Question about check sources

[Peter-1]

Hello Felix,
Greetings from germany. it's easy to get a source. In the net there is the Quantum pendant. You can get it for 1.- € to 20.- € and it is a good source.


Peter

[Sebastien_billard]

Radioactive sources are really easy to find, but calibration sources are not ;)

[Peter-1]

Sebastien,
yes you are right. But with KCl or Th(NO3)4 you have a reference.
(sorry in german) from wikipedia

Es dient auch als Kalibrierstandard für Betastrahlung. Kalium enthält zu 0,0118 % das Isotop 40K, dieses liefert 16350 Bq pro Kilogramm KCl, davon sind 89,28 % Betastrahlung und 10,72 % Gammastrahlung mit 1,46083 MeV.
Or
Thoriumnitrat besitzt eine spezifische Aktivität von 3,93 kBq/g.
Peter

[Sebastien_billard]

oh yes one can make calibrated sources from compound that include radionucléides. Where do you find thorium nitrate though ? It is not restricted ?

[pilgrim]

You can find Thorium Nitrate in some old Gas Mantles, but I suggest you not to buy it because these Mantles have a tendency to crumble, and dust could be ingested or inhaled and it would be very dangerous : Th232 is an alpha emitter!
Moreover Rn220 is a Th232's daughter, it's not dagerous as Rn222 but it's always unhealthy.
I suggest you to buy some LYSO crystals, they are cheap and safe and give you a beautiful spectrum with very clear peaks, the activity is more or less 40 Bq / g.

[Sebastien_billard]

True I got already 1 gram of lutetium metal :)

[Peter-1]

Hello Sebastien,
with 1 gram you must see the lines. Here from my system.

Lu Ka is near 53-54 keV

Peter

[Sebastien_billard]

Yes sure, here is a previous Lu spectrum obtained with my 1cm³ CsI detector :



What is your Lu Ka line ?

[Peter-1]

Hello,
here a small chart for the x-ray lines.

Peter