Hi! That eerie blue glow is
the effect of something incredible. An alchemist's dream come true. One element changing into another. And if that isn't unreal enough Antimatter is also being
created here in my living room. Let me explain... This video features radioactive items. Only handle them yourself
if you know what you're doing and accept the risks involved. Respect the radiation and keep the dose low. Avoiding radiation altogether is
however impossible in the real world. Finally, I have something new
for a video about radioactivity. My latest video with focus
on it was back in 2015. Man, time flies... The new stuff is a new, radioactive
element for my collection and a geiger counter - all donated by RadiaScan. Thanks to them for making this video possible. With the 701, I should finally be able
to get a reading on my hottest sample. The massive pitchblende sample
with over 400 g of uranium oxides which my two old Geiger
counters gave up on. But the 701 should also be sensitive enough to detect very low levels of radioactivity. This is where the memorial
from the intro comes in. It has two small vials on it
filled with radioactive hydrogen. The radioisotope tritium. Not uranium, thorium or
americium like my other samples. Let's test it with the Soeks Defender first. This will only detect gamma
and hard beta radiation so it's not useful for low-level radiation. It has no clue, that there's
something radioactive near it. 0.16 µSv/h is normal, average
background radiation at my place. Here is the Gamma-Scout. Despite its name, it will detect
alpha, beta and gamma radiation making it much more suitable
for detection low levels. Hmmm, it goes a little higher but this
is still within normal background radiation. How about the RadiaScan-701? This has a pancake probe
with a fairly large surface to detect alpha, beta and gamma radiation. I think it's safe to say that it noticed
something radioactive near it... Impressive, since tritium vials only emit
radiation with an unusually low energy. As mentioned, tritium is hydrogen,
but a special radioisotope of it. Normal hydrogen is a very simple atom.
As simple as it gets... One proton in the nucleus, and
an electron whizzing around it. No wonder it is so light... A small part of natural hydrogen
is a heavier isotope with one neutron in the nucleus. This is called deuterium and you may know it from heavy water,
where the hydrogen in the water molecules is the deuterium isotope. Now, tritium has two neutrons in
the nucleus and this is a problem... With twice as many neutrons as protons this is a neutron-rich nucleus
and they tend to be unstable. Tritium is no exception and only has a
50% chance of lasting more than 12 years. The way it stabilizes itself is fascinating. One of the neutrons feels like a third
wheel and spits out two particles. An electron and an electron antineutrino. By getting rid of a negative
charge in form of an electron the neutron has gone from
a neutral to a positive charge. It has turned into a proton... The hydrogen is now all of a sudden Helium! This change is what makes tritium radioactive since the emitted electron leaves the atom with enough energy to be destructive -
ionizing - in what we call beta minus radiation. The tiny antimatter particle
- the antineutrino - is not ionizing radiation since it will just
pass through everything with no destruction. It is in fact so hard to detect, that three
Nobel prizes has been given for it so far. All right, so it is the emitted electrons
I can detect coming from the tritium vials? No... not directly. The glow is coming from a phosphor
coating on the inside of the vials absorbing the electrons' energy
and releasing it as visible light. This is known as radioluminescence and
the phosphor decides the color of the light. The electrons from the tritium have so little energy that they will not make it through the
phosphor coating and glass walls of the vial. But... what am I detecting then? Well, I am detecting something
that is famous for going through stuff... X-rays! More specifically, I am detecting bremsstrahlung. Bremsstrahlung is not particles like beta radiation but electromagnetic radiation with energies
between gamma radiation and ultraviolet light. It is emitted when the electrons
coming from the tritium are slowed down by atoms nearby. When the electrons lose their kinetic energy
- from being slowed down - the energy is converted to
electromagnetic radiation instead. Bremsstrahlung is not blocked
by the phosphor or glass so a highly sensitive Geiger counter
will detect it as ionizing radiation. Right. So the 701 passes
the test at low intensities. How will it perform at high intensity? For this, I have brought out
my hottest, radioactive sample. Nice in a cold and boring winter... Okay, it is actually not radioactively
hot enough to be warm hot but it sure will make the
Geiger counters sweat... I will start with the Gamma-Scout
since it did the worst back in 2015. It simply went down to zero and never
did a proper reading near this piece. Will it do better this time? Uhm... that's no good. The battery is drained to a point where the beeper is drawing too
much current for the screen to work. That's better! Woah, the battery is not happy. Hang in there buddy, you can make it! Oddly enough it is doing better with low battery. It is still climbing instead of going
down to zero like it did four years ago. How high will it go?!? We just passed ½ millisievert/h! Excuse the bad glare.
I was not near the camera. Looks like it peaks at close to 720 µSv/h! Why don't you change the battery,
I hear you say. Well... here's how you change
batteries in the Defender. So easy.
And in the RadiaScan... A little tighter, but still very easy. While on the back,
I would like to show you a detail. With the lid off, alpha, beta and gamma
radiation can make it to the sensor. If you want to block alpha particles,
you put the lid on like this. If you want to block beta radiation too,
you use the metal-plated part of the lid. Now, only gamma radiation
will make it through to the sensor. Here's how you swap batteries
on the Gamma-Scout. You don't! This has a soldered battery. You are supposed to send this back to them for a battery change and recalibration
every 10 years or so. I haven't looked into the price
of that service including shipping but I feel, I would be
better off saving the money and buy a fresh, updated model -
now available with a rechargeable battery... I could attempt to swap the battery myself
and make a video on it - if you are interested? All right, it is the Defender's turn. Last time I found out it will max out at 320 µSv/h. And there we have it.
It is maxed out again. Now - for the first time - the RadiaScan-701
will meet my monster pitchblende. I love how immediate the RadiaScan is. No waiting for a minute for the reading to build up. Just under 700 µSv/h within seconds. Highest reading was 721 - or over 6000 times
the average background radiation at my place. Respect! It seems like the RadiaScan
will handle anything I throw at it. Not bad considering it is priced
between the Soeks and Gamma-Scout. Link in the description for more info. Thanks to all my patrons! My videos wouldn't be the same without you. In the future, I would like
to buy a scintillation spectrometer so I can detect the different
radioisotopes in the samples. Not just detect if something is radioactive or not. With one dollar from enough of you,
it is possible. Check out patreon.com/Brainiac75 Thank you for watching - and subscribing! Click like if you didn't dislike the video
and I'll see you in the next one. Bye for now!
