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 Trip to California 
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Joined: Mon Jun 03, 2013 9:35 pm
Posts: 48
Took a trip across the country to California:
Rain Water from big storm: Collected at Santa Cruz Feb. 28, 2014.
Tested on March 10, 2014
470 grams Rain Water
Tested for 12 hours 02 minutes 31 seconds
Cesium 1 bq/kg +/-4
Potassium 40 1 bq/kg +/- 51

Ocean Water from Spanish Bay in Carmel Bay, California
470 grams of very clear ocean water collected as a wave came in. No sand in sample.
Collected on March 6, 2014
Tested on March 11, 2014
Tested for 12 hours 05 minutes and 52 seconds
Cesium 1 bq/kg +/- 4
Potassium 40 1 bq/kg +/- 51

Sea kelp, mostly green and some red kelp from Spanish Bay in Carmel Bay, California
200 grams of green and red sea kelp. There was some wet sand embedded in some of the kelp.
Collected off the beach on March 6, 2014
Tested on March 9, 2014
Tested for 12 hours and 29 minutes 42 seconds
Cesium 1 bq/kg +/- 4
Potassium 40 1 bq/kg +/- 53

Wet, clean, fine, gray sand from Spanish Bay in Carmel Bay, California
600 grams tested
Collected on March 6, 2014
Tested on March 13, 2014
Tested for 13 hours 56 minutes and 35 seconds
Cesium 13 bq/kg +/- 5
Potassium 40 585 bq/kg +/- 133

Inspector gc, 10 minute count on beach through plastic bag directly on the sand 334 clicks divided by 10 minutes = 33.4 cpm.
Background measured at waist height for one hour: 1978 clicks divided by 60 minutes = 32.96 cpm.
Micro sievert from .07 to .1. Same as background.

Pollimaster 1406 scintillator/lead canister. I have never seen the Polimaster show test results, for anything, lower than 1 bq/kg +/- 4 for Cesium or less than 1 bq/kg +/- 51 for Potassium 40.


Fri Mar 14, 2014 4:47 pm
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Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2013 10:48 pm
Posts: 126
Pinto wrote:
Took a trip across the country to California:
Rain Water from big storm: Collected at Santa Cruz Feb. 28, 2014.
Tested on March 10, 2014
470 grams Rain Water
Tested for 12 hours 02 minutes 31 seconds
Cesium 1 bq/kg +/-4
Potassium 40 1 bq/kg +/- 51

Ocean Water from Spanish Bay in Carmel Bay, California
470 grams of very clear ocean water collected as a wave came in. No sand in sample.
Collected on March 6, 2014
Tested on March 11, 2014
Tested for 12 hours 05 minutes and 52 seconds
Cesium 1 bq/kg +/- 4
Potassium 40 1 bq/kg +/- 51

Sea kelp, mostly green and some red kelp from Spanish Bay in Carmel Bay, California
200 grams of green and red sea kelp. There was some wet sand embedded in some of the kelp.
Collected off the beach on March 6, 2014
Tested on March 9, 2014
Tested for 12 hours and 29 minutes 42 seconds
Cesium 1 bq/kg +/- 4
Potassium 40 1 bq/kg +/- 53

Wet, clean, fine, gray sand from Spanish Bay in Carmel Bay, California
600 grams tested
Collected on March 6, 2014
Tested on March 13, 2014
Tested for 13 hours 56 minutes and 35 seconds
Cesium 13 bq/kg +/- 5
Potassium 40 585 bq/kg +/- 133

Inspector gc, 10 minute count on beach through plastic bag directly on the sand 334 clicks divided by 10 minutes = 33.4 cpm.
Background measured at waist height for one hour: 1978 clicks divided by 60 minutes = 32.96 cpm.
Micro sievert from .07 to .1. Same as background.

Pollimaster 1406 scintillator/lead canister. I have never seen the Polimaster show test results, for anything, lower than 1 bq/kg +/- 4 for Cesium or less than 1 bq/kg +/- 51 for Potassium 40.


Ok, I am still trying to figure out what it all means, but I just wanted to send a big thank you your way!!!! ^^^ This is exactly what people need to be doing on the west coast! Hooray :)


Fri Mar 14, 2014 7:17 pm
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Joined: Mon Jun 03, 2013 9:35 pm
Posts: 48
Ooops, according to a radiation monitoring group in Germany called Strahlentelex, if you have to eat radiation, babies should not have over 5bq/kg and adults not more than 20 bq/kg. I think the American govt allows 1200 bq/kg. So, you see 1 bq/kg give or take 4 is low. I was super surprised as I had read that in San Diego or somewhere that they were getting something like 40,000 bk/kg on the kelp or something like that. Probably different areas test differently? and also if they had more sensitive equipment? (still my instrument would have picked up that high of rads) and also the time it was collected would make a difference? Did they collect when the initial aerisolized plume landed on the ocean? Who knows what the original background was back in the day? It could have been 6cpm. So, even though 32 seems to be typical there maybe it is not what it used to be. Still, I was expecting it to be a lot worse to the point that I used rubber gloves and double bagged everything. netc was green that day for that part of California. I am not eating anything out of the Pacific. Who knows what it is out further west. But, that's just me.


Sat Mar 15, 2014 7:24 am
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Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2013 10:48 pm
Posts: 126
Pinto, that is truly wonderful. I expected the same.... rubber gloves and all. I know that with the currents, southern Cali is getting hit a lot harder than northern Cali... however it is nice to know they dont have to put on hazmats suits to take a walk on the beach :) I have been worried about the whole starfish die-off...


