I have prepared a 5 page paper on the subject above. I attach it here as a PDF file.
I hope it is enlightening and can be used as an introduction to the subject for the collector and would-be purchaser of Trinitite.
Comments to this FAQ are welcome.
Richard Hull
FAQ- Trinitite a tutorial and buyer guide.
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Richard Hull
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FAQ- Trinitite a tutorial and buyer guide.
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Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
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Frank Sanns
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Re: FAQ- Trinitite a tutorial and buyer guide.
It is also the only legal way to own any Plutonium 239. Great addition to your elements collection!
There are many atoms of the original Pu core that was made and handled by the scientists. The levels of Pu can approach 0.5 nanogram per gram of trinitite. It is a small amount but it is in there.
There are many atoms of the original Pu core that was made and handled by the scientists. The levels of Pu can approach 0.5 nanogram per gram of trinitite. It is a small amount but it is in there.
Achiever's madness; when enough is still not enough. ---FS
We have to stop looking at the world through our physical eyes. The universe is NOT what we see. It is the quantum world that is real. The rest is just an electron illusion. ---FS
We have to stop looking at the world through our physical eyes. The universe is NOT what we see. It is the quantum world that is real. The rest is just an electron illusion. ---FS
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Richard Hull
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Re: FAQ- Trinitite a tutorial and buyer guide.
Likewise, get a stress test with Tc99m. Pee in a jar. Make sure the urine is highly radioactive. Evaporate the water. Dry the solids and add Tc99 to your element collection. Half-life of Tc99 is 212,000 years. It will never die out to a significant degree for one million years.
Your TC99 in your collection will still be near full radioactivity when your Pu239 is effectively gone from your Trinitite.
Here is the full instruction on how to get your TC99 into your element collection.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj0HDN82Pfo
Richard Hull
Your TC99 in your collection will still be near full radioactivity when your Pu239 is effectively gone from your Trinitite.
Here is the full instruction on how to get your TC99 into your element collection.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj0HDN82Pfo
Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
-
Richard Hull
- Moderator
- Posts: 15406
- Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2001 9:44 am
- Real name: Richard Hull
Re: FAQ- Trinitite a tutorial and buyer guide.
I received permission to post my copies of the annotated photo's I received from Bill Kolb a number of years ago of Ralph Pray. (my annotations)
These are of Ralph as a young soldier gathering up the near ton and a half of Trinitite on multiple trips to the site in the early 50's. By this time, all patrols of the site had ceased as it no longer posed a big radiation hazard and was just a big deserted desert area with a dilapidated fence around the site. About the only use of the site was for very rare authorized researchers looking to obtain small samples of trinitite specimens for study.
By the mid-50s it was noted that trinitite was appearing for sale all over the southwest and even in the east. A good deal was used in "atomic jewelry"! The big hazard at that time was a still heavy gamma signature from Co60 and especially the Cs137. If worn close to the body, a very real hazard was there.
Two successive, future cleanups of trinitite from the Trinity site by the government were done to eliminate pilferage. Today, both of these gamma emitters in collectable, retail, trinitite pose no hazard whatsoever, even on the hottest specimens that I have <2000 cpm.
Click all images to enlarge and read the text.
All of this and much more is to be found in Bill's book, Trinitite, now out of print and sold out, but a future re-issue of a final super edition is in the planning stage.
Refer to the above story of the pray saga in my PDF. The pictures will tell the story and I include the modern photo of Pray as an old man. He passed away in recent years. (2017)
A photo of pray standing on "jumbo" half buried and forgotten back then. Now it is above ground at the gate to the trinity monument site. I include a photo of me standing inside it in 2005. There is a real story around Jumbo not often told.
Note: In the image of Ralph on Jumbo, the large rocks around Jumbo. Them ain't rocks! they are giant broken up piece of trinitite. What you see scattered about would retail today for many thousands of dollars each! There might easily be a million dollars of museum grade trinitite in this photo.
Richard Hull
These are of Ralph as a young soldier gathering up the near ton and a half of Trinitite on multiple trips to the site in the early 50's. By this time, all patrols of the site had ceased as it no longer posed a big radiation hazard and was just a big deserted desert area with a dilapidated fence around the site. About the only use of the site was for very rare authorized researchers looking to obtain small samples of trinitite specimens for study.
By the mid-50s it was noted that trinitite was appearing for sale all over the southwest and even in the east. A good deal was used in "atomic jewelry"! The big hazard at that time was a still heavy gamma signature from Co60 and especially the Cs137. If worn close to the body, a very real hazard was there.
