Images of the invisible

Alice Miceli has a running art project focused on the Chernobyl accident and the life of the surrounding area. What I've found most intriguing about the project (Accidentally also having the title "Chernobyl Project". We did not steal the idea, we swear:) is the idea of using industrial radiology films in a lead lined pinhole camera. If you did not grasp the concept yet, she is using a special radiography AGFA film to capture images of radiation, instead of images made by light. Check it out yourself...

TERRA-P with a check source

So have I found anything radioactive with the TERRA-P around me? No. Fortunately. I consider this to be a good thing. Except of course the natural background radiation, which is generally somewhere around 0.10 uSv (where u=micro). But that's not fun, and won't really show whether my shiny new and bright yellow radiometer works as it should...
What I did not know is that Danex's vintage Victoreen has a check source on its side. As the you might have concluded by now, a check source is a source which allows you to check if your device works correctly or not:) I had the privilege to abuse Danex's radiometer to test my own. The picture below shows the source, and the TERRA-P showing the normal background radiation:

The check source emits beta radiation. So to measure the beta (in addition to the gamma) radiation, one has to remove the little hinged door. The door has a thin lead lining, which is supposed to prevent beta radiation to enter the tube. Without the door, you can see the Geiger-Mueller tube exposed:

Just about a foot (~30cm) from the check source surface, the readings are not too terrifying - but still well over the admissible maximum. The values below indicate about 4 times the background reading. That's certainly a lot more than I would like to have in my house - at least for prolonged exposure:

Aaand this is where the fun begins. The TERRA-P has an user adjustable alarm limit. The maximal value what you can enter is 9.99uSv/h. If the radiation level is over the set value - the device will warn you with a loud beeping. (Instead of the standard clicking - chirping count sound.) As you can see, this is well over the alarms limit, and violates every possible health regulation. I don't even know how this went through the customs???:) Anyways, this picture shows the radiation 115 times over the normal levels. Even though this is a direct reading - I would not carry the check source in my pocket... ;)

The Battle of Chernobyl

The Battle of Chernobyl is a recent documentary made by Discovery Channel. Describes both the catastrophe and the aftermath and presents well informed neutral picture of the events. Some documentaries in my opinion are very biased and too demagogue - but this is not one of those. Contains rare original footage, pictures and some good re-enactments. Michael Gorbachev is also interviewed several times throughout the movie. Playtime is over 90 minutes, but it's well worth watching if you are interested in the topic. Hopefully it will not be removed soon due to the (obvious) copyright issues.

Unpacking the TERRA-P

The ECOTEST TERRA-P dosimeter finally arrived - fortunately unharmed by the journey. As you can see from the picture, the original package is very small - even compared to a pen. I was expecting the device to be relatively tiny, but in reality is even smaller than I imagined. It's like thick cellphone.The box contained the device itself, with batteries already installed. The batteries should actually last around 6000h in sleep mode and with normal radiation, but are user changeable. In addition to the device itself there is a detailed user's manual (in English:) and a colorful "Quick start" guide included by default. The manual shows the serial number of the dosimeter, quality check and calibration protocol and the warranty.
Somehow I did not expect such a nicely marketed product. I guess this is a common prejudice against post-communist countries. I have to tell that both the customer support and the product itself is flawless.
As soon as I took the device out of its plastic cradle, I managed to drop it on the floor. It is not a good idea to drop anything with a Geiger tube on the floor - since the component is pretty fragile Fortunately it survived the fall. I shall add that to the positive side of its properties;) And here is the dosimeter itself with the dose rate measurement taking place. Fortunately I have not found anything radioactive around me - and that's a good thing. :) The background radiation in my house is around 0.1microSv/h. Shows some slight variation, but that's due to the measurement precision. This is at the lower end of the background radiation still considered to be normal. I have no idea what is the actual long term exposure limit in my country, but supposedly in the Ukraine that is 0.3microSv/h. The device makes a "click" sound at each count, just as you would expect from a Geiger counter.
The back of the device has a second hinged door. It is hard to open, I'm kinda worried that it may break after a time. Anyways, under this door is the Geiger tube itself. The door has a thin lead lining, which blocks out Beta radiation. If one wants to measure Gamma radiation, leaves the door on. If you want to measure Gamma + Beta exposure you open the hatch. Logically the difference of the two measurements gives just the Beta radiation.
Well that's about it for now. These are the first impressions, I will write a review with more details as soon as I have the chance to play around with the device. I took some video footage too, will edit it into a usable form soon.

The package

It took exactly ten days to get my dosimeter from the Ukraine to Slovakia. The parcel arrived in good condition. I'd like to thank Oxana from ECOTEST for the very careful wrapping. This way the TERRA-P survived the journey, and I also got some bubble wrap to play with:)

Anyways, more pictures to come soon. Right now I'm to lazy to do that. So I will post the pics and some first impressions very soon. And no, I did not find anything radioactive in my house. At least nothing over the background. That's a good thing. ;)

Chernobyl Street Art

Street art in the Zone? This sound bizarre enough, doesn't it? But if you've seen recent pictures from Pripyat, you may have noticed some strange graffiti on the walls. Most of these depict people, supposedly in their original environment. Screaming faces, playing children. Dark and disturbing images.

Right before the twentieth anniversary of the disaster, seven artists from Moscow, Minsk and Berlin traveled to Pripyat. As a strange artistic and social project, they've painted graffiti on the walls of homes and other buildings - interacting with the dead city. You can read more about the project and see their work on this site. Radiating Places - A requiem of a special kind.

Inside the Sarcophagus

There is a BBC Horizon documentary about Chernobyl on Google Video at the moment. I guess the upload violates every possible copyright law. Since it's been "dugg", I don't expect it to stay around much longer. But I highly reccomend to watch it.

There is some incredible archive footage I've not seen before. And believe me, I've seen a lot about Chernobyl. The film crew went inside the infamous reactor 4 control room and the sarcophagus. Even if I had the chance, there is no way I would do that. Especially with highly radioactive dust and extreme radiation around. Some of the footage makes me shiver, truly creepy: