A penny screaming "Here I am" on various frequencies
Australians scour desert for dangerous radioactive capsule smaller than a penny
291–300 of 357 posts
Re: Australians scour desert for dangerous radioactive capsule smaller than a penny
#292Radiation detection is my specialty. This source is Cs-137, few hundred mCi. It's easy to detect within a few seconds at distances of a few tens of meters or more with professional detection equipment if there is direct line of sight. If it was knocked off the road, though, the question will be if it fell into a crack or other such place because then the radiation is somewhat shielded and it would take much more meas…
That's good to know, some useful context: tldr: It's going to take a while The search area is immense. People (even locals) fail to understand the incredibly vast distances. Sure, you can think up a comparison from your own context of a few hundred kms... but does your example have nothing, and I mean, literally nothing manmade but the road infrastructure itself in the proximity of the horizon for sometimes hundreds…
Another Nit - I don't think that the odds it falls into a crack or pothole scales with the distance - it's a fixed probability based on the condition of the road, and not its length.
Re: Australians scour desert for dangerous radioactive capsule smaller than a penny
#293Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's good to know, some useful context: tldr: It's going to take a while The search area is immense. People (even locals) fail to understand the incredibly vast distances. Sure, you can think up a comparison from your own context of a few hundred kms... but does your example have nothing, and I mean, literally nothing manmade but the road infrastructure itself in the proximity of the horizon for sometimes hundreds…
> US or the poorer parts of Europe Sorry to nitpick, but I've driven across the USA many times and I've never had much to complain about with regards to our roads (outside of Ohio, fuck that state). Doubly so when comparing our road infrastructure to poorer countries.
Please check out Michigan - I can only speak for the Ann Arbor area - but wow, compared to British Columbia (which has almost identical issues with salt, snow, freezing) - the roads there are really beaten up.
They even have a saying - there are two seasons in Michigan, Winter and Road Construction.
Re: Australians scour desert for dangerous radioactive capsule smaller than a penny
#294On one hand, the capsule is described as being highly dangerous - to the point of even causing radiation burns on the skin.
On the other hand, for a transport route that takes several days, it's NOT put into any form of sealed, shielded or lead-lined container - but just stuck to another item (where it can come off through vibrations) which in turn is carried around in a wooden box?
Isn't that a health risk to the truck driver, even if nothing goes wrong?
Re: Australians scour desert for dangerous radioactive capsule smaller than a penny
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
The equipment to detect high levels of radiation is very cheap. Likewise the equipment to detect lead... And hundreds of other deadly pollutants. Part of owning a house should involve getting it tested, perhaps once per 10 years, for all these contaminants. They might have been put in during construction - or it might be arsenic in the wood of your bed... Or a mixing mistake while making the plastic for your toothbru…
What we really need is a government scheme for realtime detection built into phones. There are plenty of research papers, hard to believe it's truly impossible to make a consumer grade Bluetooth mini LIBS or at least a scintillation counter in a phone, or a microscope that can look at dust in the air to find asbestos, etc. I've even heard of work on realtime virus detection.
There are various Geiger counter apps that work by taping something over the camera such that it's blacked out, and then measuring excitement of the CMOS sensor by gamma rays.
These apps have been found to work but only for gamma, sensitivity isn't great, I have seen it described as an "am I already screwed?" detector app.
Re: Australians scour desert for dangerous radioactive capsule smaller than a penny
#296Earlier quoted context omitted.
A network of scintillators in every phone would be amazing for finding stuff like this. That was my first thought too. Do you think it’s physically possible to make a MEMS scintiallation device?
No. MEMS means electromechanical, and scintillation needs solid state: a crystal and a photon detector of some kind. The crystal can't be miniaturized because there's a minimum thickness you need to capture the photon and Compton electrons*.
You're right, I stand corrected.
This page [0] has an image of a small scintillator plus photomultiplier, but probably too thick for a phone.
Re: Australians scour desert for dangerous radioactive capsule smaller than a penny
#297Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's good to know, some useful context: tldr: It's going to take a while The search area is immense. People (even locals) fail to understand the incredibly vast distances. Sure, you can think up a comparison from your own context of a few hundred kms... but does your example have nothing, and I mean, literally nothing manmade but the road infrastructure itself in the proximity of the horizon for sometimes hundreds…
> US or the poorer parts of Europe Sorry to nitpick, but I've driven across the USA many times and I've never had much to complain about with regards to our roads (outside of Ohio, fuck that state). Doubly so when comparing our road infrastructure to poorer countries.
I've driven across the country 4 times now, and lived in all four corners plus the middle (New England, Georgia, California, Washington, plus Minnesota/Iowa). In a cold weather state the roads tend to get rough because of the winters. Roads are expensive to maintain there. Never had any trouble at all in Texas or Arizona. Lots of trouble in California, though, and the Dakotas can be rough outside of I90 and I94. Not a function of negligence or anything in the Dakotas, it's just cold.
Re: Australians scour desert for dangerous radioactive capsule smaller than a penny
#298Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can't imagine those things are available anywhere for that cheap. Why not require 4g tracking on them all if they're already $1000 items?
The source fell out of the equipment, which somehow broke apart in transit. A detector on the equipment wouldn't help and you can't put a detector on the source itself, it's just a capsule that needs to go inside a certain place in the device.
A detector on the equipment would tell you when it stopped detecting radiation, or even just when it wasn't secured properly to stop it falling out in the first place.
If the radiation stops, you have really good info on where to look, and fast response time.
Re: Australians scour desert for dangerous radioactive capsule smaller than a penny
#299Earlier quoted context omitted.
If a critter moved it or ate it then it's probably gone forever. At a distance of 1 meter the dose rate from that source is already not extremely hazardous unless a person were exposed for an extended period of time (like a full day or two). Getting closer, like putting it directly against your torso, would mean serious health effects in a matter of minutes. Bit of contradiction in your statement here? If putting it…
Not op, or an expert on radiation poisoning, but, one can receive a lethal dose of radiation in an instant (and be condemned to certain death) but not die for weeks. Credentials: I've read about the demon core[0] and watched Chernobyl on HBO. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core
P.s.
Also see this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therac-25
Re: Australians scour desert for dangerous radioactive capsule smaller than a penny
#300Earlier quoted context omitted.
If a critter moved it or ate it then it's probably gone forever. At a distance of 1 meter the dose rate from that source is already not extremely hazardous unless a person were exposed for an extended period of time (like a full day or two). Getting closer, like putting it directly against your torso, would mean serious health effects in a matter of minutes. Bit of contradiction in your statement here? If putting it…
Not op, or an expert on radiation poisoning, but, one can receive a lethal dose of radiation in an instant (and be condemned to certain death) but not die for weeks. Credentials: I've read about the demon core[0] and watched Chernobyl on HBO. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core
Or months if your family/the doctors prolong your suffering.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokaimura_nuclear_accidents#Im...