Using 156 lbs of Lead Bricks to Test Radioactive Food
Вставка
- Опубліковано 31 жов 2023
- In this video I use a Radiacode 102 and 156 pounds of lead to see if some food items are contaminated with radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl accident from 1986.
Pick up a Radiacode 102 using this link 102.radiacode.com/
Patreon Thanks:
/ radioactivedrew
(Gamma Radiation Tier)
Paul Rohrbaugh
Jeremy Mattern
Don Reyes
Walter Montalvo
Brennen Boyer
Mark Vorgic
Nathan McNab
Gregory Horine
Jelly
Kyndall Taylor
Matt Pickering
Rich Hardcastle
Steve Bradshaw
Tore Christian Michaelsen
John Garbinski
Kitten1416
Mitch Hell
James Lawrie
Camera Equipment Used
Camera Used in this video:
Sony A7S3 amzn.to/3WZsU53
Lens Used:
Sony 16-35mm f2.8 amzn.to/3Gg6vub
Lens Used:
Sony 50mm F1.2 amzn.to/3W0sfiQ
Variable ND Used: amzn.to/3g2PPvN
Wireless Mic Used: amzn.to/3WK5gZ2
FPV Drone: amzn.to/3QcN9cM
Looking for something radioactive or one of the t-shirts I wear in my videos? Check out uraniumstore.com
After thinking about it, the data logging is a neat feature. I go hiking out in the middle of no where and carrying a detector w/ data logging capabilities would be pretty neat.
I find it extremely helpful. The data logging with GPS needs to have a phone connected to the device.
Some areas in Norway is also contaminated after the Chernobyl accident and are monitored. Eating wild animals from this area are seen as a healt hazard.
I've heard of that...animals being contaminated. But I wonder how much of a health hazard it is to eat them. I need to look up some long term studies about the subject.
@RadioactiveDrew Well, after seeing Bionerd23 her on youtube eating wild apples in Chernobyl, i question everything...
But i think it's more in quantities rather a one time thing doing. Agree?
@@lassediscovers1813: Bionerd or Cody should NOT be our rolemodells ! lol
@@TomKappeln I know🤣
@@lassediscovers1813 I agree with that. I think eating these items a couple times won't hurt you. But its its part of your daily diet I could see some problems happening.
I live in Bavaria, Germany. Some mushrooms in the area are still contaminated here from the Chernobyl fallout. Even today all game/boar meat has to be scanned for contamination because they tend to eat those mushrooms...
I believe it. I'll have to remember to do some testing next time I'm in the Germany / Austrian area.
Guy from former Hessen here.
Also in Hessen you MUST check wild meat.
Greets from Poland Bro.
Also in parts of inland high-altitude areas in Norway, sheep in particular must be tested for radioactivity before they can be included as human food. This happens after the sheep have been fed grass and weeds for a period of time from an area that did not receive radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl accident.
Interesting. I wonder why mushrooms are bio-accumulating?🤔 Saphrobes I guess.
@mamboman42 I spent 3 years in Vilseck 95-98 and I remember mushroom hunting and locals would always warn me about the strong possibility of chernobyl fallout
Congrats on the sponsorship! High five to Radiacode, thanks for sponsoring Drew!
They've been a great sponsor...one of the best I have worked with by far.
Just placed an order for a 102. Love your channel!!!
I love hearing that. I feel like the community here is so awesome. I really like interacting with everyone.
Very interesting about the blueberrys and mushrooms and the lead castle!😃 Keep in mind a different measurement is used for ingestion such as water or food. Pico curies is used. Also the food would need to be broken up as in a blender and a special probe inserted on end of geiger counter and dipped into the food or water and measurement taken.
Marinelli beakers.
Would you be so kind as to create a video on how to calibrate the Radiacode 102. There is not much out on UA-cam. I purchased a Radiacode 102 about 2 months ago directly from Radiacode and did the calibration per their UA-cam support page. It was very generic and not thorough. Any help would be appreciated in this regard.
Yeah, I could make a quick video on that.
Thanks Drew! Looking forward to more videos like this one.
Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the comment.
Don't paint the lead, powder coat it. That's what we do in the casting community when making projectiles, makes lead handling a non-issue.
Why would painting it be a problem? I need to look up the powder coating process.
@RadioactiveDrew it's not really a problem, paint is perfectly fine but powder coat will be more durable, it adheres to lead so well that it survives basically unscathed after a trip down a barrel and into a target. Paint will definitely be a quicker and simpler process but I have a feeling you will be handling those bricks quite a bit in the future.
Damn I love the production quality of your channel's content!
Thanks. I try and make it look interesting.
oh man that thing is super cool. i live in Finland and we were hit by Chernobyl stuff and it is still lingering here. really like your videos 👍
Sad to hear about your lost. It always comes suddenly without our prediction.
The loss of the hat or the phone data?
🤣@@RadioactiveDrew
@@RadioactiveDrew, the phone data first of all and the RC-101 with it.
Spot on bro. Love the 102. Thanks for the vid.
No problem...thanks for watching and the comment.
Thats a bummer brother. I am obsessed with your content. Lost data will definately not change the quality of your content.
Half the fun is going to these locations and getting the data in the first place. So I won't mind doing it again.
@@RadioactiveDrew I can only imagine. One of these days I will be able to afford some small equipment. I have driven through Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona, and watching your videos has sparked even more interest in radioactivity inside of me. My plan is in the next couple years to start making some camping videos and hopefully seeing some of the places that you have visited.
