• Question: How do you protect yourself when probing the sieves with gamma rays? I though these were pretty dangerous!

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      • Royal Society of Chemistry: Find out more on:
      Asked by laurenfisher to Rowena, Kate, Kieren, Nicola, Roy on 8 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by sianfreeman, driabmas, domrusch, thecrazyhobbit, .
      • Photo: Rowena Fletcher-Wood

        Rowena Fletcher-Wood answered on 8 Mar 2014:

        You’re right – gamma rays are very dangerous!

        We have three kinds of protection. Have a close look at the picture of the Mossbauer spectrometer on my profile page: you should see what looks like lots of grey bricks on the table left of the Mossbauer spectrometer. These are made of lead and are very heavy. You probably know heavy elements are good at adsorbing radiation: this is what the lead is doing.

        We also have a Geiger-Muller counter which measures the background radiation by beeping at the frequency it detects radioactive particles. We use this to test the lab before and after changing samples. The person who changes

        The other two safety measures are warnings.

      • Photo: Kate Nicholson

        Kate Nicholson answered on 18 Mar 2014:

        I try my best to avoid using the gamma rays, and when I need to use one to line up the x ray machine, it is in a lead case, inside another lead case and I have to wear radiation badge and use the Geiger muller tube too, and this is for a very weak one.

    Comments

    • Photo: Rowena

      Rowena commented on :

      Well, that didn’t work.

      I was going to finish by saying the person who changes the sample also wears a personal counter like people in hospitals to tell them how much they have been exposed to the gamma rays. Low level is okay and known as background, but the counters will warn us when to exit the lab if there’s a leak.