Nuclear Weapons Material

[Timothy C. May]

Mike McNally asks:

> Timothy C. May writes:
>  > When we needed sources of alpha particles, we cracked open smoke
>  > detectors and took out the Americium sources.
> 
> How much alpha do you really need (he asked, wondering when somebody
> will get irate and insist this thread be terminated)?  I have some
> mineral specimens at home that are fairly hot (uraninite,
> cuprousklodowskite, and something else similar) with (this
> non-physicist thinks) mostly alpha emissions.  Such things can be had
> at your next gem & mineral show, if you're lucky.

I don't "need" any these days. My reference to "when we needed" was to
the 1977-1982 period, at Intel. And, yes, we had cut and polishes "hot
rocks," including uraninite, thorianite, and various pure U-238
sheets. 

But the "Kong source" (10 mCi of Po-210) sprayed out vastly more
alphas per square centimeter at the target than the "natural" sources
here. We used sources at a wide range of activities to measure device
sensitivitie3s to alpha particles.


--Tim May


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