S
orry for so manycomments, but would you reccomend a different device than the Radicode 102 to get started? I have watched your videos of your equipment and I now understand that I will need different dfevices to get better data.@@RadioactiveDrew
Very interesting video and look forward to more like it. The Radiacode 102 looks to be a great piece for the kit ... Thank ...
Glad you enjoyed it. The Radiacode 102 is nice to have around.
Considering this for one of my hobbies Rockhounding because some of our rocks naturally have uranium in them such as Chalcedony. Usually we try to identify using UV lights but this would be a lot more definitive.
There are a surprising amount of radioactive minerals out and about. Its a very fascinating subject.
Cool stuff Rad-Drew. Hope that water wasn't too cold. Ha ha.
Thanks for the neat content.
No problem. Water wasn’t that cold yet. The only lingering effects I have from that unplanned swim was hitting my knee on a rock…that still hurts.
any time you're on a river, put your phone in a double ziplock bag.
Learned it during my time in the german Bundeswehr.
We enjoy these videos. Very educational. Radiacode looks like a great product. Send that damaged phone to one of the UA-cam folks that can fix them and get your data recovered.
I was thinking about that. The phone is toast but maybe there is a way to get the data off of there.
@RadioactiveDrew - the data is safe & sound in the flash memory chips inside the phone. Since you tumbled in fresh water, there should be no short circuit or corrosion like would have happened if it were salt or brackish water. A professional can likely recover all your data, perhaps restore your phone with little more than a new battery and your unlock password. Store the phone immersed in a container of raw (uncooked( rice as a desiccant to help dry it out and get it looked after asap before it does corrode internally - then it will be toast.
BTW - based on your prior video,i ordered a radiacode 101 this time last year and the wait was so long, it missed my trip to Trinity in April 23. I just now ordered a 102 minutes ago and they indicate i will receive it next week. I’ll have it for Trinity in 24! Hope you’ll be there too. I left radiacode a note on my purchase form letting them know they’ve sold two units due to your endorsement.
@TheGreatGastronaut that’s awesome. Thanks for letting them know. I’m planning on being at Trinity in April of 2024. It’s going to be a tight schedule because the total solar eclipse happens a couple days after the open house…and I’m not going to miss that.
I never realized you could get exposed to radiation from someone going through chemo!
What I was talking about wasn't someone going through chemo...it was someone that had some imaging done using Tc-99m.
@@RadioactiveDrew How much radiation are we talking about say a few feet from them? It almost makes me want to start social distancing again hearing such.
Maybe the Radiacode people could sponsor a trip to Japan to check out the Fukushima area?
That would be nice. But I'm planning on doing a trip like that anyway. Their sponsorship already helps out a lot with trips.
@@RadioactiveDrewI can't wait for that, I mean we do have Kyle hill video about the fukushima water release, but I can only bet you'll do more than that when you're there.
@madmax2069 The 25% of the water they capture, treat and then release isn't the issue...its the other 75% that leaks untouched
@@paulmobleyscience "leaks" ok
@madmax2069 400 tons of water per day enters the basements of the reactor and turbine buildings. They capture 130 tons per day...leaving 270 tons per day that "leaks" into the biota...yes leaks
Just got mine monday after watching your videos!
Nice. I hope you enjoy it.
Those intensity maps with large colored circles would be better if they hid the dots and instead showed smooth, spatially-interpolated activity.
That style of map is commonly called a heat map. They are surprisingly hard to create with a data set.
Scintillation counters might be a good source of lead shielding. These are still showing up as surplus.
Where would you find one?
@@PsRohrbaugh Scintillation counters? There were two at WSU surplus not too long ago. These are obsolete as everyone uses flourophores now.
Wow, that is interesting. Wonder if there were any lead isotopes found in the castle? Thanks!!!
I'm sure there are some radioactive isotopes of lead in the bricks...just not enough to throw off my data collection.
So I'm going on a tour of the Nevada Test Site next year. Going to take a Radiacode 102. Will scan my shoes when I get back to the hotel. Will compare readings on the shoes taken before I go. Also will check out the area between Vegas and Crystal Springs.
It’s too bad they won’t let you take the Radiacode 102 onto the site…or any other electronics.
@@RadioactiveDrew Well no Bluetooth electronics. I assume an old school battery watch is okay.
@fredharvey2720 that should be okay but who knows with that site.
@@RadioactiveDrew I'll scan myself before going, kick some dust on my feet, then come home and scan again. Best I can do.
So I finally got my Radiacode102 today. Just have had it at home. I live in Denver and the background here in my 1st floor apartment was steadily 650CPM throughout the day and then into the evening went up as high as the 730s for some reason. Maybe it was positioning, I don't know. Spicy city here, but I'm not surprised. I already blew through the preset dosimeter alarms.
What about the blueberries??
lol If the radiation don't get him, those lead bricks will.
Appreciate the video about the Radiacode. I'm a newbie and although I've worked in numerous nuclear plants and in high radiation areas, it's been years ago. I'm interested in how to monitor the contamination level of food supplies after a nuclear event. Say, a few nukes go off in Europe or elsewhere and, in time, radiation is introduced into the world's food supply. Based on cost and portability, is this the device you recommend for checking contamination levels at your local farmers market and your grocery? Thank you!
I think you could use the Radiacode 102 to check for contamination at a farmers market. You would need to keep the detector close to the item you want to check for 5-10 minutes. Would be hard to check from just walking by unless there is really strong contamination.
Okay, that's basically what I'm looking for. A detector for checking food sources for radioactive contamination. Thank you, I'm looking thru your playlists for videos related to this subject.@@RadioactiveDrew
Great video! Around 10:27 on the map tracking feature, what highest usv/h/cps values did you use?
