Re: Leak Testing Radium Sources

[Ninni Jacob <njacob@gsosun1.gso.uri.edu>]

Thank you for responding to the above subject.
Your responses corroborated my thoughts and the results that I obtained
from the different counting techniques.
In fact this project turned out to be very interesting. 
The smears were from an old Radium source (from an anti-static 
device used in the 70's).
A wet swab and a dry swipe were taken. Gross alpha and beta were performed
on the dry swipe.  Gamma anlysis was performed on both.  The gamma
spectrum showed Radium 226 and a higher concentration of short-lived radon
daughters on the dry swipe.  Pb-210 was present only on the wet
swab. The gross beta activity was about 10 times higher than the radium
concentration itself.
Since the gross beta activity was 0.005 uCi, we decided that the source is
leaking.  Now there remains the problem of disposal.
Ninni Jacob