Two successive, future cleanups of trinitite from the Trinity site by the government were done to eliminate pilferage. Today, both of these gamma emitters in collectable, retail, trinitite pose no hazard whatsoever, even on the hottest specimens that I have <2000 cpm.
Click all images to enlarge and read the text.
All of this and much more is to be found in Bill's book, Trinitite, now out of print and sold out, but a future re-issue of a final super edition is in the planning stage.
Refer to the above story of the pray saga in my PDF. The pictures will tell the story and I include the modern photo of Pray as an old man. He passed away in recent years. (2017)
A photo of pray standing on "jumbo" half buried and forgotten back then. Now it is above ground at the gate to the trinity monument site. I include a photo of me standing inside it in 2005. There is a real story around Jumbo not often told.
Note: In the image of Ralph on Jumbo, the large rocks around Jumbo. Them ain't rocks! they are giant broken up piece of trinitite. What you see scattered about would retail today for many thousands of dollars each! There might easily be a million dollars of museum grade trinitite in this photo.
Richard Hull
- Attachments
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
-
Richard Hull
- Moderator
- Posts: 15406
- Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2001 9:44 am
- Real name: Richard Hull
Re: FAQ- Trinitite a tutorial and buyer guide.
A bit of an update for those buying trinitite from me at HEAS. All trinitite is graded with its weight and activity on a piece of paper as provenance in a plastic zip-loc baggie.
All of the activities are in counts per minute, (CPM). All counts are real and have all background counts subtracted from the gross GM count. All counts are made 1cm. from the mica window of a 2" pancake GM detector. All counts are digital counter registered (no analog metering)
Background: I counted 3 ten minute background counts and found the mean of all of them and divided by 10 to arrive at a background CPM for counting trinitite.
Critical: All counts are taken of all pieces with the green glass side facing the mica window. This includes the bagged rubble. Whew! I took the time to turn every piece of small rubble up to their small green tops. All trinitite should be counted this way, (glassy side up to detector).
The CPM on the sheet is the total of all the pieces in the baggie grouped together for a gross count with background subtracted. Rubble has about 5-7 pieces and some bags have two or more pieces in them. The count is, again, for all the pieces gathered together for the count given. One single larger trinitite pieces have the count just for that one piece.
If you do not duplicate my counting method above and use a yellow civil defense counter or a metal detector tube. Your reading will definitely be lower that my stated count. If you have hot U ore, the yellow civil defense counter is fine as are metal walled tubes. Trinitite needs a good mica windowed counter. Remember, the stuff is decaying and is typically very weak.
A PMT counter might register far more CPM counts than my method above as they are very sensitive to gamma rays and most of the emission from trinitite is from strong gamma emitting bomb isotopes. GM tubes are terrible at counting gamma rays.
Just thought I would tell you how to read the provenance sheet with each baggie so you can be sure of what you are buying.
A good vendor of Trinitite should do all of the above and back what he sells as being the genuine article.
Richard Hull
All of the activities are in counts per minute, (CPM). All counts are real and have all background counts subtracted from the gross GM count. All counts are made 1cm. from the mica window of a 2" pancake GM detector. All counts are digital counter registered (no analog metering)
Background: I counted 3 ten minute background counts and found the mean of all of them and divided by 10 to arrive at a background CPM for counting trinitite.
Critical: All counts are taken of all pieces with the green glass side facing the mica window. This includes the bagged rubble. Whew! I took the time to turn every piece of small rubble up to their small green tops. All trinitite should be counted this way, (glassy side up to detector).
The CPM on the sheet is the total of all the pieces in the baggie grouped together for a gross count with background subtracted. Rubble has about 5-7 pieces and some bags have two or more pieces in them. The count is, again, for all the pieces gathered together for the count given. One single larger trinitite pieces have the count just for that one piece.
If you do not duplicate my counting method above and use a yellow civil defense counter or a metal detector tube. Your reading will definitely be lower that my stated count. If you have hot U ore, the yellow civil defense counter is fine as are metal walled tubes. Trinitite needs a good mica windowed counter. Remember, the stuff is decaying and is typically very weak.
A PMT counter might register far more CPM counts than my method above as they are very sensitive to gamma rays and most of the emission from trinitite is from strong gamma emitting bomb isotopes. GM tubes are terrible at counting gamma rays.
Just thought I would tell you how to read the provenance sheet with each baggie so you can be sure of what you are buying.
A good vendor of Trinitite should do all of the above and back what he sells as being the genuine article.
Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment