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Mystery ItemsOver the years radioactive objects of unknown origins have been turned over to the Office of Radiation Protection and other items have been discovered by staff while sampling or surveying. Below are a few of the more interesting mysteries.
The photographs show an unusual ice structure that formed on the filter of an environmental air sampler. The sampler is a low volume pump, which pulls outdoor air through a filter, which sits horizontally on top of the pump, under a mushroom shaped rain cap. On Friday, Feb. 18, 2000, the weather was very foggy and cold. There was frost on the grass and black ice on the roads. The filter, which is changed every three to five days, was removed shortly before 10 a.m. Ice cones have been seen on the filters before, but this was the first time with a crystal balanced on the point of the cone. We believe due to the weather, the water in the air is very near the triple point (the temperature, pressure, and concentration combination where water can exist as a solid, liquid, or vapor). Because of the shape of the rain cap, the air flow changes direction as it goes through on the way to the filter, a low pressure zone forms at the center of the filter, and water vapor and/or droplets condense out of the air and freeze. After the cone starts it provides a site for more vapor to condense, and the process probably accelerates. The ice is cloudy, indicating a fair amount of trapped air. The crystal on top of the cone apparently has a different mechanism of formation. Anyone care to speculate? Send your comments to Mike Brennan. "For Demonstration of Electro-Magnetic Radiation" This old instrument was apparently used for educational purposes to demonstrate the generation and properties of electro-magnetic radiation. It was manufactured by Budd-Stanley of Syosset, Long Island, NY, and is called a model X4100-A. It consists of a magnetron, i.e., a source of electrons and a set of cavities or chambers by which radiofrequency of various wavelengths is created and emitted from a horn-like projection at the right of the device.
We wanted to find the "operator's manual" for this device, so that we could understand how it works, what its output is, how to adjust that output, and what the potential exposures are. We are grateful to Stanley Kurtz of the Instituto de Astronomia in Michoacan, Mexico, who mailed a copy of the original manual in June of 2003. Thank you, Mr. Kurtz! Our discovery did not have the "black box" with the identifying information. There was only a radioactive cord.
Thanks to Arie (Boudewijn) Klerk, radiation health physics supervisor at the Dutch Ministry of Defense, we now know that our mystery item is an "automatic release, parachute rip cord". The photo above is the intact item found by the Dutch some years ago in their nuclear waste. A close-up of the writing gives the following information: "Winding Instructions. This was our first international success in identifying a mystery item! Comments or suggestions should go to Arden Scroggs. The KX-642 vacuum tube originally contained a microcurie or so of radium-226 and was later manufactured containing Kr-85 instead
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