Re: Acceptable P-32 monitoring methods

["Don_Jordan" <Don_Jordan@fpm.uchicago.edu>]

The GM, pancake or end window is, as most commenters have noted nearly ideal
for P-32.  The maximum range 
of the 1.7 MeV beta is about 12 feet in air, so it's real easy to detect
this sucker from a good distance 
away.  I recall walking into a lab at about 4 pm on the last day before the
Christmas holiday one year, and 
noticing that the "background" jumped by a factor of about three... I knew
this was going to be a long,long day.  The P-32 contamination causing the
elevated readings was about 8 feet away from the door.   

Note also that can also usually count your wipes for P-32 with the GM.  The
beta is so energetic that even 
the small amount of removable contamination that you can pick up with a wipe
will cause a significant response.
This is a useful technique for distinguishing removable external
contamination from brem generated by P-32
on the inside of a container.

Don
Don Jordan	
The University of Chicago	
Office of Radiation Safety
Zoology Building Room 11
1101 East 57th Street
Chicago,  Illinois  60615
Tel.	773-702-6299
Fax	773-702-4008
email Don_Jordan@fpm.uchicago.edu