Radioactive Minerals

[sgt_bear]

Hi guys,

I found a website that is for mineral collectors and provides alot of mineral infos. They also have a list of radioactive minerals.

http://webmin.mindat.org/determin/radio ... VLgTHvgqUl

The minerals are ascending with radioactivity, so if you want to see the most radioactive, see bottom of page 11 !

"Radiobarite" seems quite "scary"...

[Geoff]

Radioactive minerals on mindat you say? My photo gallery can be found at https://www.mindat.org/gallery-21211.html

As for radian barite, minerals tend to be pretty old. I have a huge sample from the Czech Republic but it’s not very strong. Most of the radium has already decayed to lead making it more of a hokutolite.

Not-all-that-scary radian barite

A whole mess of smaller "hot" minerals

[luuk]

Hi Geoff,
That is an very nice collection of active minerals you got there, impressive!
Luuk

[pilgrim]

Impressive! It would be interesting to know the dose near that drawer...

[Geoff]

0.085 mR/hr on my calibrated Ludlum model 18 including background.

[pilgrim]

Good! Almost negligible dose.

[elemental]

Here is another collection from Australian deposits. Now not available anymore so obviously lucky to have it given to me😊

[Marco75]

Hi all,
sorry if I comment an old post but I am as well a collectors of U-minerals with many of them. Each of them is inside an acrylic box and then inside a big glass showcase
I am not worried about alpha-beta-gamma radiations as the first two are fully blocked by the plastic, the distance and the glass of the showcase and you don't stay in front of the showcase 24h, but recently I discovered that the main problem is radon.
I made some tests with a radon-meter (airthings corentium home) and even if minerals are all inside the acrylic boxes, there is a very significant amount of radon in the showcase (around 900 Bq/m3 which is a very high value considering the showcase has a volume of 1 meter cube) and part of this radon exits easily from the showcase going in the room (measured 350Bq/m3, too much !).

I removed all U-minerals, forced ventilation in the room and showcase with fresh outdoor air and radon measurements dropped to 62 Bq/m3. So U-minerals are the source

The best solution would be to create a forced ventilations of the showcase with outdoor air but it is not an easy task (holes in the wall, sealing of the showcase etc).
So I am trying to find solutions to "seal" the acrylic boxes which is totally not easy as radon escapes (tape for example does not work).
Any of you have experienced the same finding solutions?

thanks

[kotarak]

I am sorry to disappoint you but there is no easy and practical way to seal the radon inside those plastic cases. Radon as noble gas will even go thru rubber seals - radon atoms permeate the rubber and sneak through the long polymer chains much like other noble gases escape through the walls of balloons.
The stuff that can slow down radon is mylar - numerous test were made and seems mylar is the best all-around solution (mylar bags) but then you cant view them.
I would give up on the idea to seal each individual box. Ventilation to the ouside is your best bet even tho it is sometimes difficult to achieve.
There is a subreddit r/Radioactive_Rocks - https://www.reddit.com/r/Radioactive_Rocks/ where you can find a lot of information about collecting and storing radioactive minerals.
check it out - this subject comes up there every now and then.

[Marco75]

Hello Andrey,
thanks so much for your detailed answer.
there is no disappointment here, I know it was difficult/impossible but I was trying to find solutions to slow down , having its decay mostly inside the mineral box.
Yers, I agree a forced ventilation of the showcase would be the best, in the worst case I will consider.
I was not aware about mylar, very good to know!!!
Do you know if radon can "permeate" the acrylic plastic (1-2mm thick) or glass? Is there documentation about this? For what I know it cannot permeate aluminum but a case in aluminum would not permit to see the mineral unless I can build a larger one, all made by welded aluminum to hold all U-minerals and with a top made by glass to see through

thanks again
Marco