Please Critique my Lead Castle Build Plan

[MikeD99]

Hi all,
I have some ideas and would like to hear other people's opinions.

I have nine 2"x4"x8" Lead bricks and four 25 pound bags of #8 shot. I looked online and I think each lead shot bag contains 164,000 lead spheres.

I also have some 18 ga Pewter sheet pieces: six 4"x4" and two 12"x4".

I have a 0.15mm x 200mm x 1000mm 99.9% Pure Copper Cu Metal Sheet Foil roll.

I wrapped the copper sheet around the GS 2020 2" probe. I built a cave of lead bricks with an interior size of 4"x4"x8" and use the bags of shot as a door. The GS 2020 tube's wire goes nicely between two of the shot bags.

Here are some pictures that my wife and I took. Neither of us is particularly mechanically inclined. I can appreciate a nice job but almost always fail when comparing my idea's conception to its implementation.

We've assembled them onto a piece of 3/4" outdoor plywood with casters:


The view is looking into the entrance to the enclosed area. The 2" Lead bricks form the walls and the Pewter in on all sides except the door because the wire and probe stick out a little. The bags of shot block the entrance and thus form the door when stacked at the entrance.











(I am just learning how to include images...)

I am running a 24 hour background, I think. A background is just a spectrum with nothing in there except the probe, right? Then in PRA, I would save it as background under Actions, right?

This is the copper sheet foil I bought:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/401634815191

This is the Pewter that I bought:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/134497148230?var=433980170584

Does this look like a good Lead Castle for getting spectrums of Trinitie and maybe radioactive rocks from my yard? Virginia is big for Radon and I think there are Uranium mines in the state that Carl Willis did a tour of so we should have some radioactive rocks in my ten acre Oak tree forest yard.

I welcome advice. I may not always follow it to the letter but I like to get advice to help me think.

Also, please tell me if I am doing anything inappropriate wrt the forum's culture as I am new.

Thanks,
Mike Driscoll
Leesburg, Va USA

[Sesselmann]

Mike,

Your shielding setup looks pretty legit to me.., but the proof is in the results. Compare your background counts inside the shield with counts from the unshielded detector and see what it does.

You should be able to detect down into the 100 Bq/kg range.

Steven