[ RadSafe ] Ra-226 Static Eliminator Bar

Fri Jul 8 17:31:28 CDT 2011

I don't think you should expect the lead and bismuth to be in equilibrium with the radium, as the decay product of radium is radon, and you should expect a certain amount of it to wander off (how much depends on how well sealed the radium source is).  On the other hand, you would expect the lead and bismuth to be in equilibrium with each other, and they are.  

There are several other isotopes in the chain that are there, but I don't recall how easy they are to find in gamma spec.  It probably depends in part on your library.

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of alstonchris at netscape.net
Sent: Friday, July 08, 2011 3:02 PM
To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Ra-226 Static Eliminator Bar

Nicolas

I do not have a table of half-lives to hand, and I am ashamed to say that I no longer remember the basic U-238 decay chain, but, should the Lead and Bismuth be in equilibrium?  I mean to say, is the device leaking?

I await the slings and arrows with equanimity.

Cheers
cja

-----Original Message-----
From: BRISSON Nicolas <nicolas.brisson at irsn.fr>
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
Sent: Fri, Jul 8, 2011 8:24 am
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Ra-226 Static Eliminator Bar

Hi all,

For once, I won't for help but try to bring a bit of information regarding the 
static eliminator bar I found.

Some colleagues carried out à gamma spectrometry using HpGe detector (20%, 
p-type).

Total activity results are given below :
radium 226 : 	75 Mbq +/- 25%
lead 214 :	34 MBq +/- 15%
bismuth 214 :	36 MBq +/- 15%

Nicolas Brisson
IRSN/DEI/SIAR
route du Panorama
92262 FONTENAY AUX ROSES
tel : +33 1-58-35-87-24
por :  +33 6-08-76-55-32

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From:   "BRISSON Nicolas" <nicolas.brisson at irsn.fr>
To:     "The International Radiation Protection \(Health Physics\) 
MailingList" <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
Date:   04/12/2011 10:06 AM
Subject:        [ RadSafe ]  Ra-226 Static Eliminator Bar
Sent by:        radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu

Hi all,

2 years ago we had a short discussion about radium-226 static eliminator 
bar (excerpt below).
At that time I could only find the article mentioned below.

Last week I found a static eliminator bar from US Radium Corp. 

As the dose rate ranged from 1 mSv/h to 1,6 mSv/h between 5 and 0 cm from 
the bar, we didn’t spend too much time studying it at close range. So I 
would be interested in layouts or any information available about these 
bars

Thanks,

Nicolas Brisson
IRSN/DEI/SIAR
route du Panorama
92262 FONTENAY AUX ROSES
tel : +33 1-58-35-87-24
por :  +33 6-08-76-55-32

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: BRISSON Nicolas <nicolas.brisson at irsn.fr>
To: radsafe at radlab.nl
Sent: Wed, 28 October, 2009 20:58:57
Subject: TR: [ RadSafe ] Ra-226 Static eliminator bar

Hello all,

I don't have much information on this topic but you can find an article at 
the web address below.
American Journal of Public Health (August 1950) :

            http://www.ajph.org/cgi/reprint/40/8/943.pdf 

In this article you can read that these static eliminator bars contained 
25 or 50 µg of radium 226 per linear inch.
Some Ionotron with radium 226 were manufactured by US Radium Corps.

In France, you could buy a ionotron t.200 for around 20€ in 1960. 
For a total length of 15 cm, the active part had a length of 5 cm. In the 
safety sheet given with the ionotron, it was said that you were at the 
safe distance from the ionotron at 25 cm. Remember though that it was in 
1960...

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