[R-390] Meters and Radium-226

[DCrespy at aol.com]

Not too far off topic, I hope.  From the AVweb web  site.  (Wonder if they 
have any R-390/390A  meters?)
 
Harry  KG5LO
Saline MI
 
Hazardous Instruments Keep Pilots From  Planes

At least 12 aircraft owners at Chino Airport in California have been unable  
to get to their airplanes for more than a month because of their neighbor's  
hobby of collecting luminescent dialed instruments. San Bernardino County  
officials say there are enough old airplane instruments painted with radium-226  
inside two hangars occupied by Preservation Aviation Inc. to create a radiation 
 hazard. Since March 10, authorities have barred access to neighboring 
hangars.  Airport manager James Jenkins told the Daily Bulletin that the neighboring 
 aircraft are not contaminated but the area around them is off-limits. The 
county  estimates it will cost more than $200,000 to collect all the instruments 
and  dispose of them safely. Because the county owns one of the hangars and 
the land  under the other, it will undertake the cleanup but will be looking to 
get the  money back from Preservation Aviation owner Jeff Pearson, who wasn't 
available  to comment. This is the second time the company has been at the 
center of a  radiation scare. The Chino investigation stemmed from the 
Environmental  Protection Agency's 2004 probe of a North Hollywood warehouse in which  
Preservation Aviation stored thousands of radium-containing instruments.  
Radiation levels in that warehouse were 100 times greater than normal. The Los  
Angeles Daily News reported at the time that the cost of that cleanup was $7  
million.