Orphan Sources: Invisible Danger ☢️

[@bruhmoment3741]

fact: there was an incident in the soviet union, where a Cobalt 60 source from a quarry got misplaced and ended up in a concrete wall used to biuld quick and affordable housing. After 4 pepole died from radiation sickness, the goverment stepped in, detecting the source hidden away in the concrete. (for anyone wondering, its called the Kramatorsk radiological incident)

[@project-326]

In the USA alone, there are around 1000 sources lost per year (according to the IAEA), for sure 99.9% of those end up in scrap metals and just get recycled. In other countries, I would expect the figures to be higher.

[@Yaivenov]

​@@project-326Scrapyards all use radiation detectors to prevent that. Isotopes getting into scrap happened in Mexico and that caused the current prevention.

[@LabiaLicker]

The Lia radiological accident is by far one of the worst orphan sources imo. Three men collecting firewood in a forest in Georgia (Country) come across 2 sources that came from old soviet radioisotope generators. They then proceeded to use them as a impromptu radiological "campfire" for a night of fun filled camping and vodka drinking, the next day they then wear them as necklaces to keep them warm in the snow.......

[@carloslaue1236]

AFAIK it was Cesium-137 in Kramatorsk.

[@DonnyHooterHoot]

I just ordered a Radiacode 103 I would be willing to do a local survey here if the software is developed.

[@gblargg]

First time I've heard about this. Time to scan my house and those of friends. BTW great background music. Sets the right mood.

[@JewelsoftheTrade]

Wow! Excellent information. Thank you for sharing!!!

[@Goforitmanager]

Really like your videos thank you.

[@charlesachurch7265]

Superb presentation thanks xxx.

[@project-326]

You are most welcome Sir!

[@el_sturlo]

Hello, very informative video, thank you a lot! I would like to ask you a question, what's your opinion about radon home pollution ? should we monitor our homes for it ? Being an alpha emitter, is it something we could monitor with a not that expensive geiger counter ?

[@adelinyoungmark1929]

usually to detect alpha emitters you need a detector that is sensitive enough to even detect them, as they are very low penetration, so usually specialized GM tubes are needed to detect alpha radiation. and those aren't cheap. you would be better off buying a radon meter, as some areas are susceptible to radon buildup, especially if the ground around your home contains high amounts of granite, which tend to contain elevated uranium levels. also as a side note, usually when measuring radon, radon itself isn't measured, but the daughter products of it are, as those are much more active, and more easily detected, and that's where the hazard of radon lies, in its daughter products. those tiny particles of daughter material stick to everything, including dust, and radon is a gas which can be inhaled and decay in your lungs, meaning your exposure is increased to unsafe levels if you breath in too much radon contaminated air.

[@andrewkhchan]

informative video....kudos to the youtube channel owner. But im confused about the part where the danger level of ratio of outdoor/indoor radiation must not exceed 3 times.... earlier in the video it was mentioned the indoor radiation is usually 2 times higher than outdoor reading....

[@project-326]

Hi, thanks for the feedback. Its more of a guideline for when you might want to find out WHY the reading in your home is over 3 times the outdoor reading, perhaps granite building materials?, The Kerosan channel guys are living next door to you and are playing with their home made x-ray machine? or perhaps something else...

[@hubler11]

What do you think about the GQ Geiger counters?

[@project-326]

I have never tested any of the GQ devices, so its hard to comment.

[@DennisSantos]

Could you kindly do a review of the Pudibei NR-750 or 850 or 950, please. I own the 850. Also, how about reviewing the Better Geiger S-1? I've placed an order for their up-coming S-2.

[@project-326]

I already have 4 videos in my queue and a day-job that is really getting busy. If I get time later, I will consider it, you are not the first to ask. What is your experience of the 850?

[@garethjohnstone9282]

You're far more likely to encounter Radon, in your home.

[@project-326]

Yes, for sure, Radon is more prevalent. However, almost all of those 10's of thousands of missing sources will have ended up in recycled metals. The incidence will be far less than for Radon but the impact will be far worse for those effected.