I think I set the max value to 50 uSv/hr. I try and set it higher than I think I will encounter from just walking around. If you're using the map feature and are using the Radiacode to inspect items, it can throw off the color scale of the map points. You can always adjust the color scale in the map using the Radiacode app. But it seems on export to google earth it doesn't save those scale changes.
3:33 - "millicounts per second". Counts per millisecond is kilocounts per second. 😉
im going to get one for sure as soon as I have some spending cash
I see the Radicode is sold in Euros. They say that banks will automatically convert dollar's to Euros. Even my Podunk bank ? Ever use a device in the dentist office to see what the Xray machine is putting out ?
I want to do that. I think there are others out there that have measured the x-ray dose rates at the dentist.
Hey @radioactivedrew,
What do you set your alarm thresholds at when carrying the Radiacode on a daily basis- such as when you were at the cats game? Just curious!
I do .07uSv/h as background in my state can sometimes reach .06.
Also, you can’t set alarms based on cpm or cps, correct?
I think the alarms are only for doses and doses rates. I know you can set the alarms in the android app and the desktop app. I usually have my first alarm set for .5 uSv/hr. In my experience that’s when I need to start looking for a source. The second alarm I believe is around 15 uSv/hr.
If the lead blocks radiation and the radiation detector connects to a phone. Wouldn't the Bluetooth or WiFi signals from the detector get blocked too?
They do get blocked…or extremely limited in range. Usually the phone and the detector can be around 10 feet before losing connection. When the detector is in the lead castle that distance is cut down to maybe 2 feet.
Drew: Can please you show the graphs of the three samples as well as ordinary (local foods). Also where did you purchase the lead bricks from?
Maybe in the next video I’ll try and show more detail of how to read the gamma spectrum graphs. I know other people had some questions about that. I got my lead bricks from rotometals.com
@@RadioactiveDrew Thanks. I am a bit concerned with measuring low levels of contamination in Food\water with the Radicode. To the best of my knowledge, only a HPGe detector has the sensitivity & resolution to detect contamination in food & water, and Scintillation devices probably useless for detecting Alpha & beta contaminates. Maybe a cadmium telluride or Cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) would provide better resolution, for use with food & water.
I belive the Radicode uses a CsI(Ti) detector, right?
@@guytech7310 the Radiacode does use a CsI(Tl) detector but I've been able to detect contamination in food using it...that's what I showed in the video. A HPGe detector would give you much cleaner peaks but its much more of a setup to run correctly. I've seen people run some of those detectors using liquid nitrogen to keep it them cool to take advantage of that increased resolution.
My wife once had a medical test with radioactive dye and when I pulled in my driveway after picking her up from the hospital I faintly heard my rad detector (not a Radiacode) beeping like crazy in the house and this was a little over 30 feet away!!! Took over 24 hours to totally dissipate from her body. 😳😳😳
A family member had the same type of imaging done. When they pulled into the garage my Radiacode started to pick them up. I recently ran into a person at a sandwich shop that had the same procedure done and my Radiacode alerted me. I was able to get some footage from the whole thing and will be releasing a video about it tomorrow.
Yup, always wrap your electronics when going on the water, a Zip lock bag works well.
My plan was to have it in the Pelican case with the Radiacode but it was a little too big.
I picked up the new 103 and seems pretty cool. Just a little bit higher resolution from the 102. They also announced a discount for prior 101 / 102 and trade for those who recently got a 102 before the 103 was released (last day today 12/15 on trade and 12/31 for prior owner refund/discount).
That's pretty cool that they let people get a refund or discount.
What’s the peaks that form on the left side of the graph with these? I see it on every video about these but no one mentions it. I thought mine was broken when I first got it.
eV. Electron Volts? .......KeV and MeV.
@@jayytee8062no if you look at every graph it has huge peaks in the lower energy ranges.
From what I've seen in my research, that common peak around 73-75 kev is x-ray fluorescence. Even with a 24 hour gamma data acquisition outside in a lead castle its still there.
Nice video !! Where did you get the lead shielding? I love my radiacode 102 ,the raysid has a larger crystal 5cm.amd automatically tells you the isotope. But radiacode acts as a independent device without the use of a laptop or app.so i guess the radiacode wins ..only thing raysid has going is being more sensitive. Also intriguing how long this half lifes of the isotope stay around in the environment affecting all plants foods and animals. Nice video .
Thanks...glad you liked the video. I got the lead bricks from rotometals.com. They aren't cheap but they provide excellent shielding. I haven't played with the raysid but people seem to like it. I personally like the interface on the Radiaocde. Makes it much easier to check does rates and count rates.
Those bricks are not cheap but they do have free shipping. (well... maybe not :-)
@GlennSisson yeah, they say free shipping but I think that cost is baked into the final price.
@@RadioactiveDrewjust put them in USPS Flat Rate boxes. If it fits, it ships.
Indian bulk Turmeric and filter algae supplements in the US are the highest sources, besides the odd Spring Valley K-40 supplement tablets or a contaminated Waco river or random forest or the greater area around old test sites or the tennessee river (mostly heavy metals, similarly deadly as smoking/drinking on life expectancy along with radioactive elements). Eating radioactive foods or breathing more radon is absolutely sensible and felt by an attuned human and has a very unique feeling compared to other experiences.
Yes I did.
The Turmeric is probably pressed distilled or centrifuged to get the heavy curcumin product, so thats where that comes from usually.
