5 ms·
From a screenshot at [1] * 800 mR/hr if you touched the ore * 280 mR/hr on the surface of the bucket (sealed) * "0 above background" if you were 5 ft away fr
by trimbo 8y ago
From a screenshot at [1]
* 800 mR/hr if you touched the ore
* 280 mR/hr on the surface of the bucket (sealed)
* "0 above background" if you were 5 ft away from the bucket
* 2.5 mR/hr if you were touching the cabinet it was in
[1] - https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2019/02/18/grand-canyon-tourists-exposed-radiation-safety-manager-says/2876435002/ https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2019/02/1...
- gotocake 8y agoBasically unless you were having a very prolonged and loving relationship with the bucket, you were exposed to nothing of consequence. That doesn’t excuse the morons who kept this stuff, and if a kid took a souvenir home or there had been a fire it could have been a lot worse. They may have also had unacceptable levels of radon. If I worked there I’d want to know more, but just as a visitor I’d shrug and get on with life. I’m wondering why they used R instead of Sv though. It’s a single source with a single quality factor, and were only concerned with the impact on humans.
- sandwall 8y agoRoentgens are historical units of exposure, it's simply what a lot of older meters read. Roentgens can be assumed to safely equal RADs (although they don't, conversion is less than 1 for kV), the historical unit for "Radiation Absorbed Dose." For photons this would be equal to REM "Radiation Equivalent Man." All old units; conversion to S.I., 100 rad = 1 Gray (J/Kg), 100 rem = 1 Sievert. Essentially, who ever wrote the report was old and conservative. The occupational risk is also essentially nil. This is much ado about nada.
- your-nanny 8y agoassuming inhalation if dust was not an issue..
- dsfyu404ed 8y ago5gal buckets are designed to be handled by all manner of people who don't have enough time to give a crap and still get to their destination without leaking. A properly sealed 5gal bucket will remain air tight even if it's bouncing around inside a tote in the bed of a truck on rural gravel roads for ~10mo (the tote flooded at some point but the bucket wound up dry). Sitting in a cabinet the risk of dust making it out of the bucket would have been nonexistent so long as the lid was on it.
- your-nanny 8y agoI assumed it was open so people can look at the ore
- AnaniasAnanas 8y ago> and if a kid took a souvenir home A great way to teach them to not steal along with punishing the parents.
- soy_comptroller 8y agoTime to whip out the XKCD radiation chart[1], which gives us measures around: * One chest CT per hour for touching the ore (or about 9 hours touching the ore to reach your annual max dosge) * One head CT per hour for touching the bucket * nothing for 5ft away * One chest XRay per hour touching the cabinet (less than a cross-country flight LA <-> NYC) [1] https://xkcd.com/radiation/ https://xkcd.com/radiation/
- mehrdadn 8y agoI've seen this chart and yet it's always fascinating. A dental X-ray is like eating 50 bananas, and half of what you would get over the course of a normal day.
- saalweachter 8y ago50 bananas is an interesting quantity in that it is conceivable you could eat that many in short order, but I'd be worried about someone who did (but not because of the radiation).
- djsumdog 8y agoThe CT scan is the interesting one. I've talked to some researchers about CT scans, and how they do increase cancer risks. It's not very much, but for serious long-term conditions you might get several CT scans per year and that could increase your cancer risk. When looking up studies the numbers are pretty low, usually under 10%, but it is an interesting risk to be weight against diagnosing and treating the underlying condition.