[@garethjohnstone9282]

@@project-326 You love your own comment. Lol, I haven't seen a creator do that before lol.

[@project-326]

@@garethjohnstone9282 Ooops, must of been in a rush - thanks for spotting that!

[@garethjohnstone9282]

@@project-326 lol I'm only teasing. I like your conviction!

[@project-326]

@@garethjohnstone9282 who told you I had a conviction? Its supposed to be a secret!

[@tylervercetti4187]

I live in an apartment building in Melbourne currently and have noticed something different: my indoor readings were around 0.04μSv/h, while the outdoor readings were normally at 0.08-0.12μSv/h. Not sure why but I feel like it's something worth noting. Btw the readings were from a Radiacode 102.

[@project-326]

wow, that's really cool! Unless you have lead walls... 🙂

[@project-326]

in all seriousness though, it would be interesting to find out why. perhaps do a mini-survey of the nearby area around your apartment. Maybe some local granite rocks? I would be really interested to see what you find, you have exactly the right tool for the job!

[@tylervercetti4187]

@@project-326 Haha I took the 102 out for a walk today, unfortunately didn't find too much interesting stuff around here. My guess is that the raw material of this apartment building's concrete might be coming from somewhere with lower background levels. I feel like I might have to take readings from much larger areas around here to make any reasonable assumption.

[@project-326]

@@tylervercetti4187 That is a pretty reasonable assumption. In general reading are normally higher indoors. The lowest I ever saw on the RC102 was whilst stuck in a traffic jam on a tall bridge, basically in a super low density ambient environment. When I have mapping enabled and drive through tunnels, it is really clear where they are on the map from the increased in background. Sounds like you have a well shielded apartment, congratulations!

[@guesswhotoo6]

Working in various radiation labs it’s common to see 2x the normal background of 100uSV/hr. However, back at my office I just leave the detector on my desk charging much of the time. Well one day it alarms at 20-30x background and I am wondering what’s going on. I followed the source to the office next to mine to a guy that just got a nuclear medicine injection for imaging. He was emitting 82K counts per minute at his skin. He decayed to background in about 3 days. So half life was only a few hours. You just never know

[@Wigerr_digger_ni]

I learned more from you than i did from my high-school whichever god bless you

[@project-326]

If teachers had YT channels back in the day, then we would have all learnt a lot more...

[@wiretrees]

great vid...you are a very cool cat

[@project-326]

wow, the trees that you form from wire in your videos are fantastic, I'm going to binge-watch now...

[@wiretrees]

the radia world wide network...smashing idea...did not know the food processor angle was so heavy...your radia review was fun and fair...thanks for kind word on trees...trying to make something that will stand test of time and minor abuse

[@angusmatheson8906]

Its nit the IAEAs fault that greedy corps violate regulations and cut cormers to increase profits.

[@project-326]

Sorry, but I don't see this the same way as you, but anyway... The IAEA are the regulators and industry is required to report to them. If their enforcement is not strong enough, that is an issue with either commitment or plain old corruption. Perhaps if they took fewer private jets to pointless conferences, they might be able to pay for more staff on the ground to keep "greedy corps" a little more motivated to take care of these dangerous items. Did RioTinto get any fine for that fiasco? Not one penny. Did the IAEA do anything to penalize Rio Tinto? Nope... Did the IAEA even ask Rio Tinto to perform a full audit of the radioisotopes in their custody? Again, silence. Industry NEVER does anything that could jeopardize profits unless regulators force them to do so. The issue with the IAEA is that they have made the reporting procedures excessively complex, if they simplified the process, industry would be more likely to comply and the IAEA could employ a lot less admins. But that would pull money away from the flashy head offices and into the field workers and these bureaucrats are not exactly motivated to jump off the gravy train...

[@angusmatheson8906]

@@project-326 That's because you're a massive simp for billionaires like daddy Musk. Gross.

