Re: A hunting we will go!

[Joel Baumbaugh <baumbaug@nosc.mil>]

	David,

	Having done similar "hunts" in the past - the first thing you need to do (in my humble opinion) is find the stuff!  Get a high energy scintillation probe (like a Ludlum 44-2), grid your area and start walking back and forth "till you find it.  A high energy probe because the low energy photons won't reach your probe if they originate at any depth and you have enough mid-high energy photons being generated with Th-232 and its progeny. I often let the probe sort of "dangle" (a scientific term if I ever heard one) near the ground and slowly swing it back and forth as I slowly walk my grid.  In a grid area (if I have a companion) I will call out the CPM readings so as not to forget where my highest readings are/were.

	Regarding the pyrophoric part - time for the asbestos under-ware (grin).

	Good Luck,

	Joel

..

At 12:24 PM 4/30/98 -0500, you wrote:
>     Folks,
>     
>     For the sake of an excavation/remediation project, we are assuming 
>     that there are 360 pounds of Th-232 buried in a waste pit full of 
>     other contaminants.  We don't know exactly where in the pit this 
>     material is or quite how deep.  What we do know is that it may be 
>     pyrophoric and, we suspect, it is concentrated in one location.
>     
>     We would like to find this material before it finds us.  We're 
>     thinking of using gamma spectroscopy to search for the Ac-228 .991 MeV 
>     gammas.
>     
>     Any advice?  Thanks in advance!
>     
>     David Levy
>     Health Physicist
>     david.levy@fernald.gov
>     (513) 648-3816
>
>
>

Joel T. Baumbaugh, MPH, MHP
baumbaug@nosc.mil
Radiation Safety Officer
SSC San Diego, CA


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1940 A.D.     "That potion is snake oil.  Swallow this pill."
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