Re: Pu in smoke detectors

[Franz Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 17:26 06.03.2000 -0600, you wrote:
>Whereas US ionization type smoke detectors use about 1 uCi of Am-241, I
>just heard that similar detectors in Russia use 100 uCi of Pu.  Can
>anyone confirm this?

It seems that smoke detectors existed in the former Sovjetunion (which sure
were not for general household use), which contained Pu-238 (not Pu-239).
This is known to me, because there was a case in Austria a few years ago,
where some people claimed that they could sell "nuclear fission material
plutonium" and to prove this they gave the "potential customer" a "sample",
which obviously originated from a smoke detector and contained the non
fissile Pu-238. 

Franz


Franz Schoenhofer
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Fax.: same number
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e-mail: schoenho@via.at


Office:
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