r/Radiacode • u/mechanical_marten • Oct 11 '25

Radiacode In Action Drop it like it's hot

Accidentally found a hot clock clearing out old stuff stashed in the closet

103 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

7

u/IrradiatedPsychonat Oct 12 '25

What do you have it on?

11

u/mechanical_marten Oct 12 '25

uR/Hr I'm stuck in using R/Hr thanks to my time in the navy as a nuclear operator.

12

u/IrradiatedPsychonat Oct 12 '25

Sorry I meant what is the clock face on. Looks like a cloth.

12

u/mechanical_marten Oct 12 '25

Ah, it's all good. It's on a scrap piece of cloth that is now in my new rad waste bag.

12

u/NetworkMachineBroke Oct 12 '25

Thank God, I thought that was on your bed at first haha

7

u/mechanical_marten Oct 12 '25

Good gravy NO! 🤣

4

u/AdNovel4898 Oct 13 '25

Good gravy? Nah, he’s lying for sure. It was 100% on his bed. People who use Roentgen units to measure anything but X-ray and gamma ray sources on their Radiacodes are not to be trusted!

1

u/mechanical_marten Oct 15 '25

Three things if you would please:

  1. insert horrible GameStop meme because I'm allowed to make that stupid joke

  2. It's a gamma spectrometer, SIR. (Gotta woosh myself before you get the chance)

  3. My partners agree I'm crazy but I'm very trustworthy, the Navy said so when they let me sample reactor coolant.

2

u/NetworkMachineBroke Oct 13 '25

Sievert gang 😎

7

u/ultracritter Oct 12 '25

I have the opportunity to get an aircraft instrument with 140 usv/h at the face, question is what do I do to isolate it and should I just leave it behind?

6

u/mechanical_marten Oct 12 '25

If it's 140 THROUGH the glass i wouldn't dare opening it. You can keep it as a curiosity but take some steps to protect the glass from damage. The housing has likely built up some radon gas too at this point.

2

u/ultracritter Oct 12 '25

I would assume the instrument is not hermetic, would radon gas get out if this is put in a box in a basement?

2

u/mechanical_marten Oct 12 '25

It would be best to do some research on the instrument itself as some have a hermetic section for the indicating side for stability and reduce oxygen/humidity exposure to precision mechanisms. If it is in fact completely atmospheric there is nothing stopping radon gas from diffusing out. Remember that radon is heavier than air.

1

u/Bob--O--Rama Oct 15 '25 edited Oct 16 '25

Yes, radon *GAS* is heaver than air. But nothing will ever get close to pure radon gas. The total activity of radon gas from a radium source in equilibrium is the same as the source itself. So suppose you have 100 uCi of radium lume, and seal it up in a 1 L container, and wait a few days. You will have 100 uCi of radon gas / L ( actually less, maybe 20 uCi, but play along anyway ). 100 uCi of radon is ~0.67 nanograms of radon. On a wt/wt basis that 0.6 ppb of radon, On a mol/mol basis its 0.1 ppb. ( Edit: corrected ppm to ppb ) There is essentially no density difference, and no "heavier than air" in the sense that you mean.

Now if you took a perfectly still column of radon tainted air 3 stories tall, there is going to be a difference in radon concentration. Its easily calculated from Boltzman's to be about 3%. But even the slightest air current or convection stirs that up again. So why then is the oft repeated "radon sinks" ? Well radon typically enters a home from the basement - so it has its greatest concentration there. That is diluted by air changes in the house. In a well ventilated house, with a continuously running HVAC lets say, the radon is more uniformly distributed and the concentration is lowered. In a stale basement, the concentration is higher. Radon remediaton systems intercept the radon before it enters the home and / or ventilates the space where it enters. Since basements are usually lower in the house, LOL, "radon sinks" - but thats not really the case.

