How to find a tiny radioactive source while doing 70 kph
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Re: How to find a tiny radioactive source while doing 70 kph
#2Back story: Rio Tinto apologises for losing radioactive capsule in Australia
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64448879
Re: How to find a tiny radioactive source while doing 70 kph
#3Good job, but a lot of the reports really exaggerate the size of the search area.
> in the formidable conditions of the outback...
> It’s fair to say finding a piece of equipment the size of a button in a vast desert was no easy task
Let's not go too far here. It was two metres from the road and they knew exactly which 1400km of roads to check.
Re: How to find a tiny radioactive source while doing 70 kph
#4Good job, but a lot of the reports really exaggerate the size of the search area. > in the formidable conditions of the outback... > It’s fair to say finding a piece of equipment the size of a button in a vast desert was no easy task Let's not go too far here. It was two metres from the road and they knew exactly which 1400km of roads to check.
I was rather baffled by so many sources claiming that this would be super difficult to find.
It seemed like such a simple task to drive up and down roads with some radiation detection equipment, log the data and investigate any hotspots.
Well, I guess it was? Or maybe I'm severely underestimating the complexity of this?
Re: How to find a tiny radioactive source while doing 70 kph
#5This is more of an ANSTO PR piece to promote a new piece of kit [1] based on a recent paper [2].
I'm guessing they loved the opportunity to field test this in a sea of global public interest.
What they're not actually saying is that the source in question could have just as easily been found using 1990s technology in a low flying aircraft at 70m/sec ( ~250 km/hr ) - once you get the target peaks (which were bright against the background) in a 70m square it's a simple matter to wave handheld detectors about to zero in on the capsule by the road.
Also of note "How to find .." is somewhat misleading is there is great deal of gloss here but relatively little substance.
[1] https://www.ansto.gov.au/products/detection-and-imaging-cori...
[2] https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-0221/15/04/P...
Re: How to find a tiny radioactive source while doing 70 kph
#6Good job, but a lot of the reports really exaggerate the size of the search area. > in the formidable conditions of the outback... > It’s fair to say finding a piece of equipment the size of a button in a vast desert was no easy task Let's not go too far here. It was two metres from the road and they knew exactly which 1400km of roads to check.
I was rather baffled by so many sources claiming that this would be super difficult to find. It seemed like such a simple task to drive up and down roads with some radiation detection equipment, log the data and investigate any hotspots. Well, I guess it was? Or maybe I'm severely underestimating the complexity of this?
The problem was the unclear scope - it was not sure if the capsule didn't get stuck into someone's tire, an animal ate or played with it, or if it got damaged by a car running over it.
Re: How to find a tiny radioactive source while doing 70 kph
#7Good job, but a lot of the reports really exaggerate the size of the search area. > in the formidable conditions of the outback... > It’s fair to say finding a piece of equipment the size of a button in a vast desert was no easy task Let's not go too far here. It was two metres from the road and they knew exactly which 1400km of roads to check.
I was rather baffled by so many sources claiming that this would be super difficult to find. It seemed like such a simple task to drive up and down roads with some radiation detection equipment, log the data and investigate any hotspots. Well, I guess it was? Or maybe I'm severely underestimating the complexity of this?
Well imagine if the pellet fell on the road, another car drove by and the pellet got stuck in one of the car's tire grooves. The car eventually makes it to a parking lot, or to the back of someone's ranch. Good luck finding it, short of monitoring hospitals for radiation poisoning patients.
Re: How to find a tiny radioactive source while doing 70 kph
#8Back story: Rio Tinto apologises for losing radioactive capsule in Australia https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64448879
private company fucks up and government cleans up the mess :)
Re: How to find a tiny radioactive source while doing 70 kph
#9Good job, but a lot of the reports really exaggerate the size of the search area. > in the formidable conditions of the outback... > It’s fair to say finding a piece of equipment the size of a button in a vast desert was no easy task Let's not go too far here. It was two metres from the road and they knew exactly which 1400km of roads to check.
I was rather baffled by so many sources claiming that this would be super difficult to find. It seemed like such a simple task to drive up and down roads with some radiation detection equipment, log the data and investigate any hotspots. Well, I guess it was? Or maybe I'm severely underestimating the complexity of this?
In some other thread I believe someone said with his known equipment, even if not occluded, a scan would take some seconds... so with that wouldn't have been to be that easy?
So now not sure if normal.or amazing that they can do this with a 70km/h drive by?!
( Edit: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34623782 sounds like not too amazing :) )
Re: How to find a tiny radioactive source while doing 70 kph
#10This is more of an ANSTO PR piece to promote a new piece of kit [1] based on a recent paper [2]. I'm guessing they loved the opportunity to field test this in a sea of global public interest. What they're not actually saying is that the source in question could have just as easily been found using 1990s technology in a low flying aircraft at 70m/sec ( ~250 km/hr ) - once you get the target peaks (which were bright ag…
> What they're not actually saying is that the source in question could have just as easily been found using 1990s technology in a low flying aircraft at 70m/sec
Well, yes. But it turned out, to everyone's relief, that the optimistic assumption held: the capsule was in fact still lying near the side of the expected road.
It could have gone another way - it could have been picked up and moved elsewhere by vehicle tyre, small animal or a human, in which case things would be much harder.