Armed Polite Society

Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: RevDisk on February 17, 2017, 01:31:13 PM

Title: Soviet smoke detectors - About as hilarious as expected
Post by: RevDisk on February 17, 2017, 01:31:13 PM: https://carlwillis.wordpress.com/2017/02/07/analysis-of-soviet-smoke-detector-plutonium/

A guy build a PGT n-type coaxial HPGe detector (gamma ray detector, for non-nerds) in his spare bedroom and decided to see what was in Soviet era smoke detectors. Well shielded with lead bricks, always safety first in the home.

Sure enough. Us wussy capitalists use americium-241. Soviets? Well, Americium. And Plutonium. However, the 1 ish mg of plutonium is just reactor grade, not weapons grade.
Title: Re: Soviet smoke detectors - About as hilarious as expected
Post by: K Frame on February 17, 2017, 02:18:18 PM: So, the 10 year working life of an American smoke detector is bested by the 2,500 year working life of a Soviet smoke detector.

What a glowing recommendation!
Title: Re: Soviet smoke detectors - About as hilarious as expected
Post by: Firethorn on February 17, 2017, 02:37:37 PM: Quote from: Mike Irwin on February 17, 2017, 02:18:18 PM
So, the 10 year working life of an American smoke detector is bested by the 2,500 year working life of a Soviet smoke detector.

What a glowing recommendation!

heh.

Thing is, the plutonium they put in has a half life of 12 years, while the americium is 432. Starting with Pu would therefore only get you another year or so, but be complicated by drastically higher emissions the first few years.

The 10 year lifespan is more due to:
1. Nobody wanting to clean their smoke detectors.
2. The risk of other components failing.

At $10-40 per, it's not worth the labor, but you could theoretically have an adjustable smoke detector where, every decade or so, you move it up a sensitivity notch.
Title: Re: Soviet smoke detectors - About as hilarious as expected
Post by: KD5NRH on February 17, 2017, 03:31:51 PM: Quote from: RevDisk on February 17, 2017, 01:31:13 PM
A guy build a PGT n-type coaxial HPGe detector (gamma ray detector, for non-nerds) in his spare bedroom

And nobody's invited him to APS?
Title: Re: Soviet smoke detectors - About as hilarious as expected
Post by: AmbulanceDriver on February 17, 2017, 11:40:04 PM: Quote from: KD5NRH on February 17, 2017, 03:31:51 PM
And nobody's invited him to APS?

Pretty sure adding one more birdman or RevDisk type would move APS into weapons-grade territory.
Title: Re: Soviet smoke detectors - About as hilarious as expected
Post by: AJ Dual on February 18, 2017, 01:55:15 AM: Old commercial/industrial grade American smoke detectors have about 80x the Americium of modern ones. And they're on eBay. :angel:
Title: Re: Soviet smoke detectors - About as hilarious as expected
Post by: Angel Eyes on February 18, 2017, 02:41:38 AM: Quote from: KD5NRH on February 17, 2017, 03:31:51 PM
And nobody's invited him to APS?

We haven't invited the radioactive Boy Scout either.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn

Oops. Too late.