Gold 198 and Radiacode 101

[MikeD99]

Thank you for your answers. I am going to bake my 2 gram gold bar for a few days with my Po/Be Amstat/Beryllium source again. The difference this time being that I bought a real 2" spectrometer outfit from Steven. I just got it up and running and I think I calibrated it with Cs137, Barium133, and Radium (I think). I have little to no idea what I am doing.

I am getting a spectrum of some Trinitite containing iron right now.

Mike D.

[Sesselmann]

I watched Carl Willis's video again yesterday and he was using a heavily shielded HPGe detector to confirm the presence of Au-198, this does give him quite a good advantage.

Carl's sample was not exactly on fire, it took an hour to collect enough counts.

Steven

[Rob Tayloe]

Alpha particles have a very short range and the alpha-neutron interaction will occur at essentially the surface of the Po-Be material. Commercial neutron sources typically use fine powders intermixed to promote the surface interaction and increase the neutron yield. There are significant hazards in producing and working with fine powders such as Be. I have provided links to some commercial suppliers of neutron sources. I think that one would need to have an NRC-granted license (in the US) to obtain and use such sources. The estimated biological effective dose rate from gamma and neutron from one vendor is around 5 mrem/hr per Ci of alpha source activity when handled at a distance of 1 m. If the source is closer the dose rate increases significantly.

It would be perhaps worthwhile to contact the physics departments of some local universities and inquire about radiation detection equipment and sources. There might be an opportunity to learn something and have access to some more sophisticated equipment (e.g., HPGe detectors). Neutron howitzers were a fairly common experimental apparatus in many physics departments.

https://www.qsa-global.com/industrial-a ... on-sources

https://www.ezag.com/fileadmin/ezag/use ... ources.pdf

https://www.thermofisher.com/order/cata ... t/1517021A [Note: this neutron source uses a DT or DD reaction (this is a fusion reaction) and will produce much more energetic neutrons (14 MeV or higher) than an alpha, neutron reaction]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_howitzer

https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.05255