[@pew3561]

@@project-326 ki mean, AIEA is an international NGO, it doesn't have a say into what the national regulator does ? Like, blame the NRC if nothing was done.

[@PulsechainProfits]

Great video.

[@project-326]

Thanks!

[@WR3ND]

An alternative name for this channel could be Nuclear Salt Miner. 😅 Cheers.

[@CassioVA]

Champs... 300 Curie of radiation is about the same radiation from 892,9 tons of uranium, are you sure?

[@project-326]

1 Curie is about the activity of 1g of Radium 226. For density gauges, 20 to 100 Ci of Co-60 is typical but for radiotherapy machines, the levels are quite a lot higher. For large food and medical sterilization equipment, the numbers can get really huge. The activity level is inversely proportional to the half-life of the material (and some other factors too), so for U-238 it will disintegrate very, very slowly, with a half life of about 4.4 billion years whereas Co-60 is about 5.3 years. But your analogy is a good one (I should have used this in the video) and shows just how dangerous these high intensity sources really are...

[@CassioVA]

​@@project-326Did you know about the Cesium-137 incident here in Brazil? The second worst radiative incident of the history, only after Chernobyl

[@project-326]

@@CassioVA Yes, I read about the Goiânia accident some time ago. Very scary! For some reason, people only expect that kind of thing to happen in developing countries, but everyone forgets that from the 1950's to about the 2000's, there was almost no protections even in the EU or the US.

[@project-326]

@@CassioVA I just re-read the Wiki article on the incident, that radiotherapy machine contained 74 terabecquerels (TBq) which is about 2000 Curies (Ci)...

[@project-326]

i was just watching a marketing video from an Indian food irradiation company. It seems that several of their Co-60 irradiation plants have over a MCi of activity. When I saw this, I thought back to this comment thread and wanted to share with you, even though this thread was from months ago.... So, 1 MCi is the equivalent of 1 metric ton of fresh Ra-226...

[@glynnetolar4423]

'I don't want to shape it control my kids beliefs' oh wow. That's part of want parenting is supposed to be. To pass on who you are, in a way. Oh, forgot, you're in China. That's the governments job. 😢

[@project-326]

I like to separate belief's from mindset. A belief (noun) is a concept or an idea that one is willing to accept without the requirement for any evidence. Mindset is about how you figure stuff out. Well, I guess you just want the MSM view of China then... Back in the UK, there are armies of social workers and other assorted busy-bodies who are there to tell everyone how to bring up their children. I don't have to put up with that kind of BS here. Here we can basically chose how to parent, so long as it isn't damaging my kids and they are getting a decent education. If I want to home school, I can (we did that for a couple of years), here there is no home school registration/approval, social worker visits, curriculum rules, approved reading lists, for doing that. I recently visited the library of my youngest Son's school (a Chinese public school) and I was pretty amazed with the English section, not just with the quantity, but the diversity and subject matter. Yes in China, there is a quite a lot of censorship of the internet, but many city dwellers have VPNs to get round that and most of my Chinese friends seem to know what is happening outside of China before I do. Interestingly, they can also see what MSM is saying that happens inside of China. I have personally seen things being printed on the BBC that are just not true, events that are claimed to happen in the very part of Shenzhen where I live. I am amazed how they get away with it and still keep their press credentials. Frankly, I'm not sure why I am bothering to write this, so few people are actually willing to challenge their own assumptions...

[@LabiaLicker]

8:25 yet that already exists, has done for decades now. The gov absolutely retains this information, they don't just delete it after they receive it from you. And in fact this exact type of personal information is so common that its the bread and butter of data broker businesses. A 280 billion dollar industry.

[@project-326]

You are right, almost all this data exists, across many databases, some of which is 'unofficial' or only accessible by security services. The various bureaucracies would prefer we didn't know, but that said, the majority of government departments are so incompetent that I doubt if they could manage to merge the data in a meaningful way without a billion man-hours of manual data entry. But that is without factoring in that all these various government entities would never share their precious data with other departments.