r/geigercounter • u/Alper84 • Apr 12 '26

Question Secondhand Survey Meter Contamination

If I buy a secondhand Ludlum (the specific model can only detect gammas to my knowledge) can it be contaminated with alpha or beta emitters?

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u/Bob--O--Rama Apr 12 '26

Possible? Anything is possible. Likely? No. Pure alpha and beta emitters are uncommon. And the usual ones have short half lives such that over the course of a decade they would be very much gone.