anybody ever have steel loads swept by a Geiger counter...???

Yesterday on an outdoor forum that I'm on, a nuclear power thread got started. There is a member of this forum that works in the nuclear industry so the main question was aimed at him. During the course of the discussion a guy who claims he's from ne OK posted this:

Several years back my dad hauled a load of metal to the scrap yard. Gal at the gate checked it over with a Geiger counter before allowing him in. Dad asked about it and she said it's been SOP for a while. She told dad she turned a farmer away one day. He brought in an old iron gate that had been in his pasture for years... buried the needle when she checked it.

Only thing I could ever figure was that the gate was made from drill stem that got juiced on its journey through the ground.



Not SOP at my steel yard. Anybody ever had a steel load swept with a Geiger counter...??? Just curious.

that would be a weird day now I have a question to ask at the yard this morning

My main yard has yellow metal posts which you have to drive thru as you go onto the vehicle scale.
Inside them is radioactivity detectors. I do think this is standard in many yards now, they are a big well known firm.

They will pick up microwave ovens.....

We have the same yellow posts at our yard. I've only seen one load rejected, but it wasn't from the load itself. It was from the driver. I heard the scale lady talking to him and he had just gotten a full body x-ray a few hours prior. They confirmed that was why by having him walk through. Sure enough, he set the detector off. I couldn't believe they are that sensitive.

Originally Posted by eesakiwi

My main yard has yellow metal posts which you have to drive thru as you go onto the vehicle scale.
Inside them is radioactivity detectors. I do think this is standard in many yards now, they are a big well known firm.

They will pick up microwave ovens.....

Same deal at Canadian yards and the steel mill, hot loads are rejected.

Yup mine too- the yellow metal posts have sensors that pick up radioactivity. so don't try and scrap that nuke.

This one is from the NRC >> Nuclear Regulatory Commission

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, and began operations on January 19, 1975

It is important to remember that being exposed to radiation does not make one radioactive,

Taken from NRC: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Radiation Protection

I know they do at TJN in Sioux Falls. They have the big yellow posts that are mentioned by others. I had a stress test to check my ticker last summer and the next day took a load down. I set off their radiation detector and the first thing the gal asked me was whether I had a stress test recently or not. She allowed me to sell my load and told me that I set it off again when I weighed out.

Originally Posted by JohnC4X4

Not possible
If you get an X-ray to do NOT become radioactive

Maybe he had a test where he had to drink a radioactive liquid / or had something injected into him
Like they do to me for a stress test
BUT Just getting an x-Ray does NOT leave any type of lingering radiation on the person

Radiation exposure occurs when a person is near a radiation source. Persons exposed to a radiation source do not become radioactive. For example, an x-ray machine is a source of radiation exposure. However, you do not become radioactive when you have an
x-ray taken.

Copied from >> NBC's Dr. Nancy Snyderman answers radiation questions - today > health - TODAY.com

I spent 8 years in the Navy as a Nuclear Electrician and the wife is currently (last 25 years ) an operator at a Nucler Power plant

Just sterile.

I did not know that. Thanks for the research and info. I only know what the guy told the scale lady. Maybe he had both done and only mentioned the xray. Maybe he was bs-ing to try and get his load through. Lol. Probably the former (radioactive dye etc for an mri or cat scan) seeing as HE set off the detector himself without the truck. Still crazy that he himself was radioactive enough to throw an alarm though.

I was waiting at the pay widow one day when a truck came across the scale and set the alarm off. It turns out that the passenger had some sort of radioactive implant for treating cancer that set it off.

Originally Posted by alloy2

Just sterile.

I have a feeling that age and a vasectomy have more to do with my sterility than X-rays.

Many of the yards down here do not have the yellow posts, but they do have hand held Geiger counters. Mainly it gets used if there is any pipe, as a lot of the pipe here used in the oil fields will become radioactive.

A massive shut down of PSC metals happened in Beaver Falls, PA. Somehow radioactive iron was missed by the sensors on the scale (or somehow by passed it). I do believe some of it was transferred before being discovered as radioactive to the Massillon, Ohio yard for PSC also.

All yards within 20 miles in my area have scanners.
One of them have large "posts" you drive your truck through.