All your beta are belong to us

March 3, 2009 8:32 PM

Where can I get some small quantities of radioactive materials for science fair type projects?

I recently acquired an old Gieger counter. I know about United Nuclear. I'm just wondering if there is another source. I'm interested in beta and gamma sources, so the polonium in antistatic brushes and the americium in smoke detectors is of no interest to me.

posted by neuron to science & nature (10 comments total)

marbles doped with uranium
posted by contraption at 8:44 PM on March 3

Vintage watches or clocks with glow-in-the-dark dials manufactured before the 1950s have small amounts of radium in them.
posted by girlgenius at 9:39 PM on March 3

Some camping lantern mantles have very detectable levels of thorium.

Uranium in the dye from orange fiestaware. Only older fiestaware, you could probably find some on ebay.

That fake salt, made from KCl instead of NaCl for people with high blood pressure. You should be able to detect the naturally occuring radioactive Potassium.
posted by pseudonick at 9:51 PM on March 3

Go to an antique store and wand a bunch of old depression era glassware. You're looking for light green.

If you're looking for cheaper, try clay bricks. They vary and are unlikely to be as hot as the uranium glass, but will still give you a periodic tick or three.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 10:00 PM on March 3

Maybe I misread this, but Americium does emit gamma and beta rays
posted by Neiltupper at 10:04 PM on March 3

They're making watches with tritium, now. It's also used in gun sights. Good beta emitter.
posted by mr_roboto at 10:22 PM on March 3

Man, does Amazon have everything or what?
posted by Ookseer at 10:57 PM on March 3

What type of instrument is it? Does it have a label plate listing manufacturer and model number?

The reason I ask is, for most gas-filled chamber type instruments operating in the geiger-mueller voltage region, you're going to have trouble finding a strong enough beta-gamma source without a license from the NRC.

Other instruments, such as gamma scintillation detectors, are much more sensitive and will find sources everywhere, like the K-40 in bananas, APC fire extinguishers, etc.

Also, your probe type is going to make a big difference on what you can detect. Is it tubular, like you would wave it around in the air, or is it flat like a handheld scanner, for detecting surface contamination?

You could put a paper towel over a vacuum, suck lots of air through it in a basement somewhere, then measure the paper towel for concentrated activity. You might get some beta-gamma in there with the alpha from radon decay products.
posted by ctmf at 11:29 PM on March 3

GotHotRocks.com sells samples of Autunite for as little as $15 for just this purpose, including samples safely sealed in lucite disks. I placed an order for some a while back and the service was excellent.

Autunite is the singing, dancing, Mr Does-It-All of minerals. It's a crystal, it's highly fluorescent, it's strongly radioactive (for a naturally occurring mineral), and hygroscopic (which isn't so useful, but you can't have everything).

I don't think you'll get anything stronger (legally) without a license, and without laying down a lot more money. (And I think it's easily radioactive enough that if it wasn't a naturally occurring substance, you'd need a license for it too.)
posted by -harlequin- at 1:45 AM on March 4

I took a radiation worker training and one of the things I learned that fascinated me the most is that the older Barbie dolls, the ones made in the 50s, (I think) leach radioactive material. If you've ever seen an older Barbie, sometimes they are covered in a sticky black/gray substance; apparently that's radioactive. I just did a quick google search though and couldn't find any confirmation that this is true/false though.
posted by backwords at 8:51 AM on March 4