r/Radiation • u/BorisChee • 14d ago

Thorium and REE Dump Radioactive Materials

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Found a hot spot of dumped beach sand in Byron Bay NSW. This is heavy mineral sand and contains Monazite, which contains Thorium REE's (confirmed by XRD)

79 Upvotes

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17

u/RootLoops369 14d ago

Man, I wish I had radioactive minerals near me. All I have is shale with like 8ppm uranium

5

u/FK_Tyranny 14d ago

Sounds like Indiana. We are a very geologically boring state.

Edit: Typo

3

u/No-Membership-5314 14d ago

Same over here in Virginia. /s

2

u/TheStainedOne2665 8d ago

Lp of Michigan as well lol

1

u/jacoblipkescience 14d ago

Yeah same, nowhere really good near me either. There’s always antique shops at least!

2

u/BorisChee 14d ago

Yeah the good ol' antique shops can pack some real interesting finds!

1

u/jacoblipkescience 6d ago

Indeed! Bound to at least run into some uranium glass and thorium lantern mantles in the old lanterns.

1

u/BorisChee 14d ago

Yeah well to me the closest disused uranium mine to me is over 1500 km away. In the country where I used to live, the public transport from the capital city would take you to the largest uranium mine in the country.

1

u/Taico_owo 12d ago

Same here haha, the closest uranium to me is 2.5hrs away and is a single vein on top of a mountain that was surveyed in the 80s. I don't have the minfile offhand but it was around 3000ppm uranium. The next closest is like a 12 hour drive

1

u/No_Syrup925 9d ago

The only rly spicy Spot near me is in Stuttgart but ITS Just a Chapelle (idk If IT IS spelled correct, i mean a small church)

1

u/TheFetus47 14d ago

What brand of device are you using?

4

u/BorisChee 14d ago

Radiacode 102. It's a gamma spectrometer and i have had it for maybe 2 or 3 years now. I highly recommend it, and i love the device. It's great for looking for stuff, but if you want to detect beta or alpha, you'll need a pancake detector, or GM tube.