RE: AW: Green glowing powder emitting gammas

["Mary Becker" <bremstrulung@hotmail.com>]

A powdered Alpha source can be very dangerous. Is this person knowledgable 

enough to have this material? I would hate to see him contaminate his home 

or lab.



>From: Franz Schönhofer <franz.schoenhofer@chello.at>

>Reply-To: Franz Schönhofer <franz.schoenhofer@chello.at>

>To: "'Chuck Cooper'" <cooperc@teleport.com>, <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

>Subject: AW: Green glowing powder emitting gammas

>Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 21:59:41 +0100

>

>Chuck,

>

>Some ideas...

>

>There is a lot of information missing: Is the powder glowing in the dark

>or only under UV excitation? If the first is true, then it might be

>material for a luminous dial repair set. On the other hand I have a

>"highly" radioactive alarm clock from the beginning of last century, the

>luminous dials of which do not emit any visible light any more. This is

>also true for a wrist watch I received as a boy in the late fifties. It

>is well known, that the phosphor used is degraded with time both from

>environmental impacts and also the constant alpha-irradiation. If it

>glows only during UV-irradiation it might be still material intended for

>luminous dials. Both my examples do so. On the other hand it might be a

>uranium compound. Some uranium minerals, like tobernite, autunite,

>meta-autunite, urano-circit or meta-uranocircit show beautiful

>fluorescence. I use to show it to friends visiting.

>

>What bothers me with the description is, that it should be "slightly

>radioactive". The next question is: At what distance? My very simple

>pocket dose rate meter shows in about 20 cm distance to the alarm clock

>mentioned above a dose-rate roughly ten times background radiation. The

>material for a repair kit would have to hold a manifold of the amount on

>my single alarm-clock.

>

>Maybe Bill Kolb would be the expert to help solving this question?

>

>Please keep me informed on the outcome. I have always been interested in

>the history of radioactivity and its application. I also have done some

>work on radioactivity in consumer products and investigated the transfer

>of tritium from luminous dials to the human body - with much surprising

>results.

>

>Best regards,

>

>Franz

>

>Franz Schoenhofer

>PhD, MR iR

>Habicherg. 31/7

>A-1160 Vienna

>AUSTRIA

>phone -43-0699-1168-1319

>

>

> > -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----

> > Von: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu [mailto:owner-

> > radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu] Im Auftrag von Chuck Cooper

> > Gesendet: Montag, 31. Jänner 2005 09:01

> > An: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

> > Betreff: Green glowing powder emitting gammas

> >

> >   On another list discussing art materials, I ran across this recent

>post:

> >

> > > I have green glow powder that says it is

> > > from the united states radium corp

> > >

> > > and it is radioactive - slightly

> > >

> > > my scintilating detector picks it up at a distance.

> >

> > I can only assume that he has some old radium paint base, should I try

> > to track this guy down?

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

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>

>

>

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