Where can we find Radium chloride or Radium source ?

[Tito L. Oracion]

@ hans and Abba


thank you very very much sir! 



God bless
otits

[Koen1]

Otits,

if you really want radium, you may be able to buy old watch-dials (the "hands" on the watch)
via E-bay. Sometimes there is still someone who has a box of old Radium-painted
luminescent watch-dials siting in storage in the attic. (don't ask me where they got them,
perhaps grandpa had some in his garage or something )
I know this might work because a friend of mine actually managed to get hold of some
that way.
Mind you, official production of Radium and Radium-products was stopped in Western
countries in roughly the 1960s, after it was found to be carcinogenic. (gives you cancer)
Perhaps production was continued for some time in non-western countries, but my
Russian is as bad as my Chinese so I can't be sure.

If you "only" want some form of radioactive material for use in experiments, then I am
not sure if Radium is the thing to go for.
There are a great many radioactive isotopes out there. Most are controlled as in cannot
be bought unless you are a military or academic official with a research license.
Some companies, especially in the USA, sell tiny quantities of radioactive isotopes
for educational purposes, but most are sealed in big acrylic blocks for safety reasons.
You could try united nuclear (www.unitednuclear.com). Obviously they do not ship such
materials out of the country.

Another way to obtain samples of radioactive ores would be to go out and collect them.
Buy a good quality Geiger counter that can detect the type of radiation you want
(alpha, beta, gamma), wrap some lead foil around your underwear, and go out on a
wilderness hike in a region known to have mineral deposits of ores and elements that
are often found in the company of the specific radioactive element you want.
Then just collect the rocks that your Geiger counter starts barking at.
Pack them in a lead lined box and take them home, and there you have your radioactive
rocks to experiment with. Be very carefull not to inhale their dust by the way.
The Geiger teller can be quite expensive and it may not be worth your wile to do this
if you don't live near a region with such minerals.
If you happen to live in Canada, Canada produced roughly 30% of the worlds Uranium
ore production for 2005, so if you live anywhere near those mines you should be able
to find some uranium ore or uraninite if you hunt for it woth a Geiger teller. There is said
to be more than 40 times more Uranium in the earth than Silver, so it should not be too hard to find.

One radioactive material that is relatively easily obtained is Tritium, the heavier
brother of Hydrogen and Deuterium. Tritium is a beta-radioactive gas, meaning that it
emits beta particles (aka fast electrons) as it decays.
Several companies around the world sell Tritium-filled "Tracers" or "Glow rings",
which are typically acrylic rods with a borosilicate glass tube embedded,
which in turn is filled with Tritium gas and coated on the inside with a phosphorous
luminescent compound. They are most often fixed to a key-ring.
These "Tracers" emit light for at least a decade, since Tritium has a half-life of
approximately 12 years.
Although reasonably easily obtainable, Tritium is probably NOT a material that
you would want to use for experiments. Not because it is so terribly radioactive,
but mostly because it is an isotope of hydrogen and as a gas can be easily
inhaled, which gets that relatively weak radioactivity straight into the lung tissues
and that is extremely unhealthy!

There are a few weak radioactive isotopes of various other elements that are
available through some sources, but most of those are not very usefull for
energy production. This is either because of their short half-life, their very
low decay energy, or the extremely low occurrence of that isotope.

Smoke alarms were mentioned, some of those used to contain radioactive
elements like americium, strontium, francium, etc.
But nowadays most smoke alarms are "optical" and no longer use radioactive
materials.

I hope there is some usefull information in this post.
In any case, BE CAREFULL whatever you do with radioactive materials.
And perhaps it would be worth reading up on Moray's work with his radioactive ores.
Bruce Perreault also worked with and wrote about radioactive materials
in power generating setups. And so did quite a few others.

Kind regards,
Koen

[triffid]

You can find radioacitive materials in fresh rainwater(with half lives of a few hours or less).Just boil down 200 gallons of rainwater into a single beaker or flask.They used to do this at the university of Arkansas with they had a nuclear chemistry group(1960's and 1970's).Then react chemicals with the residue to make samples which could be measured.Triffid

[triffid]

Just google up" nuclear chemistry" and see what pops up.Triffid

[Tito L. Oracion]

@sir koen and triffid

wow ! what an info ! 

Thank you very much sir! 



God bless
otits