Radioactive sources

[pmetzger@shearson.com (Perry E. Metzger)]

>From: Douglas Sinclair <dsinclai@acs.ucalgary.ca>

>Yup, the 3 microcurie source makes sense.  With a pair of diodes we could 
>make the detector 4 pi, but no big deal.  3 microcuries is not a problem
>health-wise as long as you don't eat it.  As it's an alpha source, any shiledingor even a few centimeters of air will stop the rays.  Howerver, I just encountered a new angle on it.  According to my father, that's on the order of $100
>worth of radium :(.  If we're willing to go with a much slower source, we can
>use thorium which is only $2 per gram or so.  Alternativly, anyone have 
>an old clock with a radium dial? <grin>

>BTW: Cosmic ray background is only 1 event per square foot per minute.  Plus,
>they occur in showers.  So that isn't going to work. 

Why not just go with the Newbridge Micro hardware RNG that we've
discussed several times in the past? Its only $50 for a 20kbit/sec
output rate.

Perry