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Wait. Radioactive copper in the global electronics supply chain? What strategies can an average joe use to minimize exposure to that?
by HillaryBriss 11y ago
Wait. Radioactive copper in the global electronics supply chain?
What strategies can an average joe use to minimize exposure to that?
- nosuchthing 11y agoGeiger Counter / Radiation Sensor: http://www.adafruit.com/categories/73 http://www.adafruit.com/categories/73
- api 11y agoThe quantity in an individual device is likely to be so tiny (milligrams) that it's not a risk. It's also likely to have been melted down and put through the global recycling chain which would have substantially diluted it. But it was a risk to people handling the original material in bulk. An unknown number of workers in the global copper supply and recycling chain were likely exposed to above-limit doses. A lot of materials safety concerns are more for protection of workers than end users. Lead removal from electronics is an example. There's not really any risk to owning electronics with lead in them unless you are incinerating them or enjoy licking circuit boards, but it is a serious occupational risk to factory workers and also a disposal problem.
- Animats 11y agoRadioactive copper can't stay radioactive long. The longest-lived isotope is 64Cu, with a half life of 12 hours. Mildly radioactive junk is not that rare. Stanford used to have a little fenced area near the toxic waste incinerator with stainless steel parts left over from accelerator experiments cooling off. 55Fe has a 2.7 year half life, so you let it cool off for a decade or so, then recycle. The only protection was an chain-link fence, a radiation warning trefoil, and a street light. One day somebody cut the fence and stole the stainless steel, prompting a search of scrapyards. But the metal was near the end of its storage period anyway, and wasn't detectable as radioactive.