Radioactive satellites crashed in the far north On 24 January 1978, COSMOS 954, a Soviet nuclear-powered surveillance satellite, crashed in the Northwest Territories. The crash scattered an enormous amount of radioactivity over a 124,000 square kilometre area in Canada's north.
Scattered radioactive material over the area...I have heard about this. I would like to investigate it if the area is open.
Hi !
There must be some naked surce in orbit !
I have some Geiger Counters running for 24/7 over here, and i get 2-4 times a year a ALARM in the Gamma spectrum.
99% of time in the night.
Last time was 2 weeks ago, for 20 seconds 3 millisieverts over backround.
Yes, Millisieverts not Microsieverts.
@@RadioactiveDrew Not in winter because you could lose fingers, toes, or nose. Summer they say the bugs are nasty. No one seems to have any evidence of the burnt up 50kg of Uranium-235. Cancer rates are up, but no one is buying radiation detectors?
Do you know where the best source, or a good source, is online or in a textbook for like isotope tracing or more so the isotope bio accumulation specific organs? Decades back, there used to be a great website that even old fashioned HTML, the data was awesome detailing specific isotopes and the related specific organs and I think ranking so not like a generic one organ and one major isotope relationship. I recall had better data regarding the relationships and I think even the nutrient that is impacted. Would be interesting to see and know where to find similar in regards to bio phytoaccumulation as well. Awesome work Radioactive Drew! Great the price point is still going down and the quality is getting not worse. Lovin spectroscopy.
There is a book that has that info in it. "Radiochemistry and Nuclear Chemistry"...its a book packed with info. Its a super dense read but there is a wealth of information in those pages.
Just to double check if you know, is there any good info omitted in later editions or do you think the later editions have more and better info or just the same?@@RadioactiveDrew
@jafinch78 I think I have the fourth edition.
Question.
Why did the fallout contain Ce137 & St90? Are these isotopes the by-products of uranium decay (and I'm assuming it was uranium that was used in the power plant, I've forgotten)? I think that I need to do some reading up on most of this stuff. It interests me but it's not my area of expertise...
So where is the results
They are screen shots from the gamma spectrum graph taken from the phone. They are in the video towards the end. They should be on screen enough for you to pause on.
no actual activity measurements just spectrums?@@RadioactiveDrew
Backing up your stuff is a good idea. I personally use a cloud drive for my stuff.
I do the same thing but it’s only with selected data.
@@RadioactiveDrew I pay for OneDrive as part of my Office subscription so I might as well use it. I dumped all my random CDR, DVD ROMs, and USB sticks on there so it’s easier to manage and rummage through. Just wish iOS played a little nicer with One Drive and removed pictures off my phone as they’re uploaded.
Hmm? What about fruits & berries that are irradiated to extend shelf life?
Zero contamination from that. There might be some kind of change to the chemical makeup of the fruit from such high doses...maybe.
@@RadioactiveDrew Thanks for the reply. At least the mold & bacteria on the fruit is killed for a bit.
Interesting video Drew. It as been a long time since I have taken college physics and chemistry. I need to find a good reference book explaining radioactivity and decay.
I’m planning on doing a video explaining some of those topics.
Paint them gold 😀
Interesting vid, but left me wanting specific info re the mushroom and blueberry radiation data.
What else would you have liked to see?
Activity measurement - it's in the app @RadioactiveDrew
@RockSteadyRus the gamma spec data is in the video. The activity measurement isn’t that exciting. The idea behind the video is to show how contamination can be found in food and being able to identify it.
It's just that they sent you three bags, and I'd wondered if there'd be three tests, and maybe some control blueberries and mushrooms from your local grocery. No worries, rewatched the vid to see the app readout, guess I blinked and missed it.@@RadioactiveDrew
Hey Drew, based on your numerous videos using the Radiacode 101 and 102, I ordered my own Radiacode 102 on Friday. I’m an Apple guy but ordered a $69 Android tablet to use with it. They say iOS app in another month (still in beta). I’m all for more videos telling us more about the Radiacode and how to use it. ❤
I think you’ll enjoy the Radiacode. It’s nice having something like that in your pocket. I’m sure one of these days the iOS app will get finished. But until then the android app works great. The phone I use with it has no cellular plan and works great with the map tracking.
@@RadioactiveDrew I gifted the 102 to my partner. She really got interested when we hit the antique stores. She’s kind of a science girl. I should have expected that since she also got into metal detecting after going with me. - So… I ordered and received a Radiacode 103 yesterday. It was just released earlier this week. Many ordered the 102 on Black Friday and then the 103 dropped. It’s a slight improvement with the Radiacode 103 having just a bit better resolution. 8.2% ±0.4% FWHM (Full Width at Half Maximum) versus the 102 with 9.5% ±0.4% FWHM. - A lot of us would love to see you compare the 102 and 103.
@JohnLobbanCreative I’m going to do a video comparing the 101,102 and 103. I should be filming it next week.
@@RadioactiveDrew great! I suspected you already had the 103. I think a lot of folks in our Facebook “Radioactive Minerals” and “Radiacode” groups will enjoy watching that. Also explain how the Radiacode displays a much lower μSv/h reading than typical Geiger counters that are including beta in their sieverts readings and the Radiacode’s energy compensation of the dose rate.
Let me know when you get around to anodizing lead. I'm an artist and want to pour lead casting myself but have similar concerns to you! I want to see the results before I attempt.
I want to research it a bit more. Now that I’m home for the holidays it’s back to work.
@@RadioactiveDrew Cool. The lead I'm thinking about attempting to melt looks like it might have antimony, it's recycled ammunition. If that makes a difference.
