[R-390] [OT] Radioactive radio parts

[Tisha Hayes]

Many years ago I was a FEMA certified "Radiological Instructor III" (I
could teach other instructors). For an EMA organization I was teaching a
course "Radiological Response Technician (RRT), a three day course. What
was included in the course was an exercise to map an area where there were
hot spots of radiation. I was using Cobalt 60 check-sources (FEMA provided
capsules in a big lead storage pig).

I would use the pair of long tongs to grab a source by its tag and hide it
in clever spots in a room (the EOC). The students would enter the room as
teams and had a few minutes to make a map of where the sources were
located. Not all were on the floor, some were up high (one over a ceiling
tile), some were directive (installed in a shielded cup so the radiation
was not omni-directional. For me it was all quite fun and the students
learned allot.

I sent in this one team, actually a husband-wife team who worked at a
national laboratory (Argonne) and were very smart and capable. They spent a
few minutes in the room, got out quickly and wrote me a map.

They showed "five sources". It was interesting because I only put four
sources in the room so I looked at their map. They found a source where I
had not put one.

Going back in the room with this team I used my meter, a much better Ludlum
meter with a pancake frisker probe than their simple yellow Civil Defense
wand type GM tube detectors. Sure enough, a fifth source.

It was inside of a wooden cabinet, in there was an old WWII HF receiver.
The radiation was coming from the white filler paint on the face of the
radio. Even though the radio would not glow any more there was enough
radium salts in the filled front panel to put off around 1 mR/hr at a
distance of six inches.

The radioactive paint on the radio was not behind glass, like on our panel
meters. I could see where some of the lettering had flaked off over the
years but most was still there.
--------------------------

The radium used to paint meters and glowing lettering was not quite pure.
It is a radium salt that is contaminated with other isotopes so it puts out
 gamma, beta and alpha radiation. Its primary hazard is inhalation and
ingestion of the dried, powdered form. The radiation is a few mR/hr and for
a limited exposure of an hour or so you are not even approaching reporting
limits.

You can work on a panel meter and as long as you follow some basic
precautions you will be fine. Wear a dust mask, latex surgical gloves and
work in an area that you can wash down when you are finished (preferably
not your kitchen table).

Put down a piece of kraft paper or something else that you can wad up and
throw away when you are done.

If you do go so far as to take a panel meter apart and want to keep the
same lettering on the meter just use a piece of clear packing tape to put
down a single layer of tape across the front of the meter, trim the edges
to fit. Then as long as you do not peel the tape off there is no risk of
gross contamination from loose materials.

When you are finished, clean up the surfaces with hot soapy water, wipe
down your tools screwdriver tips, etc, throw away the dust mask and if it
makes you feel better, take a shower to remove any surface contamination.

--------------------------

To put things in perspective, here is a comparison;

If you do a cross-country flight (of the US) where the plane spends most of
its time up around 30,000 feet you are being exposed to about 1 mR/hr of
gamma and 2 mR/hr of neutron radiation (due to cosmic rays and that you are
above the majority of the atmosphere that attenuates cosmic rays from the
sun and space).

When I was an instructor I had to carry a TLD (crystal based dosimeter) and
had to track all the times I had the lead pig open with the check sources
out, when I was doing classes and when I was exposed to higher levels of
radiation. Every few months I mailed my TLD back to the state and they did
an analysis to determine my accumulated dosage. Now I would also need to
track the number of times I would go on a flight an the number of times I
would go through airport screening near the X-ray machine or the walk
through scanner.

A few years ago I came down with thyroid cancer (as an infant we lived in
an area that received a few dustings from nuclear testing in the
southwest). To treat my thyroid cancer I opted for radioactive Iodine 131
treatment instead of surgery. As a self experiment I tracked my own
exposure to my thyroid every day for a month. My accumulated thyroid dosage
was externally measured at around 350 REM. The internal dose to my thyroid
was probably ten times higher because it killed off my thyroid entirely;
Iodine accumulates in the thyroid but still I also had a whole body dosage
of a few REM and was not supposed to spend much time around people,
particularly children.

You taking apart your panel meter and working on it for an hour or so might
give you more of an exposure. Particularly on your fingers where the
surface dosage may be hundreds of mR/hr (remember, radiation follows the
same rule as RF energy where it is distance dependent).

--------------------------

In college I interned at a couple of national laboratories. In one facility
there was a labyrinth of tunnels beneath our building (radiation sciences)
and in all of these concrete areas were places where the wall or floor had
been painted with a patch of thick white paint and then a date, serial
number and radiation level was written on the white paint.

Those were places where they had some experiment that splashed, spilled or
sprayed on the walls and they could not get it completely clean. They
sealed it in with lead-based paint and documented where it was and what the
level was. I was told that once or twice a year someone would go back in to
the basement and check those areas again, mostly to make sure that the
paint had not peeled off, exposing the loose radioactive material.

A creepy thing was in the basement. They had a wooden display case covered
with glass that had human bones inside of it. They were samples from the
watch face painters who applied radium to dials (and presumably our
radios). To put down the finest lines they would "tip" their paint brushes
on their tongues, inadvertently eating a bit of radium each time. Many died
prematurely of leukemia and cancer and somehow the government gained
samples of their skeletons. To this day those bones are radioactive (radium
is a bone-seeker, it accumulates like calcium).

Great article on it:
http://www.medicalbag.com/profile-in-rare-diseases/the-radium-girls/article/472385/

Ok, enough of my Off Topic (even though it lead (or is it lead?) back to
the original topic of radioactive panel meters.


*Ms. Tisha Hayes, AA4HA*
*"*There are many who live in the mountains and behave as if they were in **the
town; they are wasting their time.*
* It is possible to be a solitary in one's mind while living in a crowd;
and it is possible for those who are **solitary to live in the crowd of
their own thoughts.*"*
**-Amma Syncletica of Alexandria**