RE: Source Identification

["Clement, Christopher" <clementc@aecl.ca>]

Our office has conducted a cleanup involving radium-impregnated plastic
tubing similar to what you describe.  We found tens of thousands of short
lengths (<1 to 15 cm) of white/yellow flexible tubing about 1/4" in diameter
which had been impregnated with radium.  My understanding is that this was
developed by the US military to light trails at night back during the radium
industry boom days.  Our cleanup was of a former crude radium recovery
operation which had reportedly purchased this tubing to attempt to extract
the radium.  The gamma levels you describe are consistent with what we
found.  It is possible that the tubing we found used to be orange (it had
been buried for years), although we found no brass clips or eyelets.  Our
tubing appeared to have intentionally been cut up in preparation for radium
extraction, which explains the much shorter lengths.

------------------------------------------------------------
Christopher H. Clement
Scientific Specialist / Radiation Protection Program Manager
Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Office
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
clementc@aecl.ca


> ----------
> From: 	William Lorenzen[SMTP:LORENZEN_W@A1.TCH.HARVARD.EDU]
> Reply To: 	radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
> Sent: 	December 23, 1998 1:00 PM
> To: 	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: 	Source Identification
> 
> I need to identify an old source.  It is a 3 foot long piece of flexible
> 1/4 
> inch tubing (pale orange in color)with what appears to be a white material
> 
> filling the inside of the tubing.  There is a brass clip at one end and a
> brass 
> eyelet at the other.  The radiation levels are uniform along the entire
> length 
> of the tubing (~ 1.6 mr/hr @ 1 foot).
> 
> Any thoughts on what this is and what the radioactive material is? My
> first 
> thought was radium...
>  
> William A. Lorenzen
> Children's Hospital
> Boston, Ma 02115
> 
> lorenzen_w@a1.tch.harvard.edu
> 
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