[ RadSafe ] Shielding of DEVICES

Fri Jan 6 18:26:07 CST 2012

Dan --

No, I was the rad guy who, along with his staff, had the unfortunate
responsibility of performing radiation measurements on the "box of
rocks". To make a long story short, an LE officer at "a major
international airport", who happened to be carrying a "rad pager" was in
a cargo warehouse and his pager alarmed. The officer determined that a
foot locker, part of an international shipment, was the source of the
radiation.The radiation measurements that were relayed to us were
"somewhat exaggerated" (if you consider 3 or so orders of magnitude to
be "slightly") <grin>, making the response a little more urgent than was
actually warranted. We were requested by "law enforcement authorities"
to perform radiation measurements on the box, determine (if possible)
what it was and report our findings to them. Due to the breathless
urgency in which this request was made, we pointed SEVERAL spectrometers
(NaI, LaBr3 and HpGe) at the offending item, and found only elevated
levels of natural uranium, thorium and their decay products.

My understanding is that after we reported our findings to law
enforcement authorities, they went out to "talk to" the unfortunate
businessman (not even a geologist) who had, unknowingly, shipped a box
of radioactive rocks to himself. I would have loved to be a fly on the
wall during that "conversation".

Sorry to be so vague in my description, but I don't want any of those
same law enforcement authorities knocking on my door ...

Jim Hardeman

>>> Dan McCarn <hotgreenchile at gmail.com> 1/6/2012 17:09 >>>
Dear Jim:

Were you on the receiving end... or the giving end of the inspection...
So
you are that poor, witless geologist?

There have been times when I have been very surprised that my baggage
was
not inspected (before 2001).  Since then, they always seem
ultra-curious
about my Ludlum Model 19 and not the rocks...

Dan ii

On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 2:57 PM, Jim Hardeman
<Jim.Hardeman at dnr.state.ga.us>wrote:

> Dan --
>
> You speak in the future tense, when instead, you should have spoken
in
> the PAST tense. Been there, done that.
>
> Jim Hardeman
>
> >>> Dan McCarn <hotgreenchile at gmail.com> 1/6/2012 16:38 >>>
> Dear Group:
>
> Most likely, they will find radioactive rocks on some poor witless
> geologist...
>
> Dan ii
>
> On Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 11:50 AM, Clayton J Bradt
> <CJB01 at health.state.ny.us>wrote:
>
> > Joe Presig wrote:
> >
> > ...   A person who can bring to bear such a DEVICE into  another
> nation
> > would probably be able to
> > design a radiation shield(s) to make it very difficult and/or
> impossible
> > to
> >  detect such a DEVICE.
> >
> >     As Oppenheimer once responded to the question (How  would you
> detect
> > such a weapon),
> > he wryly suggested that one needs a screwdriver to detect such
> DEVICES.
> > (i.e not some
> > sophisticated radiation detector(s)).  Hopefully USA and other
> nation's
> > will use direct inspection of
> > containers, shipping packages etc. to look for nuclear DEVICES
> directly
> > ....
> >
> > There is no instrumental solution to this problem.  Save for
> dismantling
> > every package (as Oppenheimer's remarks suggest)
> >  before it crosses the border, there will always be ways to
> circumvent any
> > surveillance system.  The amount of time and
> > money being spent on developing new super-duper detection systems
is
> > largely wasted.  It would be far better spent
> > on trying to figure out why some people want to attack us, and
then
> > convincing them not to do so.  (This of course would
> > risk the possibility of learning that some people might have good
> reasons
> > for hating us.  It's a risk worth taking, in my view.)
> >
> >
> > Clayton J. Bradt
> > Principal Radiophysicist
> > NYS Dept. of Health
> > Biggs Laboratory, Room D486A
> > Empire State Plaza
> > Albany, NY 12201-0509
> >
> > 518-474-1993
> >
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>
> --
> Dan ii
>
> --
> Dan W McCarn, Geologist
> 108 Sherwood Blvd
> Los Alamos, NM 87544-3425
> +1-505-672-2014 (Home – New Mexico)
> +1-505-670-8123 (Mobile - New Mexico)
> HotGreenChile at gmail.com (Private email) HotGreenChile at gmail dot
com
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-- 
Dan ii

--
Dan W McCarn, Geologist
108 Sherwood Blvd
Los Alamos, NM 87544-3425
+1-505-672-2014 (Home – New Mexico)
+1-505-670-8123 (Mobile - New Mexico)
HotGreenChile at gmail.com (Private email) HotGreenChile at gmail dot com
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