The true story part is hilarious!
Why is my dryer radioactive?
71–80 of 170 posts
Re: Why is my dryer radioactive?
#72I think the core of the explanation given is correct but some of the adjacent details need adjustment. The important part is: "Clothes dryers are very effective at making statically charged surfaces. (Dryer sheets help.) So when radon and its temporary decay products are blown through the dryer, electrically-polarized molecules tend to be attracted to the charged surfaces" What that commenter misses is that nearly al…
> hobbyist grade detectors (Geiger tubes) are not sensitive to alpha but they are highly sensitive to beta and a little sensitivity to gamma. This was part of the reason why it took so long to discover the cause of Alexander Litvinenko's death by Polonium-210 poisoning. Doctors (and later detectives) had suspected some form of radiation poisoning, but the early tests used Geiger counters and came back negative. But P…
Yes, and even if you have a high-end alpha detector, ingested radioactive material cannot be detected externally if it's only emitting alpha. One would need to take a blood sample or something like that and do more complicated tests.
Re: Why is my dryer radioactive?
#73I think the core of the explanation given is correct but some of the adjacent details need adjustment. The important part is: "Clothes dryers are very effective at making statically charged surfaces. (Dryer sheets help.) So when radon and its temporary decay products are blown through the dryer, electrically-polarized molecules tend to be attracted to the charged surfaces" What that commenter misses is that nearly al…
My geiger counter activity goes up when air conditioner is working. Never figured out why. This could be a good explanation.
Does your AC include a negative ion generator for cleaning the air? I wonder if that could be affecting it?
Re: Why is my dryer radioactive?
#74Related: HNer recommendations for home geiger counters? (serious request - for general fun/experimentation/curiosity satiation)
GQ makes several dosimeters, I own the dual-tube GMC-500+. The cheaper single tube dosimeters will max out and saturate at radiation levels far below those that are immediately harmful to human health. (This was the source of the famous "3.6 roentgen per hour, not great, not terrible" meme-- he was looking at a meter that was reading off-scale high at 0.001 R/s) If you're buying a dosimeter with the threat in nuclear…
> "3.6 roentgen per hour, not great, not terrible" meme
Quote from HBO's Chernobyl, the dramatisization of Anatoly Dyatlov: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/anatoly-dyatlov
A more balanced view of him: https://www.rbth.com/history/330525-anatoly-dyatlov-chernoby... and https://www.history.com/news/chernobyl-nuclear-disaster-7-pe...
Aside: all of us, even the most competent engineers, can deny what is happening or make bad calls during an emergency, especially where everything is unknown during the initial stages. It takes very good training to teach us to make better emergency decisions - e.g. firefighter's training, and some military. Beware of selection bias in repeated deadly situations.
Re: Why is my dryer radioactive?
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
My geiger counter activity goes up when air conditioner is working. Never figured out why. This could be a good explanation.
Is your interior AC unit or its ducting in a basement or crawlspace?
It's interior. No ventilation. I guess it's ionizing the air and bringing radioactive dust particles to the whole room. The radiation level is still very low so I'm not worried.
Re: Why is my dryer radioactive?
#76> I was once prevented from leaving a neutron-science facility at Los Alamos after the seat of my pants set off a radiation alarm on exit. This was odd because the neutron beam had been off for weeks. It was a Saturday, so the radiation safety technician on call didn't arrive for half an hour — at which point I was clean, so the detective questions began. I had spent the day sitting on a plastic step stool. The tech…
> I had spent the day sitting on a plastic step stool
So, if it attracts radon, does it raise the risk profile of the person? Should I ban sitting on static-electricity objects in radon-sensitive areas?
Re: Why is my dryer radioactive?
#77Florida is about to build some test roads using phosphogypsum, a radioactive waste product of the fertilizer industry that has been piling up and they want to unload. It contains high quantities of radium which decays into radon, this should end well. > "Phosphogypsum contains appreciable quantities of uranium and its decay products, such as radium-226," according to the EPA. And because the fertilizer production pro…
Uh oh, nobody tell NPR about granite countertops.
Great point and made me laugh!
Re: Why is my dryer radioactive?
#78I think the core of the explanation given is correct but some of the adjacent details need adjustment. The important part is: "Clothes dryers are very effective at making statically charged surfaces. (Dryer sheets help.) So when radon and its temporary decay products are blown through the dryer, electrically-polarized molecules tend to be attracted to the charged surfaces" What that commenter misses is that nearly al…
Re: Why is my dryer radioactive?
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
My geiger counter activity goes up when air conditioner is working. Never figured out why. This could be a good explanation.
Does your AC include a negative ion generator for cleaning the air? I wonder if that could be affecting it?
I don't think it has negative ion generator. I guess the fan itself can generate ions, that's why aircraft have static dischargers.
Re: Why is my dryer radioactive?
#80I haven't read much on physics before. My favourite thing to do on these stack overflow sites (or on specific tags) is to go to Questions -> sort by score, and just read through the top questions and answers. It's a bit hidden away because they want to steer people to the active questions, not to established ones.
> they want to steer people to the active questions
why?