I've now made my second trip to the SW corner of England, in search of some alpha- and gamma- emitting samples. I was working on info published by an outfit calling themselves "Dangerous Laboratories" in 2002- unfortunately I can't find the link at present. The first location was South Terras Mine, once owned by a French Co of which a major shareholder was Mme. Curie. It had a feature temptingly described as a Radium Settling Pond. I found that access is now denied in a marked manner, and all nearby footpaths have been blocked off, and become heavily overgrown. I later heard that a team of suited and booted (and respirator - wearing) individuals had removed tons of soil etc, soon after the 2002 visit.
. However, I then visited Trenwith mine, at the resort of St Ives. This is where Mme. Curie got the pitchblende for her isolation of radium. The spoil tip has been levelled off to make a large car and coach park, but there were interesting- looking rock samples in the slope leading down from this. Further visits to Wheal Owles and Blue Kitty mines yielded similar samples.
. Unfortunately, I don't have a Geiger counter at present, tho I'm trying to build one. I'm trying to get a gamma source to check such a counter- I think if it responds to gamma it should also find high- energy X- rays. A plentiful alpha source would enable neutron generation via Be foil, useful for checking my ability to detect weak neutron fluxes |
2007-08-29 15:12 Cornwall Trip (Anthony Webb) [Latest: 2007-09-04 10:57]