@@RadioactiveDrew What does your family think about you messing with radioactive elements?
I have a 102 its great but also looking at a pancake
Pancake probes are great. I like exploring places with both the Radiacode and the Radeye B20.
@@RadioactiveDrew ive been looking at the radiation alert inspector. I have a terrible gamma scout so wanted to move to pancake, rotem ram gene was also on the list instead and then run the 102 daily in my pocket.
@@RathOX I also have a Gamma Scout.
Why you call it terrible ?
@@TomKappeln not the best GM tube for the price, terrible build quality and just not fantatsic compared to other counters these days. 10 years ago it was fantastic now a-days its outdated & isnt that accurate.
@@RathOX when I first started getting into radiation exploration I looked at getting the Gamma Scout. But then I saw a bunch of videos of it freaking out in certain situations.
Out of curiosity, have you ever used a drone with the radiacode to map an area for potential radioactive high spots? Is it better with slow movement or could you go maybe 10-15mph with the drone over the area to do a cursory search?
I've been looking into doing this. Still need to do some testing because it gets a little more complicated with areas that aren't flat.
@@RadioactiveDrew I imagine elevation and speed will be the predominant factors but if it could work, that might expediate searches in general.
You would probably want a real commercial gamma ray spectrometer for that like the Medusa Radiometrics MS-1000. They have an integrated RTK GNSS receiver and a laser range finder so that you can do elevation corrections.
Sorry to hear about your data loss. Android has an auto-backup feature that will backup all your phone data to the cloud as often as you like. Then you never need to worry about losing your phone again! :)
What Android phone are you useing with your Radicode 102?
Samsung A13
It occurred to me instead of painting lead maybe anodizing it with a lead sulfide could make it safer to handle too? Liver of sulfur maybe?
I ask because I'm an artist myself and am thinking of casting lead.
Someone else suggested anodizing as well.
@@RadioactiveDrew Let me know if you decide to try liver of sulfur on lead. I'm curious on the results of that as I haven't been able to read much.
@@RadioactiveDrew any updates?
@ThePeterDislikeShow nothing yet. Bought some more lead but I haven’t painted or coated them yet.
Lead Brick 2" x 4" x 8" 99.9% Pure ?
Sounds about right.
Drew how long does it take to get a complete background on the Radiacode-102??
It kind of depends on how detailed you want it to be. Usually an hour to start is pretty good.
@@RadioactiveDrew lol I have been running 9 days 17 hours so far . It still isn't all the way I am at 2581keV.
where can I get the samples ?
I think you can buy them online from people that live near the contaminated area.
Excellent video…. As always.
Will you be making any videos teaching us how to use the Radico?
From unboxing to being an expert like you?
I’ve had other people suggest something like that. I might be making a video like that.
You should try to get out to the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Should find some decent test data on the 7 different test sites there.
I’m planning on going there.
@@RadioactiveDrew That should be an awesome experience!
Wow, how did you detect someone at a game, did you walk back up to them & ask "hey, what you been up to lately?". Would it detect someone who consumed barium for radio imaging as well?
I walked around looking for them but I couldn’t find them in the area I was at. I wouldn’t have said anything to them. Not sure how the barium contrast would show up but I would imagine the Radiacode would be able to see it.
I actually had someone take my radiacode101 when they got a round of radiation treatment for their cancer. They had this cool robot that sent out directed x-rays and rotated around them (Volumetric modulated arc therapy) so that the dose was the highest at the point of the tumor. The really cool thing in the data from the radiacode was that it could tell the power changes as the robot went along the path. You could clearly see that the robot went along the same path twice, and determine the kev of the x-rays emitted.
Is it possible to use Radiacode 102 to check food for radioactive contamination?
Yes.
@@RadioactiveDrew But how whould it work in case object emits only alpha and beta rays? Sorry, I am not a specialist in that field.
@Rokannon very few isotopes are pure alpha emitters. Po210 is about as close as you are going to get and that would be very hard to detect with a Radiacode 102…pretty much impossible.
Howdy.
I've been enjoying your videos.
I would advise that you to not attempt to paint your lead bricks. It's hard to get paint to stick to lead without some esoteric surface prep, and my guess is that you'll end up with paint flaking off and perhaps creating more of an ongoing contamination issue than you'd have from just the lead bricks alone. Maybe powder coating would work? Instead, I'd just get a pair of normal leather work gloves to use when handling the bricks, and keep those gloves separate for just that one use. And wash your hands after handling the lead, anyhow.
Just sitting around, the bricks won't "shed" any appreciable lead. You just get lead oxide on your hands when you handle the bricks, and that's something you shouldn't ingest.
Next, I've worked a lot with pulse height analyzers. I've even designed and built some that were used primarily for counting activated carbon canisters used for radon testing, mainly for routine testing of mill tailings piles, etc.
Something I found during the design of my first pulse height analyzer was that the energies of many of what must be secondary cosmic rays are extremely high. And these will penetrate even a substantial lead "cave". When working on the pulse shaping and peak detection circuits, I'd often have a detector connected to an amplifier whose output was feeding the circuits under test. And naturally, I was observing the pulses for their pulse shapes to design and adjust the pulse shaping (pole/zero) circuits to help optimize those circuits and the peak detection circuits that preceded the analog to digital conversion.
