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I found a piece of trinitite cleaning out my friend's grandma's place after she passed away. It's labelled 1942 NEW MEXICO TRINITY, she apparently was involved
by jamal-kumar 3y ago
I found a piece of trinitite cleaning out my friend's grandma's place after she passed away. It's labelled 1942 NEW MEXICO TRINITY, she apparently was involved in the manhattan project somehow. We didn't know whether it was dangerous or not so we invested in a geiger counter to make sure we didn't just discover a superfund site in a pill bottle in the medicine cabinet. It's fine.
I cannot for the life of me find a professional jeweler with the balls to wrap it. They all get mad at me like I'm trying to poison them when there's really more radioactive particles being emitted from bananas.
- mikestew 3y agoIs it irresponsible to just not tell the jeweler what it is? You’ve already confirmed that it’s not radioactive.
- jamal-kumar 3y agoThey won't hear me out, tried a few times. People don't know a damn thing about this stuff they just assume you're insane for even touching it Keep in mind these are the same people who are afraid of microwave ovens Hell even we were a little freaked out of it enough to go hit a scientific supply shop before realizing it's well past its half-life
- ada1981 3y agoDid you try saying “hear me out” in a TikTok millennial monotone tone?
- jamal-kumar 3y agoNo I went gen Z and said "no cap this radioactive rock be bussin but lowkey safe"
- roywiggins 3y ago> it's well past its half-life I'm not sure that's how half-lives work...
- petee 3y agoNot sure exactly what the OP means by "wrap it", but if you are asking a jeweler to grind it then yes, it would be irresponsible not to mention, even if you thought it was clean. Ingesting/breathing has the potential to be dangerous. Hunter Scott has a fun article where his friend helped him test his sample in a lab -- https://www.hscott.net/analyzing-trinitite-a-radioactive-piece-of-nuclear-history/ https://www.hscott.net/analyzing-trinitite-a-radioactive-pie...
- jamal-kumar 3y agoBy wrap it, I mean wrap it in gold Wire wrap jewelry right now is a big thing Nobody needs to grind a thing that would be such a waste, it's a very brittle silicate. That link is really interesting however it says you pretty much have to eat the stuff for it to have any ill effect. Sand for breakfast, anyone?
- perihelions 3y ago- "So, ignoring alpha and beta radiation," I think most of the radiation in that sample is alpha. The gamma peak they measured the 2nd-highest count for is the 59 keV from Am-241. The invisible monster they can't detect is the 5,486 keV alpha generated by that same isotope. That's the main hazard there—should someone remove the sample from the glass vial and somehow get significant exposure to dust. (Otherwise, the glass is more than sufficient shielding).
- rqtwteye 3y agoIt’s pretty unethical to withhold information from people who wouldn’t do the work if they had this information .
- perihelions 3y agoI'd be concerned if that process involves anything like grinding or cutting to shape. Particularly with alpha-emitter nuclides, things that otherwise are harmless and inert might become less so when there's inhalable dust involved.
- mikewarot 3y agoYou're not sure it's safe, unless you've got an Alpha particle detector, which you didn't mention. Also, the internals of it might be an alpha emitter, and only get exposed on grinding. I wouldn't do anything that might abrade it. I'd say the jewelers are right.
- jamal-kumar 3y agoI literally got one of those and mentioned this
- mikewarot 3y agoThe metal tube that most Geiger tubes are made out of stops alpha particles. Unless you've tested your detector with a known alpha source, it's useless for radiological survey use.
- cto_of_antifa 3y ago[dead]
- jamal-kumar 3y agoOK while we're obviously on different pages on knowledge domains here, when I say wrap I mean like 10000 year old wire-wrap style. No messing up the thing at all, pretty much just wrapping it in gold for earrings or something and maybe adding something else like some glass with a radiation symbol in it or something Does that still pose a significant risk of any sort?
- fsckboy 3y agoI'm not doubting that GP is correct because I'm not an expert, but I don't understand the importance attached to alpha particle detection. Alpha particles generally can't make it through human skin, and are these materials are not dangerous to handle unless ingested/inhaled (although I wouldn't recommend wearing it either) It's the other higher-energy forms of radiation (beta, gamma, neutron) that pose the more dangerous radiation poisoning threats
- rqtwteye 3y agoI wonder where the 1942 comes from. At that time nobody knew that there would a test named Trinity and trinitite was also 3 years away.
- alanbernstein 3y agoMaybe labeled years later with the date referring to the year she started working there.
- jamal-kumar 3y agoAgain she worked on it, at least tangenitally. I think I remember her husband did too I'm probably remembering numbers wrong though
- Aurornis 3y ago> It's labelled 1942 NEW MEXICO TRINITY, she apparently was involved in the manhattan project somehow. Tritinite souvenirs were popular until the government made it illegal to collect it. Someone from that era possessing a piece doesn’t mean they were part of the Manhattan Project.
- jamal-kumar 3y agoI'm going by what I was told and photos I saw... Why are Americans always so quick to cast shade? This is the comments section, I'm not about to write an essay about all the details here.
- scandox 3y agoI think it's pertinent information to know. I found their comment interesting.
- Aurornis 3y agoBecause you didn’t mention any photos? You just said you found a piece of tritinite, not that you found photos and stories of her involvement. Sorry, not trying to “cast shade”. Just trying to clarify they tritinite by itself isn’t exceptionally rare nor did it require involvement in the Manhattan Project to acquire. You can buy pieces of it online from places like United Nuclear.
- jamal-kumar 3y agoThey got rid of that gif on their front page that had the guy with the rapidly moving eyebrows asking if you were looking for any uranium. That was the best
- walnutclosefarm 3y agoWell, the details are at least somewhat impeached by the fact that she got the date wrong (or you did, in your comment). There was no Trinitite to be had at Los Alamos until 1945.
- cookie_monsta 3y agoAs a data point, did you try to get any of them to wrap bananas?
- jamal-kumar 3y agoThat would be an interesting thing to do actually. Since the banana just goes bad and squishy what you'd be left with is a cool banana-shaped wireframe to hang from the ceiling in a tropical bungalow I might actually do this