Radioactive Findings with Raysid

🎉 May your New Year be full of counts, not doubts!

https://raysid.com/

Uranium ceramics in antique market. Hunting with Raysid for uranium ceramics at an antique market.

Perfect pitchblende (uranium ore).
A video from Weirdmeister inc. channel.

found some botryoidal Uraninite rock used the raysid device for searching some uranium ore

Minerals hunting in Kowary, Poland.

https://youtu.be/0gpktyymOb8

Unknown Xray source. Part 2 (next day)
10.05.2021 Wrocław ul. Krzemieniecka

First part (detection of xray) is here:
https://facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=396208292223296&id=104946408016154

To save your time, the quick result: the source was not switched on. No radiation. Nothing interesting. Sorry if you were waiting for some action movie :)

Thanks for your comments/support in the first part. I found the most interesting and probably close to truth answer of Milos Djaletic in "Radioactive Minerals and Objects" FB-group. He showed the graph from his measuring station at ~250m distance from a place where weld testing was done. All "symptoms" are similar: big distance, periodic on/off.

All further information may be useful for those who plan to call authorities. I just described my experience.

Why I called National Atomic Energy Agency and not fire department:
1) This organisation registers ionizing sources including xray machines. They should know who officially owns xray devices.
2) I read their yearly report about the radiological situation in Poland. This report contains some interesting statistics. For example: in 2020, they did 553 consultations and 486(!!!) of them were redirected to fire departments because of higher than normal levels of radiation.
3) There are a phone numbers and email on their website for radiological incidents

10:47 (call duration: 9m37s) I made a phone call to the National Atomic Energy Agency.
A man from the Agency was smart and asked the right questions. The main things that I told:
1) Probably I found a working unshielded xray machine (gamma spectrum shows photon energy about 50keV)
2) It is detectable from 100m distance (1-2 uSv/h)
3) Detectable by 2 different types of geiger counters (Geiger-Muller and scintillator)
4) The radiation source turned on periodically: each 3 min, duration: 1min. 12 times in total.
5) I have recorded videos with measurements
A man asked me to send him my photos/videos by email. He couldn't say when they would react or etc.
I uploaded 2 videos to youtube(access by link) and just added links to email, added screenshots and got a call:

11:09 (call duration: 49s) Call from the same man from National Atomic Energy Agency
What he said: he redirected my information to a fire department. He gave them my phone number, firemen may ask me where exactly they need to look for some radiation. Some fire brigade with a geiger counter will come and check.

11:17 (call duration: 4m49s) Call from fire department
A man said that I called the fire department about increased levels of radiation (a bit not true - I called another organisation).
A man asked: how I detected increased radiation levels, which measurement device(s) were used, levels.
Among others there was a question about my detectors: whether I wanted to check my own counters and called them just to confirm that my counters were so good. I tried to explain that there is no joke. Detectors show 1-2uSv/h at 100m distance.
Questions finished. He told me to stay at a safe distance and wait for them. Small problem: I was at home. An officer was not happy about that fact. He told me that if I called them I must be near the accident place and wait for them. Then he quickly finished our talk saying: "we are leaving. wait for us at the address".
Luckily I live nearby. I hit "send" on email and jumped into my car.
Everything was too quickly: I didn't have time to write anything in email. Just links to 2 videos, screenshots, and link to the map.

11:34 (call duration: 10s) One more call to me to be sure that I'm coming.
I was there ~11:40.

What I saw: 2 fire cars (I think fire brigade and command vehicle). One fireman with a counter very similar to Polon eko-c. There were no unusual levels. No radiation/xrays. Nothing. I showed one video on my phone to their chief (written on his back).

The 3rd car came ( https://youtu.be/F2gWoOSPpTY ). These guys were prepared better. I think this is a radiological/chemical brigade. They had one more Polon eko-c (I guess, it is polon eko-c) and Flir Identifinder R400. All devices are certified and calibrated (they said). I was allowed to take a photo. The chief of that 3rd brigade is an inspector of radiological protection. I think I talked to him by phone because he used very official language when talked to me. Short professional questions. He changed (like became more friendly) when I told him that I didn't call the fire department. (I called the Atomic Energy Agency). I have no idea why it was important. Maybe the Agency does some filtering of "false calls''. Maybe the inspector understood that I was not playing - I don't know this.
They checked the territory where I was running a day before. Just a short walk. Entered just one car service (a worker invited them to check). They viewed one of my videos. Then the chief tried to explain me that there could be some legal xray device, mobile xray device. They even have some xray lamp in their car. From my side I tried to explain that 1-2uSv at 100m (with walls) is too big.
Sure, bla-bla is not interesting. They want to see numbers on their calibrated detectors. I understand this. A chief from "command vehicle" 2 times explained to me that they have no complaints against me, just thanks for the call, and also said that police have to register what happened.
Police officer (came too, I didn't see when): got info from my document, asked me about yesterday's doserate level, asked whether it was some mistake/joke.

