- "This particular example came from a 55 gallon drum of tape dispensers that the U.S. Army was about to dispose of as radioactive waste."
This is a common beach sand [0]. It illustrates something absurd, I can't quite put my finger on what, about the relation between human society and technology. No one knows anything about the physical or chemical properties of sand on the beach. No one asks; no one cares. There are no EPA surveys of beach radioactivity. No beach signs warning beachgoers "do not eat the sand", or, "this beach is known to the state of California to cause cancer". But you take one handful of the beach into a plastic box, and accidentally walk it past the wrong regulatory compliance officer, and suddenly the US Army is burying your one-handful-of-beach-sand in a 55-gallon drum packed in bentonite.
It's one lens for nature, and one lens for the anthropogenic.
How radioactive is this exactly? I picked up one of these in a thrift store a few years ago and have just had it sitting in storage... Waiting to get my retro office vibe once I find the space but I'm willing to let it go if it might kill me? Especially a slow agonizing radioactive based death? Are they seriously so radioactive that the military was afraid of them?
MithrilTuxedo
When my father started working at the St. Lucie nuclear power plant in ~1988 they had just gotten rid of a shipment of tape dispensers that arrived too hot to be kept on site.
detourdog
Designed by Henry Dreyfus & Associates. I collect them them.
jakedata
About 20 years ago I kitted out our office with furniture and supplies from a business liquidation auction. Several tape dispensers of that general shape came along with the lot. I guess I had better bring my geiger counter to the office. Probably the wrong vintage, but who knows?
hinkley
You know someone got kudos for finding a cheap supply of ballast. Never ask why it’s so cheap. The answer is either slaves, children, or contamination. Sometimes all three.
RockRobotRock
I thought this was going to be able how peeling tape in a vacuum creates X-Rays.
This is a common beach sand [0]. It illustrates something absurd, I can't quite put my finger on what, about the relation between human society and technology. No one knows anything about the physical or chemical properties of sand on the beach. No one asks; no one cares. There are no EPA surveys of beach radioactivity. No beach signs warning beachgoers "do not eat the sand", or, "this beach is known to the state of California to cause cancer". But you take one handful of the beach into a plastic box, and accidentally walk it past the wrong regulatory compliance officer, and suddenly the US Army is burying your one-handful-of-beach-sand in a 55-gallon drum packed in bentonite.
It's one lens for nature, and one lens for the anthropogenic.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monazite