[ RadSafe ] Shielding of DEVICES Gem irradiation radioactive stone jewelry

Sat Jan 7 02:12:36 CST 2012

Dan,

A few years ago a senior scientist from the United Kingdom told me that they had an embarrassing situation. Some one gifted to the British royal family finely chiseled and polished stones as pendants which if left in contact rcan give significant radiation doses. Though retrieving them was a delicate mission, it was carried out with prompt alacrity.

When we supported the position in the International Basic Safety Standards arguing against gem irradiation, the less puritanic among us argued that if some lady does not mind getting a few  tens of microsivert dose by wearing such irradiated gems, radiation protection specialist must not intervene! I was told that half the annual revenue  of a US University is collected by gem irradiation!

When we found that the practice is likely to be carried out somewhat in an uncontrolled way, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board banned gem irradiation in India nuclear reactors. The hold continues.

Regards
Parthasarathy

________________________________
 From: Dan McCarn <hotgreenchile at gmail.com>
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu> 
Sent: Saturday, 7 January 2012, 7:02
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Shielding of DEVICES

Hi Jim:

So somebody couldn't figure-out which scale he was on...

Not only uranium ore samples are problematic... There are several dimension
stone products, especially certain anatectic granites & gorgeous
pegmatites, that are quite radioactive - because uranium-bearing fluids
tends to segregate and precipitate at the very end-phase of magma
crystallization forming veins, veinlike features, and generally
uranium-enriched rocks.  In one case, what one mining company would
consider ore-grade, anatectic granites in Namibia were being nicely cut and
polished by the dimension stone people next door and shipped everywhere!

You better run, Jim, because I'm sure that those law-enforcement groups are
after you by now!  Maybe the poor, unwitting businessman as well!

Was it one of those gorgeous pegmatites from Brazil?
*http://tinyurl.com/Brzl-Grnt*
*
*

Dan ii

On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 5:26 PM, Jim Hardeman
<Jim.Hardeman at dnr.state.ga.us>wrote:

> 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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-- 
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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