Sat Mar 15, 2014 9:53 am
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Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2014 1:25 pm
Posts: 182
Hi Pinto,

It would seem to me your testing shows a low background while you were in California.

Is that correct???

tnx
rc


Sat Mar 15, 2014 10:18 am
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Joined: Mon Jun 03, 2013 9:35 pm
Posts: 48
Yeah, me too. I worry about the fog and the ocean mist, too.

The thing I noticed about that storm is that there were 2 swirling vortexes on the Pacific. I could see that weather modification was going on by viewing the weather radar (could it actually be they were trying to help for once?)
(California). One vortex was swirling off the coast of Japan and the other one was swirling off of the west coast and they were not sharing into each other! Very different from a jet stream coming straight off of Japan. It was actually watering California without the radiation (unlike how it normally would have been). I was relieved about that for the crops and the drought. But still, I can see CA needs a lot more water. There were actually brown hills that should be rolling green grasses in the winter.


Sat Mar 15, 2014 10:21 am
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Joined: Mon Jun 03, 2013 9:35 pm
Posts: 48
rustycase wrote:
Hi Pinto,

It would seem to me your testing shows a low background while you were in California.

Is that correct???

tnx
rc


rustycase, I don't know what the background used to be in that area so I can't say if it was truly low. But, at least it was not crazy readings like in CO and Amarillo, TX. I was not too worried about being there on that trip. The background reading there is the same as where I live and I live across the country from the Pacific and 34 miles from a nuclear plant.


Sat Mar 15, 2014 10:26 am
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Joined: Thu Mar 06, 2014 1:25 pm
Posts: 182
I'm sry... guess I didn't really write that properly...

It would seem to me, that with the exception of your test upon the 'fine sand', readings for the two isotopes mentioned were within the +/- capability of the instrumentation used.

Is this using the Inspector model that contains selectable reference parameters ???

...much I should learn about all this!
:-)
rc


Sat Mar 15, 2014 10:54 am
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Joined: Mon Jun 03, 2013 9:35 pm
Posts: 48
rustycase wrote:
I'm sry... guess I didn't really write that properly...

It would seem to me, that with the exception of your test upon the 'fine sand', readings for the two isotopes mentioned were within the +/- capability of the instrumentation used.

Is this using the Inspector model that contains selectable reference parameters ???

...much I should learn about all this!
:-)
rc

Hi,
The polimaster was used for the +/- readings and the Inspector for the air at waist height reading and the "geiger counter in a zip lock baggie on the sand" reading. Inspector won't do a +/- reading.


Sat Mar 15, 2014 12:30 pm
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Joined: Sat Dec 14, 2013 4:30 pm
Posts: 14
Location: TampaBay FL
Pinto wrote:
Took a trip across the country to California:
Rain Water from big storm: Collected at Santa Cruz Feb. 28, 2014.
Tested on March 10, 2014
470 grams Rain Water
Tested for 12 hours 02 minutes 31 seconds
Cesium 1 bq/kg +/-4
Potassium 40 1 bq/kg +/- 51

Ocean Water from Spanish Bay in Carmel Bay, California
470 grams of very clear ocean water collected as a wave came in. No sand in sample.
Collected on March 6, 2014
Tested on March 11, 2014
Tested for 12 hours 05 minutes and 52 seconds
Cesium 1 bq/kg +/- 4
Potassium 40 1 bq/kg +/- 51

Sea kelp, mostly green and some red kelp from Spanish Bay in Carmel Bay, California
200 grams of green and red sea kelp. There was some wet sand embedded in some of the kelp.
Collected off the beach on March 6, 2014
Tested on March 9, 2014
Tested for 12 hours and 29 minutes 42 seconds
Cesium 1 bq/kg +/- 4
Potassium 40 1 bq/kg +/- 53

Wet, clean, fine, gray sand from Spanish Bay in Carmel Bay, California
600 grams tested
Collected on March 6, 2014
Tested on March 13, 2014
Tested for 13 hours 56 minutes and 35 seconds
Cesium 13 bq/kg +/- 5
Potassium 40 585 bq/kg +/- 133

Inspector gc, 10 minute count on beach through plastic bag directly on the sand 334 clicks divided by 10 minutes = 33.4 cpm.
Background measured at waist height for one hour: 1978 clicks divided by 60 minutes = 32.96 cpm.
Micro sievert from .07 to .1. Same as background.

Pollimaster 1406 scintillator/lead canister. I have never seen the Polimaster show test results, for anything, lower than 1 bq/kg +/- 4 for Cesium or less than 1 bq/kg +/- 51 for Potassium 40.


Hi Pinto,

I also own a inspector (EXP) and waiting for delivery of a Pollimaster 1406 how long have you used the 1406 and how do you like it?

For those who don't know, this is the unit.
http://www.polimaster.com/products/radiation_activity_monitors/pm1406/

Also next week I should receive a Pollimaster 1703MO-1B.
http://www.polimaster.com/products/spectroscopic_personal_radiation_detectors/pm1703mo-1a/

My setup is a small safe lead shielded with a Raspberry Pi and gert board mounted inside. I have power, usb and a network connection inside the safe too. I have a 1/4'' npt connector to vacuum the safe (for cloud). The Pi has a camera, one of the DOs of the gert control led lights mounted inside. I also have mounted a couple of servos controlled by the gert. There is a GMC-320 mounted inside.


Sat Mar 15, 2014 12:41 pm
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