Anyhow, what was extremely interesting to me, and rather unexpected, was how incredibly high energy these secondary cosmic rays were. For example, I might be using a uranium ore sample as the test source near the detector to give me a constant source of pulses with energy peaks in the range of interest for my instrument. And while observing the "raw" pulses from the detector, I would occasionally see the trace on the oscilloscope suddenly be pushed completely off of the screen, and stay off the screen for, perhaps, 30 seconds or more before the "baseline" drifted back down onto the screen and finally settled back down to resume its normal position. Those rays had to be at least several hundreds of MeV!
So anyhow, blocking these secondary cosmic rays is something you really cannot fully achieve with any practical amount of shielding. That's why, for example, neutrino detection is often done in extremely deep abandoned mines, etc. They're trying to shield from these rays with miles of earth.
What we're really trying to block with our lead caves are the gammas from the earth below us and the building materials used near to where we have our detector. A building where I had my offices for a number of years was a poured concrete structure, and the aggregate for the concrete was likely river sand and gravel from areas near a nearby river. And that is mostly granite. As a result, the background gamma levels in this building were over double what they were, generally, in the area. I'd normally see around 22 uR/hr in this building while at home, I'd see more like 7 to 10 uR/hr.
Another interesting thing you might look into for building a good lead "pig" or "cave" is additional lower density layers of shielding on the inside of the cave.
What I often see in fancy caves is that inside of the lead, there is a layer of copper. And inside of the copper layer is a layer of aluminum. The idea is that the bremsstrahlung caused by gammas interacting with the lead can be absorbed by the copper, and bremsstrahlung from the copper can be absorbed by the aluminum. Thus, you don't get phantom spikes in your spectrum which are actually just characteristic x-rays being created by photons from your sample striking the lead on the inside of the cave. By the time you get to bremsstrahlung from aluminum, the energies are so low that they won't likely be seen by your detector system.
The good lead bricks for making shields like this are made of so-called "low background" lead. And that usually means lead that was smelted before above ground nuclear testing. And thus, those low background lead bricks are far more expensive than "normal" lead you might find. So when you do find some good low background lead bricks, they're something of a treasure.
A funny story that I remember was that one of the labs I did work for got a new manager. That guy decided that their warehouse needed to be cleaned out, and he ordered that everything should be thrown away. The employees did as they were told, and tossed out many things, including many many wonderful low-background lead bricks. Probably hundreds of them. When the city garbage truck arrived to dump their dumpster, it blew the hydraulic system out, and the city told them (the lab) they'd have to remove whatever was making the dumpster so heavy. So I believe that they retrieved the bricks, and perhaps they didn't end up in the local landfill!
I'd have gladly taken them all off of their hands had I known this was going to happen. I'd have also retrieved the working inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrophotometer that they tossed, as well! I had a love for that thing, having repaired and modified it several times! If nothing else, the RF oscillator could have been repurposed into a fantastic linear amplifier for the HF ham bands! ;)
I might have to get one of those Radiacode devices. What are they using for the detector? It has to be tiny, so it's sensitivity can't be too good. But it's still obviously a very nifty and extremely portable and wonderful little device.
It's funny, but the pulse height analyzer that I learned so much from back in the day was approximately 22" x 17" x 12", and weighs around 40 pounds. The trusty Tracor Northern TN-1710. Because I was called upon to repair one of these on several occasions, I had to read the unit's manuals. And those manuals were written like a complete PhD level course on the electronic design of the system. Fantastic documentation complete with full schematics and conceptual descriptions of how every bit of the circuitry worked, and why it was designed that way. Just amazing! You don't see users manuals and troubleshooting manuals written that way these days!
But then, for a computer, it contained a micro-PDP-11! Contrast that with perhaps even better computing power in the Radiacode all in a tiny pocket sized gadget! Things have sure changed since I first got involved with this.
Noob here, do you need to know the type of radiation you are looking at on the app or will the app tell you? You talked about the guy that had taken Technetium-99, how did you know it was tech99 and not say Uranium or whatever? I'm in sourthern Utah a lot and id love to get into this.
The Radiacode 102 really only detects gamma radiation, it’s very sensitive to that type. I saw it was Tc-99m because the Radiacode also has a radiation hardness graph recording with dose and count rate. Hardness looks at the gamma energy coming in and tries to make a quick guess of what the isotope is. Running the gamma spectroscopy function would help you narrow down the isotope. But for quick readings and for sudden spikes the hardness graph works pretty good.
Can you use bismuth instead of lead to avoid issues with toxicity?
You could use bismuth. Problem is that bismuth is very weakly radioactive. So it might interfere with some experiments. Lead also has some naturally occurring radioactive isotopes.
@@RadioactiveDrew I bet even lead-204/206/207/208 is slightly radioactive anyway.
@ThePeterDislikeShow exactly. It’s almost impossible to get non-radioactive lead…unless it’s really old purified lead.
@@RadioactiveDrew What if what you're shielding is giving off neutrons? Could lead or bismuth become activated?
Hi Drew, Thanks for the demo. Now is it possible to use a less expensive Geiger Counter to achieve this. I want to find out radiation in food. I saw a LifeBasis Geiger Counter in Amazon. Is that device a far cry from Radiacode?
I'm sure there are other radiation detectors out there that will detect if food has radioactive contamination in it. But you won't be able to identify what is making it radioactive. The Radiacode is extremely sensitive and the gamma spectroscopy function is pretty amazing. Radiation detectors are a lot like everything else...quality and function is directly related to its price.
@@RadioactiveDrew Thank you, Drew, for taking time to reply me. Much appreciation.
@vtsien no problem. I try to reply to comments when I can.
I just had a T99 injection well two back to back for a heart scan using a camera that detects Gama and it gives a really good picture. the thing that sucks for me is that any heavy metal, even diluted like that I can taste at the back of my tongue, typically they give a lead like taste.
