Irradiation with neutrons or protons can cause the material to become
radioactive by changing some of the nuclei into unstable isotopes, but
for light elements this radioactivity is usually quite short lived. If
there are metal impurities it can last much longer. I would guess that
your ring is not very radioactive, if at all, and you will need a
relatively sensitive detector to find it. The hospital or local school
should have a geiger counter that would work. Emergency responders are
mostly concerned with things that are immediately dangerous, and if
they have detectors they might not be sensitive enough. Last time I
looked, most of the geiger counters available on ebay were cold war
relics that were only capable of detecting post-apocalyptic levels of
radiation. Your film might have the same problem, but it may be worth
a try. I wouldn't try your wife's dosimeter, since it probably would
cause problems if the ring is radioactive. You could also try building
a cloud chamber, see http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~adf4/cloud.html
Of course, whatever method you try, it is helpful to have a known
low-level radioactive source around to see if your detector is
working. What better reason to pick up a nice yellow silvernose
55/1.2?
Mark
On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 7:48 AM, SwissPace <ian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> From my web searching I believe this is correct but if there are any
> impurities in the topaz they can become radioactive. I don't want to
> take any risks and have been pondering of late why so many young women I
> have know have died in their 40-50's and wonder if it could be related
> to such jewellery ( of course it could be the alchohol) - yes I know I
> think too much.
>
> As a doctor's assistant my wife takes X-rays as part of her tasks so we
> have access to the film and development of such and she also has to wear
> a detector badge which we considered leaving it next to for a month. I
> was just wondering if there was a better method.
--
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