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Re: FiestaWare



I am frankly amazed at this comparison of instrument responses.  Not meaning
to put anyone down, it is for many reasons an apple-orange comparison.  Even
if the plates were identiical, I'll bet the geometries of the detectors were
not, nor was the deffective distgance or center of the detector the same in
both cases.  And, since the readings are reported in the obsolete unit of
exposure, one can only presume that these were closed window readings that
did not include the betas, which are the primary contributors to dose from
uranium.

Pardon my pique, but as professionals, and particularly in areas where the
public may be involved, we should be precise in terminology and technique.
Again, no offense to those making the measurements, for that is not the
intent here, but rather to illustrate how we HP's (the writer included)
often lapse into jargon or neglect what our mentors hopefully taught us.

Ron Kathren

> Fiestaware has an orange glaze that contains Uranium. A few other colors have 
> some U in them.  I'm suprised at the low reading.  I've got a bowl that reads
> about 5 mR/hr on an ion chamber.
> Low efficiency GM maybe he's using.
> 
> > 
>> What is the primary radionuclide in FiestaWare? 
>> 
>> One of our scientists called and wanted to know.  
>> 
>> He has some of the dark orange pieces and found 0.05 - 0.1 mr/hr (~7500 cpm)
>> using a geiger counter in his lab.
>> 
>> He was concerned about the long-term "exposure" to him and his family.
>> **************************** /^\   /^\ *********************************
>> Tad  Blanchard              /__ \ /___\    NASA-Goddard Space Flt Ctr 
>> Nat'l Health Svc, Inc            O             Greenbelt, Maryland     
>> Sr Health Physics Tech          / \            Phone: 301-286-9157     
>>                                /___\                                   
>>                   Tad.M.Blanchard.1@GSFC.NASA.gov                   
>> ************************************************************************ 
>> 
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