I have noticed that I get a slight ozone like flavor/smell from radiation even from long exposure to the sun. this stuff had kind of a different effect as it felt like I had drank a strong carbonated beverage on the back of my tongue a slight lead taste but in this case no ozone like smell. so T99 definitely does not act the same as say Uranium from my past experience.
I was actually happy to experience a different effect because it confirms I'm not crazy. consider that its been said you need a super strong source to get those effects. yet in low doses I can and have identified radioactive material. I have hauled scrap metal in the past and could tell when a load was contaminated and our tech would ask how I could do that. I said well to me the first thing I notice is a slight headache coming on, then I taste a foul flavor in the back of my throat, and then as I approach the source I can actually smell something, it smells like wet lead a musty type of odor its slightly acrid, and I don't find it pleasant.
when I worked in the oil field I could detect if a well was hot by similar symptoms and a different smell, it had an arcrid rotting tar smell, and even from a distance it headache would start and strong flavors of metal in my mouth if I get too close to sources I get a strong sense to move away. like that gut feeling that something isn't right.
I suppose you could call it instinct. I had to get decontaminated in the oil field at one point because someone had melted the valve on a blow off for powdered cement but what that actually is, is Fly Ash and unfortunately its a radioactive powder its mild and some has near background but its still hot in many cases. in my case it was on a lower end but still bad enough that my clothes had to be disposed of and I had to be scrubbed off and cleared. my respirator stopped 99.9% of the dust and thankfully it hit me in the chest. so the vast majority of the nasty was on my tyvek and shirt and coat. my filters were hot enough that they just gave me a new mask all together and logged my numbers.
they didn't know I could read what it said, but I was able to determine that my lung exposure was less than the average over the course of a year. they were really freaked out at first but stopped worrying once I was deconed and my lungs came back in good shape.
before that I had no idea that the fly ash could be hot but I guess since Coal is its primary source I should not be surprised.
oh I think it would be cool too if you did a test on areas around coal plants because our readers were going nuts. not sure if it was alpha or beta or what the gamma levels were as the detector was with the guy I was following.
I would in transportation and have transported chemicals, radioactive, and things claimed to not be dangerous but I knew better. I have seen detectors go off at metal recyclers and be flat out ignored.
I mean setting off detectors on the other side of the street, and wall, no one seemed to bat an eye. I called the NRC on it, they directed me to another office that handles the smaller issues, and complaints. They sent a guy out right away, and actually shut them down.
A coworker was there the day the guy got there, every one was ticked, but they did find a hot source, and hauled out like 6 truck loads of contaminated stuff.
Being educated enough to know what's not safe, sometimes makes me feel like a gate keeper rofl
I apologize for my horrible grammar skills I have severe dyslexia which is why I never got into nuclear work. messing up numbers in the field could be bad for everyone. so I joined the Army and then because an electrician eventually I moved on to oil field work and then truck driving.
now I just move AC units but I had my wild days of hauling nasty stuff. had an entire interstate shut down once due to a stalled refrigerated trailer hauling temp sensitive chemicals in the end got the refrigerator running again.
honestly some of the chemicals we haul are worse than any of the radioactive stuff. I hauled Hydrofluoric Acid that stuff will kill you dead if you breath in any of the gas or get any of it on your skin, small small amounts are fatal with no cure. I hauled some natural mercury and was told avoid contact at all costs. it had to be transported in a cask inside another cask and their people secured it in my trailer I then visually verified at a distance that it was secure. nasty nasty stuff.
I have the 101, is the 102 really that much better?
To be honest I haven't seen any real difference between the two. The 102 is cheaper with a little bit more gamma resolution...maybe 1% increase.
Great, thanks for the reply!@@RadioactiveDrew
I WAS NOT EXPECTING THE FIRST WORDS TO BE *I love blueberries*
Blueberries are awesome.
@@RadioactiveDrew i didnt expect you t reply 0_0
I need one to carry on my belt
I always have it in my pocket when I go out.
Hi Drew. Brilliant video. Britain suffered fallout from the Chernobyl disaster. Mainly from radioactive iodine. My daughter is doing nuclear physics and I've tried to get a radiacode detecter is there a shortage of them
There use to be a shortage of them back when they were selling the 101 model. But now that they have started selling the 102 model they have really stepped up their manufacturing. Order it direct from their site...not from ebay or Amazon. The fastest way to get one is from the site. They ship extremely quick...if they are in stock. Here's the link 102.radiacode.com/
Hey Drew, this is a good topic for discussion and would love to see more of these. I'm sure there are more hidden sources of radiation in our everyday lives, especially since we live in a global economy and source our food from other countries like China.
It’s a topic I’m sure I’m going to revisit a couple times because I feel there’s a lot out there being hidden from the public.
@@RadioactiveDrew I'm not sure how well this suggestion will be received but maybe you can invite some professors from the physics lab of your local university to discuss isotopes found in nature and those found in reactors? Maybe adding a scientific approach beyond everything else that you do will help give the channel other directions to go in? I enjoyed your video about the decommissioned reactor and learned a little about what they did during that process. I also enjoyed the fascinating video about what can be found in antique shops like radioactive tiles.
Keep up the good work and I'm always waiting for your next video.
I've always dreamt of having my own lead castle.
I’m sure most do.
Where could I get such nice lead bricks?
Rotometals.com
Meat or bones from a cow out of Nevada/Uta would be interesting 🐮
I would like to do further testing on this subject.
so your making a white castle. will it be open to the public??
