On 10/31/2018 3:51 PM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
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In message <[email protected]>, "Richard (Rick
) Karlquist" writes:
This reminds me of a Jack Kusters (of HP fame) anecdote.
At which point Jack pointed out
that in that case, it was clear than they had a radon
incursion in their facility.
I have a hard time beliving radon was a relevant failure mechanism
for "telco-class" Rb units, things would literally glow in the dark
long before the Rb concentration became a problem.
It is true that Radon is a small atom, but it is 50% larger than
Helium and that is a big handical when diffusing.
More importantly, Radon decays in a matter of days, much faster
than it would "evaporate" out again, and it leaves a tell-tale
signature of lead atoms behind from the decay.
I find it far more likely that their problem were molecular hydrogen,
which is even smaller than Helium atoms, and present in copious
amounts near any rechargeable battery and a fair number of industrial
processes.
According to Jack, radon emits alpha particles, AKA helium nuclei.
These capture stray electrons and become helium atoms. So the
presence of helium is a marker for radon. The fact that the half
life is a few days supports this hypothesis. At least that is what
Jack told me.
Rick
Rick
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