Radioactive Bathroom
 

Our Northrop Robotics Engineer Rick Wagner brought in his geiger counter to show us the problem with our bathroom.

Video

Re: Radioactive Bathroom
 

That's scary. Did you believe there was a problem before hand and that's why he brought in the gieger counter? It appears as soon as it neared the tile on the wall it went crazy but not on the floor or out in the room. Could possibly be the tile, the grout, the mastic (glue) behind the tile, something in or on the other side of the wall, or a cleaning sollution used. Is there more of the same tile or wall materials in another room you could try it on? To be honest I've never walked around with a gieger counter so who knows how many common materials could have a radioactive reading. I do know some, if not all, smoke detectors contain radioactive material (sealed within the unit).


Look on the bright side, if you turn of the lights and the walls glow it will act like a night light!!! :D

Re: Radioactive Bathroom
 

Dr Rick do.
*chuckle* He's shown in his robotics classes some common ceramics that were radioactive, and knew the bathroom tiles would be.

He's a great guy and mentor.

Re: Radioactive Bathroom
 

That is amazing! I never thought ceramic, of all things, was radioactive. I definitely learned something today. So that's why coffee always tastes better in a ceramic cup! :p

Re: Radioactive Bathroom
 

Since those tiles are yellow (and probably old), there is a chance they were painted with that one stuff that was painted on plates way back in the day. I saw a demo of this back in highschool, but I can't remember what the plates were called.

Re: Radioactive Bathroom
 

Exactly. I'm at home for the moment, Rick's at the shop, I'll ask him and post it.

Re: Radioactive Bathroom
 

The glaze is a uranium glaze. The tile company is called FiestaWare and made tiles and pots in I believe the 1950's.

Re: Radioactive Bathroom
 

... and it keeps the coffee warmer longer!

-dave

Re: Radioactive Bathroom
 

Reminds me of the video we watched in History the other day...

The Atomic Cafe

Re: Radioactive Bathroom
 

Thats just a little creepy....radioactive bathroom....

*wonders if wall could be used as a night light*

I dont know...thats just strange :]

Re: Radioactive Bathroom
 

Hmmmmm... Our bathroom is radioactive...

Somehow I'm not surprised.

Maybe that explains the smell! :D

Re: Radioactive Bathroom
 

ironically enough, all of the tiles surround the urinals...lol... sorry guys.

... but Rick said that simply using the bathroom is fine, someone would have to sleep on the tiles over night in order to develope any residual symptoms... such as developing cancer :ahh: but it's still scary...

Re: Radioactive Bathroom
 

Old fiesta ware is the same way. I believe orange was the worst, so much in fact that I've been warned not to eat off OLD orange fiesta ware. (old as in really old.) Not sure if today's fiesta ware is radio active I haven't checked in a while.

Re: Radioactive Bathroom
 

Old fiestaware is radioactive because uranium was used to obtain that nice orange color. New fiestaware is not radioactive. you can get the old stuff in antique stores for about 20 bucks a plate. Interesting that old watches used radioactive sources to paint the dials so they would glow in the dark. unfortunately, the people that painted the dials developed cancer of the tonge. why tongue? well, how do you make your brush nice and pointy?....

Re: Radioactive Bathroom
 

Interesting you brought up the watches. Right here in Connecticut were alot of watch and clock manufacturers. Only about five minutes from where I am is the old Seth Thomas factory, now subdivided and leased out. There was a story in the paper months ago on how some of the sections of the building show radioactive readings. Why, because these are the rooms where they painted the dials and spilled the uranium from time to time. They mentioned how some of these people developed cancer of the mouth and tongue. Also during WWII these companys retooled and made compasses for the war effort.