So far I haven’t painted the lead bricks.
Thanks for the great video.
I am not sure that this system is actually sensitive enough to measure radioactivity in food in a real world situation.
We can't spend time wrapping all the food in a lead castle, and waiting for hours.
I know...that's why I showed the identification being done in 5 minutes in the video.
Was just about to head to bed, ok I got 12mins! Edit* Great video and good luck practicing with the drone!
Thanks...the FPV drone is a lot of fun. Takes a lot of practice but I feel like it can add to some of my videos.
but hey, it was not compared the count time for sampling without shield and with the shield!
That really bites that you lost all that collected data for the whole last year! I'm sorry! But why would you not put your phone in a protective something to keep it dry too? Lesson learned the hard way!
This was so interesting. We don't even think about the foods that we eat! The radioactive cloud that blew all over, we don't even think about that now! Not only the foods we eat but what about the foods our food eats? We don't even think about that fact. Sure the mushrooms are hot, but what about the deer that eats those mushrooms? And the uncle that hunts and takes down the deer that are the mushrooms? It's the whole food chain. And we only think about our direct ingestion. How dangerous is it?
Can you do a video measuring radioactivity of cigarettes?
Yes, I’m planning on doing a video about it.
@@RadioactiveDrew I used to have a classmate who would rotate his cigarettes so he was always smoking 1-year-old cigarettes to avoid radiation. Funny thing is every time the concept of maybe quitting smoking came up, he didn't want to "waste" all the cigarettes he had hoarded. Probably didn't do him any good.
Do the radioactive foods test!
Good video. Would you happen to know where I can buy a painted lead pig? I can't find much on Google. Also, nuclear is pronounced nu-cle-ar. Lol.
I think unitednuclear.com might sell them.
I have a question about Bananas 🍌. As I was saying in my previous comment, I have the Radiacode 102. I decided to try to run a spectrum on my bananas that were very ripe. Well they have been on an under my meter, and I am getting disturbing evidence that have I-131 (Iodine 131). I purchased them at Walmart. Let me know your thoughts offline please.
I get I-131 as well and I don't think its I-131. What I think it to be is x-ray fluorescence and not I-131. In the 24 hr gamma spectrum I did in the lead castle outside I was still seeing that peak.
@@RadioactiveDrew Thank you Drew.
@ScottLovell07 no problem.
Could you have the data professionally recovered assuming you have found the phone again? Perhaps Aquachigger could help!
Is the lead specialist low radioactivity lead not used in the radiological industry already? Here in the uk old lead from church roofs fetches a premium due to it not being from prior to the nuclear power era. This has sadly caused spate of thefts.
You could try to team up with Chernobyl family channel too.
I’ve had offers from people to recover the data on the phone. I did export a bunch of that mapping data to use in videos. So it wasn’t a total loss.
The lead I was using was 99% pure. I would be interested in the difference between old lead and new. I was able to see lead 210, which is a radioactive isotope of lead in the bricks. But that isn’t from nuclear testing because that isotope happens naturally.
Would be interesting to team with with someone out in the Chernobyl area.
@@RadioactiveDrew my understanding, which is not strong, is that the nuclear industry has used much lead for obvious reasons and this has caused the lead in circulation to have been irradiated somewhat. Particle physics has a requirement for lead with very low radioactive signatures and so has been using lead from historical sources such as church roofs, legitimately sourced obviously but it has initiated a market in the ancient material.
The YT channel “Chernobyl family” is an excellent one and might be worth looking at for a cooperative project.
@robinwells8879 I’ve heard this about steel but not lead.
Thanks for sharing fails, but to be afraid of LEAD when exploring activity is a bit....well...you know what i mean. Yes i have bought a radicode after i saw it on your channel. Keep it up !
The thing is he is monotoring the radiation levels, so if it ever got dangerous he'd know, whereas he cant monitor the lead intake! Be scared of what you dont see, not what you can see.
Its much easier to measure my radiation exposure and to see if anything is contaminated with radioactive material. Than it is to test of lead exposure.
@@RadioactiveDrew Or were you thinking of the high-velocity lead?
i'd say any of the khazistaian salt being mined as seen by kreosan english channell would be pretty high
I’ll have to look on their channel for that.
You said some of the prices get out of control. Would you say that the prices reach supercritical levels? 😉
They don’t get that high…hahaha.
You should have sent the data to us on the website and you should have backed it up nicely :)) for next time, send everything :D
ב''ה, after the last 7 years or so, how often are US exports contaminated?
Why would items from the US be contaminated?
Wish I could have it on iPhone
They are working on it.
3:35 pretty sure its not measuring counts per millisecond but counts per minute.
Wouldnt make any sense to measure counts per Millisecond as the number would get even lower than with Cps.
Watching again, it still shows cps, it milli counts per second.
so 300millicounzs = 0.3 counts per second
This is most likely my next geiger counter. 👍
I’ve been very happy with mine. I always have the mapping function going when traveling.
@@RadioactiveDrew Exactly. I'd like to walk my area in Wisconsin to see what's out there naturally. Likely I won't find any fragments but that's okay, there's plenty of antique shops around. 😁
@@RadioactiveDrew Have you watched any @kreosann videos of them clowning around in Pripyat?
@@BugZap98 you would be surprised how many items I find outside of antique shops. I have seen that YT channel and the one with them using that x-ray tube was a little crazy.
That suck mann to bad about the phone 😮
Yeah, at least it wasn’t a total loss since I used a lot of the maps I had on there in videos.
also use a waterproof phone. for datalogging it doesnt have to be high end.or new