Re: GM Counts to Rads/Rems/Roentgens?

["Franz Schoenhofer" <franz.schoenhofer@CHELLO.AT>]

Private:

Franz Schoenhofer

Habicherg. 31/7

A-1160 Vienna, AUSTRIA

Phone: -43 699 11681319

e-mail: franz.schoenhofer@chello.at



Office:

MR Dr. Franz Schoenhofer

Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management

Dep. I/8U, Radiation Protection

Radetzkystr. 2

A-1031 Vienna, AUSTRIA

phone: +43-1-71100-4458

fax: +43-1-7122331

e-mail: franz.schoenhofer@bmu.gv.at







-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----

Von: William P. N. Smith <wpns@compusmiths.com>

An: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

Datum: Samstag, 29. September 2001 04:32

Betreff: GM Counts to Rads/Rems/Roentgens?





>Hi,

>

>The layman is back with another basic question:

>

>Is there an easy conversion between GM tube counts and the Three Rs in the

>subject line?



Obviously there is, otherwise the companies producing these dose and

dose-rate meters, based on GM tubes would not be able to sell them and even

less to have them certified and calibrated. (Sorry, my typical European

behaviour breaks through from time to time.....)



In dosimetry I might be almost the same layman, you pretend to be. Have you

ever contacted a company selling such instruments and told them, what you

need it for? They sure would have given all the characteristics of their

instrument, like the energy range the readings can be used for and the

counting efficiency, which might be the most important information.

Instruments to be used for environmental surveillance are quite different

from those which are intended only for alarming in the case of very high

doses.





>Those who don't feel like laypersons should be asking basic questions in

>this forum, please delete this now.  I'm just trying to get a layperson's

>handle on the various ways of measuring radiation, how the instrumentation

>works, and get to the point where I can deal with an 'unforeseen' radiation

>release, should one happen in my area.





You have to have a basic idea, what you want to measure. My above written

lines are directed toward doses. If you want to measure alpha-emitters in an

"unforeseen radiation relase" - forget about what I have written. If you

want to measure the concentration of gamma-emitting radionuclides - forget

about it as well, this needs other instrumentation, which not only is

extremely expensive, but needs a really well trained person to perform.



Are you living in the vicinity of a nuclear power plant? If so, turn on your

radio and follow the instructions in the case of hopefully not occurring

emergency. If you live somewhere else, forget about attempts to measure

(what?). You have no reason to be frightened.





Franz









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