[ RadSafe ] Ra-226 tubing?
Ed Johnson
cejjr56 at gmail.com
Sun Sep 25 16:30:15 CDT 2011
Yes, of course. Good catch Jerry. Given the age of the item and possible
weathering, the plastic could have lots of cracks/tears and the radium
phosphor paint could be contaminating everything with which the cord comes
in contact.
Ed.
On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 4:29 PM, <gelsg at aol.com> wrote:
>
> Ed:
>
> Just to clarify, my concern is not with radon progeny - they will be gone
> from the swipe after 4 hours. The real concern is that the radium may
> become mobile. With a 1600 year half-life, and being a bone-seeking alpha
> emitter, this can be a serious health concern. Having radon (with
> associated short half-life progeny) escape is pretty much expected. Having
> the parent radium escape is many orders of magnitude more seious.
>
> Jerry
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ed Johnson <cejjr56 at gmail.com>
> To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List <
> radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
> Sent: Sat, Sep 24, 2011 3:16 pm
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Ra-226 tubing?
>
>
> Some clarification on the Ra-226 tubing: The 0.5 cm diameter matches that
> f my uncle's WWII souvenir deck cord, and I misstated the tubing material
> omposition in my previous post; it was a clear plastic, not rubber. Also,
> recall that the deck cord's cavity was not completely filled with the
> adium phosphor. I believe the configuration was that only the interior
> urface of the tubing was painted.
> I agree with Jerry Gels concern about radon progeny contamination. Given
> he long half life of Ra-226 (1600 years), it will be continuously producing
> n-222 (3.8 day half-life) and approaching secular equilibrium. The deck
> ords could by no means be considered "sealed" sources, and the Rn-222 could
> asily leak out, as indicated by Kelly Grahn's post. Therefore, whatever
> onfined space the item is stored in can become quite contaminated with
> lpha- and beta/gamma-emitting progeny in transient equilibrium with the
> n-222.
> You might want to test if the item is still luminescent in the dark, though
> he phospor might have chemically degraded. If it is a deck cord, the
> mitted visible light intensity would not be sufficient to be visible in
> aylight conditions.
> Your item is yet another example of the many applications of radium-226
> that
> ere developed prior to the advent of fission reactors, when fission and
> ctivation products were substituted for Ra-226. Those applications ranged
> rom self-luminescence, to both real and supposed medical therapeutics, to
> eutron sources, including initiators. I remember fondly Paul Frame/ORAU's
> evigator (inhale deeply) and the radium-filled pillow "for a good night's
> leep."
> Don't you just love a mystery. Legacy items can be so much fun!
> Ed Johnson
> On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 9:22 PM, <grahnk at comcast.net> wrote:
> > They already have an entry for this, and explicitly say they don't want
> any
> for the collection.
>
> http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/radioluminescent/rope.htm
>
> We've encountered 4 of these over the years in our Orphan Source Recovery
> Program and they've all been leakers.
>
> Kelly Grahn
> Illinois Emergency Management Agency
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: alstonchris at netscape.net
> To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
> Sent: Sat, 24 Sep 2011 02:31:25 -0000 (UTC)
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Ra-226 tubing?
>
> Ed
>
> Your answer is so good that it is almost hilarious. You should write a
> page for the Wikipedia about it. I would bet money that Paul Frame, the
> curator of ORAU's museum would be interested in the story, and picture, at
> least. Whether he would want to, or could, take custody of the device is
> another matter. Rick should be able to link to the HP Historical Museum
> through either ORISE or ORAU.
>
> Cheers
> cja
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ed Johnson
> To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
> Sent: Fri, Sep 23, 2011 9:15 pm
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Ra-226 tubing?
>
>
> Hi Rick,
>
> After viewing your photo, it appears to be a deck cord (i.e., barrier)
> that
> was used during WWII, and for some time after, to warn sailors that they
> were approaching the edge of a ship's deck during night-time ops. It is
> difficult to be certain of this based on the photo alone, but that's what
> it
> looks like and the radium-226 is good supporting evidence. There are
> sections of a ship's deck where steel railings are purposely not
> installed to allow ready access and egress of equipment and supplies, and
> this is especially true for aircraft carriers. Maintaining dark
> operations
> to avoid enemy detection was and still is essential for shipboard
> operations
> during war times. Before the installation of these cordons, and also
> radium-filled deck markers (typically two-inch diameter disks attached to
> the deck's edge), it was not uncommon for sailors to unwittingly walk
> right
> off the edge of the deck and be lost to the sea on moonless or overcast
> nights. When you're steaming along at 20+ knots on a pitch black night
> and
> on a war mission, the overboard squid's cries for help are either not
> going
> to be heard or the mission's demands do not permit a rescue.