Then I had about 5-10 min to ask radiological inspector several questions like:

Q: if I catch increased levels in that place again what to do then?
A: call immediately, directly to fire department using short number and wait for them

Q: What to do If I find any other radioactive source?
A: call us if you find something >100uSv/h

Q: Can I store a check source from some geiger counter?
A: There are limits by activity

Note: I live in Poland and this is just words, please check the laws of your country by yourself.

Thank you for reading this very long post. Definitely, I'll check that place from time to time (in the morning 06.10.21 it was clean).

Thanks to firemen/officers from all 3 cars. From my point of view everything was professional and very quick.

P.S. 2 videos sent to the National Atomic Energy Agency were viewed 2 and 3 times (at the moment of publishing this post)

Edit: removed statement about uranium rocks

#радиация

Unknown Xray source. Part 1.
10.04.2021 Wroclaw ul. Krzemieniecka

10:24 Got an alarm event inside my car. There was a high click-rate from the raysid on my belt. Turned back to recheck.

10:28 (video1) Got an alarm again. This time I started to record a video (video with violet numbers for debugging). Click rate rose gradually because I was moving to the source.
https://youtu.be/CvEPVqYNLFg

10:32 (video2) Trying to find a parking place. Raysid started to scream loudly. I was somewhere near the source (I think so) or just less walls between me and the source.
https://youtu.be/JS_yCtI5xK4

10:35 (video3) First try to find something. Started near the road. I thought that I passed the source somewhere on the road. Raysid started to scream again. This time I checked the spectrum: one big peak ~50keV. The same 10-20 kCPS.
https://youtu.be/CU57LcCKnMc

10:39 (video4) Near the road again. This time I tried to identify the direction by rotation around myself (my body is able to stop some 50keV rays). More-less the direction was identified.
https://youtu.be/63RZ2tb_nBY

10:42 (video is not published, it has personal information). Near the road. Similar to video3

10:45 (video5) Looks like I found the right direction.
https://youtu.be/xEmHX4o7nys

10:50 (video6) I was going to go home. Behind the petrol station CPS was much less. Checked the direction one more time.
https://youtu.be/5vpNfeedbHM

10:53 no video recorded. See the screenshot with "start"-"finish" flags. One more event on the way home.

Went home to get more counters. Took one more raysid and radiascan 701. Returned back. Parked more far this time.

11:39 (video7) I'm at an 80-100m distance from a place with maximum values. Still see 2-3kCPS. Metal box cut about a half of the rays. Trying to read any numbers on radiascan in sunlight.
https://youtu.be/ltPyz6k9qJg

11:45 (video8) Took all counters to one hand to double-check if there was no mistake. No surprise, xrays hit all my counters.
https://youtu.be/MkWfBHY3yB0

11:49 (video9) One more try to find the source
https://youtu.be/MPev5mT1zkU

Waited 10-15 min and went home. Full of impressions.

Actual Raysid Map of that place:
https://raysid.com/map/ #17-16.96296-51.09569-hybrid-raysid_cps-0-sv-cps-global

Later I realized that some xray machine (I think so) was switched on every 3 min (screenshot with log records), exposure time ~1min.

Whole day I was thinking what to do with that source, is it really dangerous, and etc. After some talks with colleagues decided to call authorities.
The next morning (10.05.2021) I made a phone call to the National Atomic Energy Agency (a special phone number for accidents).

To be continued...

Edit1:
Part 2 is here: https://www.facebook.com/radioactive.findings/posts/397106468800145

Edit2:
Thanks to your comments I found the most suitable version:
I caught working industrial NDT device (Non Destructive Testing). There are some videos on YT how it works: 1min of exposure then changing location a bit (2min is enough) and repeat. This procedure can be repeated a lot of times (for example: depends on tested metal tube diameter).

#радиация #рентген

A bit more than usual amount of uranium.

#урановоестекло