy my curiosity in this arena. But, alas, the hierarchy of human needs puts safety first. And Geiger Counters serve a vital role in the safety arena. We will never know for sure how many lives they have saved or how many unnecessary health problems they have prevented, but the numbers are surely very high. Still, there seems to be a continuous stream of news that hits my phone or desk about unexpected events that put people unnecessarily at risk. Some of these incidents are in the public domain. This report in Scientific American highlights the danger of inhalation of radionuclides, even in secure facilities. Another recent published example involving inhalation is the tunnel collapse at Hanford.

When trained professionals like these get exposed to potentially harmful radiation (and don?t realize they are getting exposed) it reminds me once again that you cannot always count on governments or professionals to give you the information you need to stay healthy.

A friend and colleague of mine, Edouard LaFargue, recently explored an area in France that is frequented by members of the general public, but was once a uranium mining site.  He sent me the picture below, which shows that the area is still contaminated even though maps mark it as uncontaminated. He has written about his visit to that site here.

So I am just putting the word out there to be careful if you are working around radioactive material, and be cautious even if you are not a radiation safety professional working in a regulated environment. This environment has to be suitable for the equipment that you are handling.  Carry proper instrumentation when you think there is the possibility to be exposed to unusual radioactivity, and remember to use it. Remember not all instruments detect alpha and beta radiation. Alpha emitters carry the greatest inhalation risk. All of our Medcom instruments can detect alpha, beta, gamma and x radiation, but our Inspector and Onyx instruments have the greatest sensitivity because they use a large gm pancake detector.

Here in our Labs we are continuously working to improve the tools available to increase radiation safety in the workplace, in communities – and for individual homes and families.  One problem in keeping track of contamination during surveys is lack of geospatial information, and radiation data is not very useful without it. To solve this problem we have added a bluetooth radio option to our popular Inspector Alert. The new Inspector BLE can connect with popular smart phones to record radiation readings with time/date and GPS data. Our IMI Gateway App works on all popular operating systems and smart phones. With these tools, mapping becomes easy and the data becomes useful.

We hope these tools will make the world safer. In any case please remember to be careful out there.

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Alpha Radiation – Why it’s important to be able to detect it

Decay

All the safety books tell us that alpha radiation is 20 times more damaging than gamma and x radiation. Radiation detectors that don’t have an alpha capability are much less expensive. Is it worth taking a risk to save money? Honestly in many cases an instrument without alpha/beta sensitivity can be adequate for specific tasks such as for x-ray and gamma protection in radiography etc. The instrument will be relatively boring to use, but can afford the needed protection. Sometimes there are surprises, and if you don’t have the capability it can be a serious problem. In this case an alpha emitting radionuclide was not detected by geiger counters without alpha capability.  What happened may never be known but the serious effects of alpha radiation taken internally is clearly illustrated.  Geiger counters equipped with alpha sensitive mica windows can make a big difference for health and safety in many situations, and are worth the extra cost.  All IMI – International Medcom Inc. – hand held geiger counters are so equipped and available from reputable distributors across the globe.  The “two inch pancake” sensors are the most sensitive, and built into the IMI Inspector V2 and Onyx NX10 instruments.  The less expensive but robust Radalert100X and RAD100 instruments have smaller mica windows, but still detect alpha and beta radiation.

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What is a Geiger Counter?

There is a lot of confusion these days about what a Geiger Counter is and is not.  Amazonʻs handling of search terms and results for Geiger Counters is especially amusing, even comical at times.  Here is one result that came up for me on a recent Amazon search with the terms “geiger counter.”

Unicorn Meat

Whoa!  What does unicorn meat have to do with Geiger Counters?  Nothing I can think of.  But neither do the devices below that showed up on the same search:

Ghost Meter

The top instrument is designed to detect ghosts by measuring magnetic radiation.  The middle one is for measuring “electromagnetic frequencies.”  Well gamma radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation that is detected by Geiger Counters, but this is not a Geiger Counter and this instrument does not measure ionizing radiation – which is what Geiger Counters do.

Other instruments that show up under a Geiger Counter search include devices that use diodes, CCD camera sensors, other silicon sensors, ion chambers and scintillation detectors.

There are many kinds of radiation sensors.  It’s important to sort through the sometimes confusing  information that is out there to find what you really need – or you could end up with Unicorn Meat, if that really exists.

Geiger Counters are instruments that use Geiger Mueller sensors to detect ionizing radiation.  Ionizing radiation includes alpha, beta, gamma, x and neutron radiation, and also exotic particles from outer space such as leptons and muons.  Geiger Mueller sensors with mica windows can detect beta radiation, while those with thicker metal sidewalls cannot.  Geiger Mueller sensors with thin mica windows can also detect alpha radiation.

If you take a little time to think about what you need, and then do a little research, it can help you understand each instrument and what it is capable of and whether that matches your need.

 

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