On 02/10/2014 09:30 AM, Kent Stevens wrote: > Could Americium-241 be used from an old smoke detector since it emits both > Alpha and low level Gamma?
I haven't tried it but I would expect it to work fine. The alpha particles should slam into the glass and generate enough Bremsstrahlung X-rays to do the job. I'm not a safety nazi and I love experimenting with radiation and radioactive materials. However I do have to urge some caution here. Am-241 in the body is a bone seeker and a powerful carcinogen. The isotope is "bonded" (I use that term loosely) to the ion chamber electrode by a few microns of gold, thin enough to allow the alphas out but thick enough to contain most of the material itself. Some Am escapes the gold coating through recoil from the disintegration of other atoms nearby. So in a detector that is more than a few years old there will be some loose Am around the emitter. Also, the gold film can be breached by the mere swipe of a finger across the surface. Bottom line: it's easy to loose the stuff and it's quite dangerous once loosed. If you don't have an alpha-sensitive survey meter please be very careful. Wear gloves and preferably a respirator. Lay down a sheet of poly on your work surface and when you're finished, carefully roll it up and toss it in the trash. I have processed a large number of detectors to recover the Am so I speak from experience. I use a wet process but still I use gloves and a HEPA respirator. I've never found any contamination in the respirator filter but I still wear it just in case. John -- John DeArmond Tellico Plains, Occupied TN http://www.fluxeon.com <-- THE source for induction heaters http://www.neon-john.com <-- email from here http://www.johndearmond.com <-- Best damned Blog on the net PGP key: wwwkeys.pgp.net: BCB68D77 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send an email to neonixie-l@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/52F8EDF4.40506%40neon-john.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
