How'd they do that?

Mags

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 16, 2004
Messages
2,096
Location
NY
I was on a tour trolley in Washington DC with my parents a few weeks ago, and 2 Secret Service agents in disguise as bike riders came aboard the trolley, announced who they were, and said that the trolley was emitting radiation. They later found out that one of the people in the tour was going through chemotherapy. How in the world did they detect the radiation? By some radar like device? to detect radiation over such a wide area is quite an amazing thing to me.
 

Arkayne

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 28, 2005
Messages
629
Location
San Diego, CA
Don't worry, Jack Bauer is on it!

350px-Tv_24_jack_bauer.jpg




I've no clue. :(
 

nrk

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Dec 28, 2004
Messages
100
Location
Shirley, MA
Maybe they always do that just to see how people react. The chemotherapy person is a shill.
 

Radio

Modulated Moderator
Joined
Oct 28, 2005
Messages
2,220
Location
The Land of Baked Beans and Red Sox
They use large arrays of crystaline scintillation detectors, usually sodium iodide drited with some doping material to make them very sensative to radiation. Costly to install but very easy and efficient to use.
 

carrot

Flashaholic
Joined
Dec 6, 2005
Messages
9,236
Location
New York City
The Secret Service is so cool. They're like super-agents! They use their magic eye beams and geiger sense to detect dangerous and hazardous materials at the speed of ginger bread cookies as you cram them into your mouth!
 

Ras_Thavas

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 4, 2005
Messages
455
Location
Virginia
There have been multiple false positive radiation hits for people undergoing a variety of treatments.

Get a stress test, they inject you with radioactive dye. Same for a MRI. Some cancer treatments involve surgically implanting radioactive rods near a tumor and injecting the blood with a substance that collects in the tumor and absorbs the radiation, killing the tumor.
 

gadget_lover

Flashaholic
Joined
Oct 7, 2003
Messages
7,148
Location
Near Silicon Valley (too near)
From what I've read you do not become redioactive from radiation treatments.

I suspect that it was an act. After all, if they suspect a radioactive threat they are more likly to divert the trolly to a sealed area where they could search / interrogate everyone.
Or maybe I'm just paranoid.

Daniel
 

DonShock

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 28, 2005
Messages
1,641
Location
Belton Texas
gadget_lover said:
From what I've read you do not become redioactive from radiation treatments.....
Although it is true that the a person's own tissues do not "become" radioactive, the radioactive material itself is still in the body. Depending on what treatment you're talking about, you will emit detectable radiation for some amount of time. For example, the radiactive tracer dyes whole purpose is to emit radiation outside the body so that they can see the image on the screen of the detector. Some cancer treatments implant a small radioactive "seed" in the cancerous tissue to destroy it using a low dose over a long time instead of an extarnal machine applying a short duration high dose of radiation. In either case, how long the radiation remains in the body will depend on two things. First there is the normal decay rate of the particular radioactive material used. Some can be very short lived. Second is the biological removal process. The body will metabolize and/or eliminate radioactive material through the normal waste process. Once again, how effective this is will depend on the particular material used.

gadget_lover said:
....Or maybe I'm just paranoid.....
Yes, you are.
lolsign.gif
 

PhotonWrangler

Flashaholic
Joined
Oct 19, 2003
Messages
14,432
Location
In a handbasket
A similar incident happened on a freeway recently. A woman who'd just had a medical procedure done on her triggered a scintillator in a nearby monitoring vehicle! They pulled her over and questioned her, and she was just flabbergasted of course.
 

Lightraven

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Sep 2, 2004
Messages
1,170
I don't need to go into details, but it is no act. The scenario described is identical to one I personally was involved in--no joke. The government, to some degree, takes nuclear terrorism quite seriously. Secret Service is just one agency that does this. There are others.

Needless to say, any LEO who discovers a nuclear weapon may save the lives of millions and affect the outcome of world events.
 

nethiker

Enlightened
Joined
Dec 20, 2004
Messages
684
Location
Montana, USA
Wow, that's amazing. Makes me feel a bit more confident in our government's ability to protect, in D.C. at least.
 

PhotonBoy

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Mar 11, 2003
Messages
3,304
Location
Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, Canada http://tinyu
I once visited a steel plant in Southern Ontario, Canada that processed scrap iron and steel in arc furnaces into high-quality steel.

They had radioactivity detectors (geiger counters?) mounted on poles at the entrance to the plant. If anything were detected aboard incoming truck loads, it would set an alarm off. You never know what you'll get in a scrap shipment, I guess.

Perhaps they have similar radioactivity 'monitoring stations' at key points in the city or area. Wouldn't be too hard to have automatic cameras catch licence plates too.
 

gadget_lover

Flashaholic
Joined
Oct 7, 2003
Messages
7,148
Location
Near Silicon Valley (too near)
If we can't afford explosives detectors in all our airports, and we don't check 80% of all cargo in our ports, and we can't stop people from walking across the borders, how in the heck are we ending up with radiation detectors cruising along random freeways. Why is the secret service checking for dirty bombs on tourists (unless they are touring the whitehouse or capital)??? Why are we not doing effective things?????


This makes no sense at all.
 

Kristofg

Enlightened
Joined
Apr 7, 2003
Messages
355
Location
Belgium
I just stumbled on this by accident

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060328...L4ZYEWs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-

The system of detecting the material seems to work, but false papers are used to overcome this step.

Quote
"To test security at U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada, GAO investigators last year represented themselves as employees of a fake company and obtained cesium-137.
They attempted to cross into the United States with the substance — enough to possibly create two crude radiological bombs that could spread radiation if spread by the blast of a conventional explosive.
When stopped, the investigators presented counterfeit shipping papers and NRC documents that allegedly permitted them to receive, acquire, possess and transfer radioactive substances."

And further on in the article : "False alarms can be caused by ceramics, fertilizers, bananas and even patients who have recently undergone some types of medical procedures. "
 
Top