These are pictures of the Americium-241 sources inside some old Pyrotronics F3/5A smoke detectors that were being decommissioned. The activity of the Am-241 sources at the time of manufacture (1970s) totaled 80 µCi, so they should still have some ~70 µCi left in them. The Pyrotronics F3/5A smoke detectors were manufactured in the early 1970s. The
A Low-Cost, Super-Sensitive Paint Can Scintillation Probe for the Prutchi CDV700-Pro
We just finished constructing a low-cost, yet highly sensitive gamma-ray scintillation probe for our CDV700-Pro counter. The probe is based on a Philips XP5312/SN photomultiplier tube (that is available from Sphere Research) and a piece of scintillation plastic. The probe yields a background count of approximately 1,000 counts/minute (cpm) in our lab, and 7,400 cpm
