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Re: TRINITITE IS STILL RADIOACTIVE

Greg wrote: 

> When I turned the geiger counter onto a 3.1 gram specimen of trinitite,
> glassy shiny side up it went wild!!!  After 450 readings the average was
> 440.14 micro Roentgens per hour.  The background radiation was only 8 uR/hr
> by comparison.  I did not subtract the background from the total reading.

> Does anyone on the list have any information regarding the measurement
> of radioactivity ie Curies, Roentgens, Bacquerals, etc  

The "historical" unit for radioactivity is Ci (Curie). The new SI unit
for radioactivity is Bq (Bequerel), which is a measure of decays per
second

                1 Bq = 1/s 
                1 Ci = 37 GBq

R (for Roentgen) is a unit of ion dose. In terms of the SI unit C/kg or
Coulomb per kg, 1 R = 0.000258 C/kg. With 1 R, there is an absorption of
0.01 Gy (Gray) energy dose in soft tissue, where the SI unit Gray is
defined to be 1 Gy = 1 Joule/kg. This is what we use as dose unit in
modern radiation therapy. In the older literature there is often made
reference to the unit Rad (rd), where 1 rd corresponds to 1 cGy = 0.01
Gy.

Modern counters are mostly calibrated in euqivalent dose rates based on
the unit Sv (Sievert), i.e. mainly in micro Sieverts per hour (uSv/h)
rather than in uR/h as Gregīs is. The historical unit of the equivalent
dose was the rem ("radiation equivalent man"). 1 Sv corresponds to 100
rem.

> In conclusion, Trinitite is still radioactive!!  So do not make any jewerly
> out of it or keep it in your pocket for "good luck".  

Right! Gregīs reading of 440 uR/h corresponds to 4.4 uSv/h, which is a
value where you really better donīt wear such a trinitite as jewelry,
i.e. in direct (!) tissue contact, for long, in order to avoid long-term
damage from radiation. 

BTW: I wonder how this radiating stuff is transported from suppliers to
collectors, from one country to another or even within a country. Laws
are different, of course, but here in Germany it would surely be illegal
to have radioactive material with dose rates of this order of magnitude
transported by whatever public means without further protection of the
parcel, a radiation protection sign on it, or special approval of the
authorities, if it comes to even higher local dose rates. Well, Stuart
Forbes, to quote from his post, "got a reading about 2-3 times that of
background radiation". If this is a more typical value for trinitite,
there surely wonīt be any problem. It all seems to depend from where the
trinitite originated near the blast. 

One never knows, of course, so better be careful (..or have it tested).

Alex

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