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Irradiated Dimes (2010)
- codewritinfool 9y agoBut WHY do this at all? Is it because of public fascination with anything "atomic"? Good public relations? I don't get it. Because of little or no residual effects, why not just press the times into a souvenir holder and skip the irradiation altogether? It all just seems odd to me.
- pavel_lishin 9y agoScarcity, and being able to prove that you went there and got your dime irradiated. Anyone could press a dime into a fancy container, but a fake could be easily detected with a geiger counter. There was no other way to irradiate dimes at the time.
- SirLuxuryYacht 9y ago>The only activity that might be detected today would be due to trace quantities of Ag-108m, but it would require long counts and relatively sophisticated equipment. I could not detect any in the three coins in the collection.
- microtherion 9y agoI wonder whether the dimes remained legal tender in this process. You could have paid a parking fine with a stack of them...
- ginko 9y agoI can see the fascination. In a way it's a philosopher's stone turning one element(silver) into another(cadmium). Of course the reaction is in the opposite way you'd want it to go but still.
- B1FF_PSUVM 9y ago> But WHY do this at all? "I have seen the future, and it works", an infamous phrase if there ever was one, did not come out of the blue. For three centuries now, we've been groomed to expect bountiful marvels out the "unstoppable progress" of history. Which, incidentally, is a novel concept, not present in human discourse before the XVIII century.
- the8472 9y agoIt's a demonstration of neutron irradiation. The lack of residual effects does not negate the coin becoming directly associated with that demonstration in memory. If it helps making people aware of the process that's a good thing. Think about radioactive waste.
- badmin_ 9y agoThis is the cheap go-to method for fusor enthusiasts to check for fast neutron production.
- godelski 9y agoThe great answer to "Why" is "because you can".
- pmiller2 9y agoYes, both of those things. You have to keep in mind this is the era immediately following WW2, so there was both a fascination with and fear of things "atomic."
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- mikestew 9y ago"Since the carriers were not sealed, there is no certainty that a dime they hold today had ever been irradiated." Unless one owned a Geiger counter, I would argue that it is entirely possible that the dime held when it was "irradiated" had not ever been irradiated. When I was reading the article, my thinking was that if no one had actually confirmed that this took place I'd be reading an article about scam artists in the 50s and 60s selling "irradiated" dimes.
- wiredfool 9y agoEven with a geiger counter, you wouldn't be able to tell, as the longest half life of any of the isotopes created was ~12 hours, and the most common one was 22 seconds. There's basically no radioactivity left in these dimes after a few hours, let alone 50 years.
- moioci 9y agoThe article says that the apparatus included a Geiger counter, so that the dime was visibly shown to be radioactive before being encased.
- mikestew 9y agoThe article says that the apparatus included a Geiger counter A Geiger counter, or a device that makes clicky noises? I'm not disputing the article, I'm willing to believe that the device contained an actual Geiger counter. But in isolation, my point is that this could just as easily be some scam similar to the chess-playing machine that really had a human inside of it. "These dimes have been irradiated with invisible particles! But look, I have a device that clicks in the presence of those magic, invisible particles!" Clicks, huh? Oh, realllly. And, based on another sibling comment, it was almost a scam in that the radioactive decay was so fast that the dimes might not even make it home before all of the radioactivity went away. In the end, all we have left is a dime that might, or might not, have at one time been irradiated. But even if we could prove it then, we have no way of proving it now.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 9y ago
- rdtsc 9y ago> Gamma neutron sources inevitably have two problems. First, the gamma emitter is short-lived. Sb-124 has a 60 day half-life which meant that it had to be periodically reactivated in a reactor. Second, the gamma source presents an exposure hazard that requires lead shielding. A family member was working in a facility selling Californium-252, a strong neutron emitter. So gamma sources might be awkward to work with but these things are not exactly fun to work with either. It's probably the most expensive commercially sold substance on earth ($20M+ / gram). The half life is only 2 years. Now that's a nice revenue stream, well as long as Oak Ridge keeps its reactor going and there are enough customers out there. Also due to being a strong neutron emitter, it has a ridiculous amount of shielding. Lead won't work for it like it does for gamma rays, but things like polyethylene work well. So there would be lots of it, even for a tiny amount like a tiny fraction of a gram.
- lostmsu 9y ago> A family member was working in a facility selling Californium-252 Did he sell to government, or basically anybody could buy isotopes just like that?
- rdtsc 9y agoBought from government (Oak Ridge) and sold to customers. Some are governments some are companies which use it for diagnostics like say detect structural issues in concrete. I think there are medical uses as well. As far as who can buy it and what the approval process is? I imagine there are controls in place. I never inquired about that.
- badmin_ 9y agoDepending on the amount, a license would be required. Here's a link to current limitations: https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part030/part030-0071.html https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part030/p... Link regarding exempt amounts:https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part030/part030-0018.html https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part030/p...
- MaysonL 9y agoReading this introduced me to the phenomenon of meta-stable nuclear isomers: states of atomic nuclei of an isotope which are more stable than the ground state of that isotope. (including the metastable isomer of 180m 73Ta, which is present in all tantalum samples at about 1 part in 8,300. Its half-life is at least 1015 years, markedly longer than the age of the universe.)
- tallpapab 9y agoI still have one of these from the 1964 World's Fair. I figure it's worth at least - oh - ten cents.
- keenrodent 9y agoI’ve still got one of these (a dime from my Dad’s pocket, irradiated, then into the box with the rest of my kid treasures) from when my family and I visited Oak Ridge in the 60’s. I can’t speak to why they had the machine to do it there, but I still remember why I put the dime in. I was 7 or 8. The future seemed closer then, like we were almost just right there. “Atomic energy,” the space program, television: I remember when WAND in Decatur started broadcasting in color. Everything was getting better right in front of our eyes. Cool Whip! One day it was THERE. And so on a visit to Oak Ridge, TN, you felt as a kid that it was all happening, that you could learn about it, and when you grew up you could join the team and make it happen, too. The dime was proof.