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Re:Irradiated Dimes (2010) by rdtsc on Monday October 23, 2017 @03:42PM (#15536318)
Bought from government (Oak Ridge) and sold to customers. Some are governments some are companies which use it for diagnostics like say detect structural issues in concrete. I think there are medical uses as well.

As far as who can buy it and what the approval process is? I imagine there are controls in place. I never inquired about that.

Re:Irradiated Dimes (2010) by badmin_ on Monday October 23, 2017 @06:51PM (#15537583)
Depending on the amount, a license would be required.

Here's a link to current limitations: https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part030/p...

Link regarding exempt amounts:https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part030/p...

Re:Irradiated Dimes (2010) by rdtsc on Monday October 23, 2017 @08:07PM (#15538073)
Ah interesting. Apparently there is no exempt quantity of Cf-252.
Re:Irradiated Dimes (2010) by badmin_ on Monday October 23, 2017 @11:12PM (#15538909)
Well I just found out that I was grossly underestimating the danger of handling Cf-252, given its half-life.

Look what ORNL used to transport 1g: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Californium#/media/File%3ACf...

Re:Irradiated Dimes (2010) by rdtsc on Monday October 23, 2017 @11:38PM (#15539017)
Yeah. A single fission event can generate 2-4 neutrons, so even a tiny spec can be pretty dangerous.

Here are the drums used for shipping much smaller amounts:

http://www.frontier-cf252.com/custom-type-a-packaging-radioa...