>
> The cords were strung between vertical stanchions that were bolted to the
> deck. Typically, the cords and deck markers were filled with Ra-226 that
> was chemically bonded with a phosphorescent material such as a sulfate.
> The
> design was to create a continuous thermoluminescence whereby the 185 KeV
> photons from the radium-226 were exciting the outer shell electrons of the
> phosphor, which in turn returned to ground state by emitting visible
> wavelelength photons. The light intensity was low enough so as not to be
> visible by the enemy at a distance, but high enough to be readily visible
> by
> sailors on deck. The clips on each end of the cord attached to the
> stanchions. I seem to recall that these devices were replaced with
> tritium-filled markers at some time after the end of WWII. There would of
> course be less of a hazard with tritium-filled devices due to the much
> shorter radiological half-life, pure beta emitter decay scheme vs. the
> penetrating energy of the Ra-226 gamma photon, the non-bone seeker
> biochemistry, and short effective half-life of the tritium should intake
> occur. As well, radium filled devices build up a radon-222 gas pressure
> and
> tend to leak over time, resulting in loose contamination of surrounding
> surface s by the radon decay progeny. If you want to know about leaking
> radon from supposed sealed sources, just ask any of the EPA/Roy F. Weston
> or
> was it Chem Nuclear(?) personnel that performed the Superfund emergency
> removal of 120 or so curies of radium-filled medical devices from the
> "vault" at the Radium Chemical Company facility in Queens back in the late
> 80s.
>
> You may know that for many decades after WWII ended the Navy was not very
> scrupulous about either acknowledging the hazards associated with this
> material or disposing of the devices in a manner that we would find
> acceptable today. In fact, the regulatory requirements either did not
> exist
> or were not well-enforced (as a federal agency the Navy was regulated by
> the AEC/NRC), or the material was exempted. How do I know what your item
> is, you may wonder? When I was a regulator for the New York State DEC, we
> investigated a Yellow Freight terminal property in Rochester (Erdman
> Street)
> that bordered a landfill where deck markers had been disposed. Some were
> surfacing. Also, my uncle served on a light cruiser during WWII and
> brought
> one of these cords home with him after the war. In the 1960s as a kid, my
> brother and I played with the cord because, "gee, look Wally, it glows in
> the dark." Neither I nor my parents nor my uncle had any idea that we
> were
> likely being frequently dosed from the thing.
>
> There were probably many linear miles of that rubber tubing produced
> during
> the war, and one wonders where it all went! Hmmmm...old barns, landfills,
> and attics can be such treasure troves of forgotten history. Like my
> brother's Hot Wheels dragsters that are now worth $50K apiece but are
> buried
> under 150 feet of compacted garbage. Oh well. If Oak Ridge Associated
> Universities is still operating and still maintaining their museum of rad
> material relics, you might want to contact them and ask if they want to
> take
> it off your hands. Anywho, hope this helps you, and I would like to hear
> about your disposition of this item in a follow-up post.
>
> Best of luck,
>
> Carl Ed Johnson
> Still a sometimes HP (unaffiliated)
> Albuquerque, New Mexico
> cejjr56 at gmail.com
> 505-463-6685
>
>
> All,
>
> Please see the attached PDF file (assuming the attachment goes through) of
> a photo of an item that was found in an old barn in New Hampshire, USA.
> It
> appears to be a bundle of rubber or plastic tubing with metal clips on the
> ends. The bundle in the photo is approximately 15 cm in diameter, with a
> tube thickness of approximately 0.5 cm. The contact exposure rate is 50
> mR/hr, and the isotope was identified to be Ra-226. Does anyone know what
> this might be or where it might have come from?
>
> (See attached file: Ra-226 tubing3.pdf)
>
> Thank you,
>
> Rick D'Alarcao, Ph.D.
> Health Physicist
> Radiological Health Section
> Bureau of Public Health Protection
> New Hampshire Division of Public Health Services, Department of Health and
> Human Services
> Division of Public Health Services
> 29 Hazen Drive
> Concord, NH 03301-6504
> Phone: (603) 271-7578
> Fax: (603) 225-2325
> Email: rdalarcao at dhhs.state.nh.us
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