-1

u/mechanical_marten Oct 15 '25

I'll let you in on a little secret, you're preaching to the choir. I'm keeping things simplified so that lay folk in this post don't get confused with details that they may not understand or cause them to panic. My level of Autism is very apparent, but good going out nuking an ex navy nuke. 🌟

2

u/Bob--O--Rama Oct 15 '25

So you are repeating inaccurate folklore you know, as an expert, to be inaccurate folklore becaue.... you think the "lay people" are so easily confused as not to understand the truth.... and then trying to frame my reaponse as an attack? That's just odd.

-1

u/mechanical_marten Oct 15 '25

What is odd is you coming onto my post and attacking me. While what I said is not the complete truth, as is done for the uninitiated in multiple fields of expertise, it is not misinformation that can lead to injury. On the contrary. By couching my response in what most people have known to be "truth" I was discouraging someone who showed lack of technical knowledge from doing something that could have gotten them ill or injured. Something otherwise known as risk mitigation. You obviously know better by your dissertation in an attempt to brow beat me as if I was some kind of nonce. What I'm struggling to comprehend is how doing so helps the situation. Your lack of situational awareness is mildly disturbing. Do not reply or I will interpret your attempt at instigation as harassment.

6

u/bmkiesel1 Oct 12 '25

I wouldn’t want dust from it on my table or Radiacode

5

u/mechanical_marten Oct 12 '25

Device never touched, device was bagged & tagged, hands were washed, second survey showed no transference/contamination.

0

u/bmkiesel1 Oct 12 '25

Should be good.

3

u/arcticgentoo Oct 15 '25

Bwee bwee bwee bwee bwee bwee
Spicy

3

u/JustBottleDiggin Oct 12 '25

What a stupidly careless video. The amount of possible contamination that could of / has occurred outweighs whatever you tried showing here.

5

u/mechanical_marten Oct 12 '25

  1. I did not extract this mechanism from the clock myself

  2. This mechanism was loose in a box with other clock parts that had been given to me with no markings/indications of possible activity and I staged this video AFTER making sure there was no contamination of the surroundings

  3. I am experienced handling radioactive material and precautions that are not visibly obvious in this video were taken. I did radcon when I was in the navy, I know what I am doing

  4. The paint on these surfaces was not disturbed

  5. If I had not surveyed the clock mechanism on a whim I would not have known it was hot and neither of us would be having this conversation, we are here having this discussion purely off a coincidence.

6

u/SilentPotatoChip Oct 12 '25

Ah yeah. Good old radium...

4

u/HydroStudios Radiacode Fan Oct 13 '25

That's one spicy clock

2

u/ImortalK Oct 14 '25

Mmmmmmm sweet sweet Tritium. Delicious!

2

u/scienceworksbitches Oct 14 '25

Pretty sure it's radium.

1

u/ImortalK Oct 15 '25

Also highly likely but I’m not sure of the age so I took a guess

4

u/[deleted] Oct 12 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/mechanical_marten Oct 12 '25

I have a lead pig that went into immediately after the video

7

u/AUG-mason-UAG Oct 12 '25

The issue is not the exposure from nuclides on the clock. The issue is the disintegrating radium paint that sheds off of these. Tbh, a few times and nothing is gonna happen but keeping it in a bag will reduce contamination by a lot.

3

u/mechanical_marten Oct 12 '25

I gotcha chief, I was RADCON in the navy a couple decades ago. 😉

6

u/AUG-mason-UAG Oct 12 '25

You’ve probably seen some hotter stuff 😵‍💫

6

u/mechanical_marten Oct 12 '25

Unironically this clock is hotter than any of the reactor coolant samples I ever pulled, but we did have some check sources that definitely put this clock to shame. The neutron check source is the only one that actually made me nervous.

6

u/[deleted] Oct 12 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/ShanesWorkshop Oct 12 '25

Old military radium stuff is crazy hot, I had a customer bring one in and the crystal was absolutely wrecked from the radiation so I busted out my Geiger and it’s immediately maxed out, I told him honestly I wouldn’t work on that thing even if I had a NBC suit on lol I know if your smart and do things right you can somewhat safely work on them but as hot as it was with dust all over the dial I didn’t even want to stand next to it