[ RadSafe ] Radioactive coffee? .....NORM ?

[Wes Van Pelt]

Radsafers,

With the power of Radsafe, we can get to the bottom of this coffee question. I ask every Radsafer to get some coffee beans and look for radioactivity with whatever survey meter or radiological analyzer you have handy.

Here is my 5 minute research experiment using two 978 g cans of ground coffee (Folgers and Maxwell House).

A. Put a calibrated 1x1 inch NaI scintillation probe with Ludlum ratemeter between the two cans of coffee.
	Without coffee cans: 9 microR/h
	With coffee cans: 9 microR/h

B. Open one of the cans of coffee (Folgers) and place a thin window pancake GM probe at 1 cm from the solid coffee surface.
	Without coffee: 45 cpm
	With coffee: 45 cpm

So, my coffee is completely non-radioactive. How about yours?

Best regards,  Wes
Wesley R. Van Pelt, PhD, CIH, CHP 
Wesley R. Van Pelt Associates, Inc.  
 
Jaro wrote:
> Would anyone happen to know what NORM there might be in coffee beans, to increase their GM count rate to several times background ? .....such is the result obtained by a friend with various coffees, in different towns.
>
>
>
> Jaro 
> ^^^^