radioactive

Archived from radmon.org - originally posted 04/10/2019

There is currently Uranium Element sample - Uranyl Zinc Acetate (ZnUO2) for sale on Ebay (UK) (At the time of writing 04 October 2019). I have just received mine and it gets a respectable ~2000cpm sat right next to a SBM-20. This is the same seller I have gotten Uranium dioxide (UO2yellow cake) and Uranium trioxide (UO3) from. He seems reliable and have exchanged the odd email with him. If you decide to buy you will get a small amount, about 0.5g in a small vile (as terribly pictured below...). Also please note that I have absolutely no affiliation with the seller, he is simply someone I have bought a few different radioactive samples from. I am also not sure on whether he will ship abroad so if interested give him a shout. He may also still have some UO2 and UO3 available as I think his Ebay listings were taken down for those samples, so worth contacting him if interested.

Search for 'Uranium Element sample - Uranyl Zinc Acetate - Geiger Counter Check Source' Ebay item # 274019258194 and the seller is 'rogers-nuclear' - Long gone.

Edit: Please note this is a powder and as such extra precautions should be used when handling it. It is not something you want to inhale at all!

Archived from radmon.org - originally posted 06/09/2019

I have just received my latest specimen, Autunite. It is quite fantastic! It is tiny, quite spicy and fluoresces like I have never seen before. The pictures don't do it justice as the colour is strikingly vibrant and has more of a yellow than green fluorescence. I struggled taking photos of it due to the amount of light it produces when it fluoresces. Like trying to take pictures of a light bulb! I took a few pictures with differing light levels. A selection are below. 22,000 CPM on a SBM-20 is quite spicy! Very happy with it.

"Autunite (hydrated calcium uranyl phosphate), with formula Ca(UO2)2(PO4)2·10–12H2O, is a yellow-greenish fluorescent phosphate mineral... ...Due to the moderate uranium content of 48.27% it is radioactive and also used as uranium ore" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autunite There are a couple of sellers on ebay at the time of writing with some specimens. Search for 'Autunite'.

Archived from radmon.org - originally posted 11/08/2016

I have always been a little dubious about leaving radioactive test sources just laying around, although they emit small amounts of radiation. I knocked up a little lead lined box over the weekend to keep my test sources in. The box is just one of those cheapo wooden boxes from India (or somewhere) that you see for sale in markets and such that I lined with 2mm lead flashing (used above windows), painted bright orange with some paint left over from an old project. I added a label on top that is from a check source I bought from ebay and a radioactive symbol tie pin on the front.

It works very well and get nothing more than background radiation when it is closed so I thought I would share. It does look a little rough as I split the wood a little and didn't bother to clean it up at all, but I actually like the way it looks.