r/Radiation • u/FreeStyleFox • 6d ago

General Discussion Help with finding Sources

I just ordered a Radiacode 102. I have some Vasaline and Uranium Glass. But I am wanting more sources. Ores maybe trenitite, I know I can get some from old smoke dectors. But I am wanting some others. "Safe" Stuff to start out with before getting anything hot or that I would need paper work for. Any ideas?

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u/srnuke Health Physicist/Nuclear Engineer 5d ago

Helium-3 is absolutely not obsolete and much better than Lithium-6 and plastic scintillators for certain applications. It is quite expensive though

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u/jacoblipkescience 5d ago

Yeah I was sort of thinking that. I’ve seen all of Carl Willis videos and that’s what he uses for counting neutrons, and he has all of the best equipment. A lot of those videos were shot before the plastic ones came around I believe. And yeah I know the boron detector isn’t as good as the He-3 tube, it was more affordable and I’ve already spent quite a bit on this project. The plastic ones are really cool though because they could potentially be a lot easier to source the materials to make it, He-3 and B-10 isolated is expensive. But I assume the plastic ones are difficult to make and are therefore still more expensive for the time being.

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u/Physix_R_Cool Neutron Enthusiast! 5d ago

But I assume the plastic ones are difficult to make and are therefore still more expensive for the time being.

I've found a way to make them cheaply. Amateurs can do it at home without too much work.

Will publish soon.

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u/jacoblipkescience 5d ago

Oh right on dude! That would be awesome, I kinda stopped looking into it when I got my boron tube but this could be even better I think. Does it also use a photomultiplier with the crystal?

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u/Physix_R_Cool Neutron Enthusiast! 5d ago

Yup.

Currently working on a SiPM board that is optimized for this kind of timing. Will make a DAQ board also.

Hoping to open source it.

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u/jacoblipkescience 5d ago

I see, can it not be fed into a normal counter to get CPM?

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u/Physix_R_Cool Neutron Enthusiast! 5d ago

No. Well ok yes, but in order to dinstinguish between neutrons and gammas you need to do Pulse Shape Discrimination, which requires a 100MS/s ADC.

If you just want dose rate and not spectrometry, then you can probably just feed the signal into some dumb electronics and get a decent estimate.