RE: radium dial watches

["Dukelow, James S Jr" <jim.dukelow@PNL.GOV>]

I bought a Tissot watch with a radium dial in Germany in 1962.  Two mrad per

hour at the face of the crystal.  I would be surprised if that were the last

year that such watches were on sale in Germany.



Best regards.



Jim Dukelow

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Richland, WA 

jim.dukelow@pnl.gov



These comments are mine and have not been reviewed and/or approved by my

management or by the U.S. Department of Energy.

-----Original Message-----

From: RuthWeiner@AOL.COM

To: sonterm@EPA.NSW.GOV.AU; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

Cc: Ben.Selinger@anu.edu.au

Sent: 9/1/2002 7:47 PM

Subject: Re: FW: talk to journos



In a message dated 9/1/02 6:15:15 PM Mountain Daylight Time,

sonterm@EPA.NSW.GOV.AU writes: 









The famous 'radioactive boy scout' story, where some young fellow

collects 

radium paint and thorium mantles and wraps them in alfoil to make

neutron 

source etc finally contaminating his grandmother's toolshed (and

supposedly, 

half the neighbourhood as well), is it an urban myth or did it really 

happen? 









It may be famous but I never heard it.  Radium-dial wristwatches have

not been on the market for at least 40 years.   Yes, thorium mantles are

alpha emitters (we make cloud chambers using bits of thorium mantles)

but how would thorium and radium interact with aluminum to make a

neutron source? Can someone explain this? 



Ruth Weiner, Ph. D. 

ruthweiner@aol.com

************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.

You can view the Radsafe archives at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/