- "This particular example came from a 55 gallon drum of tape dispensers that the U.S. Army was about to dispose of as radioactive waste."
This is a common beach sand [0]. It illustrates something absurd, I can't quite put my finger on what, about the relation between human society and technology. No one knows anything about the physical or chemical properties of sand on the beach. No one asks; no one cares. There are no EPA surveys of beach radioactivity. No beach signs warning beachgoers "do not eat the sand", or, "this beach is known to the state of California to cause cancer". But you take one handful of the beach into a plastic box, and accidentally walk it past the wrong regulatory compliance officer, and suddenly the US Army is burying your one-handful-of-beach-sand in a 55-gallon drum packed in bentonite.
It's one lens for nature, and one lens for the anthropogenic.
I wonder if the phenomenon you're describing is the subtle and often hidden complexity of science, and our inability as humans to recognise and handle that complexity appropriately.
In this case, we have the US Army's procedure for disposing of low-level radioactive waste. That process probably says something like "if a thing has been identified as more radioactive than THRESHOLD, then dispose of as radioactive waste." Could the process be expanded to cover cases where the radioactivity is naturally occurring? Probably, but who would then take on the liability if there were any? I'm not sure. What about a case like this, where a naturally occurring radioactive source has been transformed into some piece of equipment that nobody would reasonably expect to be radioactive. Does that need special handling, or not? If so, who is responsible -- the US Army? The manufacturer? The US EPA, even?
It all gets quite complicated, and as complexity increases the risk of a procedure not being applied consistently, or at all, rises quickly. To keep the collective human machine functional, we need to ignore the complexity, and have every radioactive thing be disposed of in the same way.
There are many instances of humans handling scientific complexity badly and coming to poor decisions as a result. A well-known one is declining nuclear fission power stations in favour of coal power stations and subsequently releasing more radioactivity into the environment than the nuclear power stations would ever have done. I'm sure there are hundreds more.
I visited a friend in Elliot Lake once and we stopped at a plaque on the side of the highway to read. A geologist friend came along, and he recognized the formation of the rocks under our feet as uranium-bearing. I had brought my Geiger counter along, and sure enough, these were hot too.
As you mention: no warning signs, no caution tape. Being close enough to that in any “anthropoid” setting would require, at the very least, a dosimetry badge.
I can live within that cognitive dissonance, but it’s just an interesting observation.
I thought this was going to be about generating x-rays by peeling scotch tape (https://www.technologyreview.com/2008/10/23/217918/x-rays-ma...)
About 20 years ago I kitted out our office with furniture and supplies from a business liquidation auction. Several tape dispensers of that general shape came along with the lot. I guess I had better bring my geiger counter to the office. Probably the wrong vintage, but who knows?
monazite isn't radioactive enough to be dangerous unless you're breathing the radon. chemically it's very stable, even without the epoxy encapsulation
Just curious. I bought the geiger counter to verify the authenticity of some fiestaware and discovered that my radium dial alarm clock is hot enough to trigger the alarm.
yeah, radium-dial alarm clocks actually can be dangerous. but i think you can put monazite sand in your food with no ill effects except for tooth wear
Designed by Henry Dreyfus & Associates. I collect them them.
Be careful how you stack them.
(this is a joke, I realize that criticality would be completely impossible for a zillion reasons)
I think fusion from gravity would be the first radiation hazard lol. You would need quite a few.