Radiacode: pocket-sized radiation detectors. Is it worth it?

[Eise]

The promise is a small device, which can be connected to a smart phone, and register, identify, display graphically (spectrum and in intensity in time; also on Google Street Maps or Open Street Maps), radioactive substances, better (and cheaper!) than traditional Geiger-Müller counters. Here is their website.

Here is a report of a physicist playing around with it. Some excerpts:

Quote

Last week I traveled from Venice to Tokyo through Zurich, and during the flights I could do some more tests of the RadiaCode 103 - the nice spectrometer for gamma radiation I have been playing with as of late (for a couple of earlier posts and tests see here and here). This time I was curious to see not only how the radiation increases as you raise your elevation above sea level (something that I observed already a long time ago with a different radiation detector, and then again with another unit a few years later), but rather see what the energy spectrum would look like - something that the older devices were not able to provide.

<snip>

It is interesting to note that the radiation levels are over one order of magnitude higher than those on the ground. Also, the RadiaCode is sensitive enough to report where the plane changed its altitude - you can see a few small steps in the long flight, on top of a more smooth variation that is mostly due to the night-time effect (we get slightly more radiation from one direction in the sky than from the other). Radiation is strongly dependent on altitude because of the way cosmic ray showers develop in the atmosphere.

By the way, if you look more closely in the graph above, you can see that before the VCE-ZRH bump there is a much sharper, higher spike. That is when I passed the device under the x-ray scanner at the Venice airport. Interesting to note is the fact that I found out the machines that scan luggage there leak a significant amount of x-rays in the surrounding area. No good news for the personnel operating them!

<snap>

The most evident is a very tall peak at very low energies - a couple of tens of keV. The second is a small but very clear peak around 511 keV. What are they? I must say I am not quite sure about the origin of the first one (I need to check my hypothesis), so I will abstain from commenting on it. But I do know what the second one is: it is the product of annihilations of positrons with electrons, which produces two gamma rays of 511 keV. The RadiaCode catches some of those gamma rays and reports a bump from which you can count how many positrons did the trick.

I always like to measure things around me: where am I and how high (GPS), what is the temperature, moisture of the air, water temperature of the lake near my house, and on and on. Maybe I am a bit nerdy...
 

Edited August 14 by Eise

[Mordred]

Interesting product and yes a pocket size Geiger counter would be useful for a large number of industries provided they have accuracy.

Thanks for pointing +1

[exchemist]

31 minutes ago, Eise said:

The promise is a small device, which can be connected to a smart phone, and register, identify, display graphically (spectrum and in intensity in time; also on Google Street Maps or Open Street Maps), radioactive substances, better (and cheaper!) than traditional Geiger-Müller counters. Here is their website.

Here is a report of a physicist playing around with it. Some excerpts:

I always like to measure things around me: where am I and how high (GPS), what is the temperature, moisture of the air, water temperature of the lake near my house, and on and on. Maybe I am a bit nerdy...
 

How interesting. Jolly useful if a Russian invites you to tea!
 

Could be interesting to see how much one is exposed to in the streets of Aberdeen, or in the basements of houses in Cornwall. Although, thinking about it, if this thing only detects gamma radiation it might not help in those contexts.

[Sensei]

If you like such toys, buy an IR camera that plugs into your phone's USB-C. FLIR ONE PRO.

 

If some electronic device is damaged, simply disassemble it, connect the power supply and start observation in IR. Damaged components often overheat and are visible in IR.

[Externet]

For heat or for gamma sources ?

Damaged inoperative components do not emit heat.

[Sensei]

4 minutes ago, Externet said:

Damaged inoperative components do not emit heat.

A defective component such as a processor, integrated circuit, etc. often emits heat when it is damaged. More current flows through the short circuit and this energy must be dissipated in some way.

6 minutes ago, Externet said:

For heat or for gamma sources ?

IR = infrared.

 

[Eise]

Can we stay on topic, please? I am interested in this device.

And yes, it measures gammy radiation. I wonder if beta decays in a nucleus are usually followed by emission of gammy radiation. In the end, does the nucleus not 'reshuffle', because on its nucleons has changed?

[swansont]

2 hours ago, Eise said:

And yes, it measures gammy radiation. I wonder if beta decays in a nucleus are usually followed by emission of gammy radiation. In the end, does the nucleus not 'reshuffle', because on its nucleons has changed?

Yes, you often get a gamma. There are exceptions; tritium is a notable one. (C-14 also, I think)

That’s why tritium is used as a source for radioluminescent emergency exit signs