Radiation of Thorium and Tritium

Thorium has alpha emission about 4 MeV
Tritium has beta - emission : 18,5 keV

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• thorium
• tritium
• geiger
• counter
• nuclear
• radioactive
• active
• metal
• radiation
• alpha
• beta
• energy
• emission
• power
• danger

[10mintwo]

You are aware that you weren't actually detecting any betas from your phosphorescent tritium vial right? you were only detecting cosmic ray hits. the H-3 in your vial, as you know, has a max energy of 18 KeV. The stopping distance of an 18 KeV beta is mere MICRONS in plastic, they never even escape the glass ampoule, let alone the plastic container its in. prove it to yourself by averaging the counts over 5 minutes with the tritium source right next to the detector and again when far away.

[omegalab]

Some electrons hitting the counter, the backgroung radiation is lower, than near of the tritium light. The difference is very low.

[10mintwo]

Sir, I am afraid it is a simply physical impossibility for you to have detected any beta particles at all from that tritium source. you are deceiving yourself. an 18 KeV electron is utterly incapable of traversing such a thick amount of plastic and quantum tunneling effects are virtually nonexistent at few cm distances. google "feather's equation". I work with H-3 daily, trust me, NO electrons at all escape your device.

[omegalab]

You are right, I suprised too, when the counter measured higher radiation than background.

Well, there was some little thorium, I think I measured some particles from thorium, instead of tritium electrons, maybe.

[BYMYSYD]

lol right after you change it

[fireofenergy]

I didn't know that the thorium spits out so many particles, being that its halflife is about as long as the age of the universe...

LFTR is the UNLIMITED CLEAN ENERGY solution.

[10mintwo]

@noahspurrier You are correct. It has become clear since I posted the messages you are responding to that this is in fact, possible. I did not think the brem x-rays would be produced in sufficient number or energy in order to be detected by a common geiger counter. But that does indeed appear to be what he is detecting.

[noahspurrier]

@10mintwo He is not detecting the primary beta emissions of Tritium. He is detecting secondary Bremsstrahlung x-rays created from the energy released by the beta particles as they slow down in the glass. Tritium has a mean beta particle energy of 5.7 keV with a total decay energy 18.6 keV, so it seems plausible that some x-ray photons in the 5 to 18 keV range may be emitted. My Geiger counter is sensitive to 7 keV gamma, so it should be possible to detect this radiation.

[Halbwertszeit92]

Is that white salt thorium nitrate? (Th-nitrate tetra- or pentahydrate)?

And does the geiger counter have an alphy ray gate? Or do we hear the beta-pops of the Th-daughter.products only?

[vmelkon]

@BYMYSYD Tritium is a beta- emitter (electron + antineutrino) so one of the neutrons becomes a proton. The end result is helium 3.

[vmelkon]

@cdlldc111 It depends on the energy of the alpha or beta and there is a question of statistics. Example : If you aim a alpha emitter to a thin gold layer just as Rutherford had done, once in a while a alpha will pass through. The same happens with your skin.

[rockpianoguy]

hey will alpha partices go through glass they say they can't go through a sheet of paper. Put that thing in a closed gar and see if your counter still detects it.

[fatalfury3]

@Mutrino FYI, you don't know anyone on here or what we do, so who are you to judge what we do and don't know? I would continue the discussion further, but you're obviously a self-centered, self-righteous bigot who can do no wrong in his own eyes, so further discussion with a neanderthal like you would be pointless and a waste of my time.

[Mutrino]

There are so many wrong 'facts' stated in the comments as well that I don't know where to start. There is no room here to address them all. It is obvious that your knowledge and that of most people here does not extend beyond what they read on wikipedia.

[fatalfury3]

@Mutrino: (continued) Plutonium is indeed an alpha emitter, but as previously stated, alpha radiation is only harmful if the particles emitting it are inhaled. As for chemical toxicity, Plutonium is no more so than Caffeine. Also, large amounts of Plutonium particles must be inhaled/injested in order to cause radiation poisoning, however, there are no recorded deaths from this. Plutonium has been known to cause lung cancer when inhaled in large amounts however.