Today I had an opportunity to visit and tour Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant in California. Upon completing the tour, we each had to stand in a radioactive detection monitor before departing the plant to be certain we hadn't been contaminated. I was given a red light for each of three attempts to clear the containment area, meaning I was shown to be exposed to some sort of radiation. It dawned on me that I was wearing a vintage wrist watch with Radium hands and numerical markers. Even though the radium was no longer effective in glowing in the dark, we were all surprised it was still strong enough to set off the detector at the plant.

Attached is the Gerard-Perregaux that gave all the attention.
Mike

I imagine the detectors at the plant would be very sensitive. I'm not surprised that it was picked up.

Makes you wonder about exposure while wearing a watch with radium like yours.

Then again, can't worry about everything!

Take a look at my post "Radium Watches" on August 11. The document from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission states that the level of radiation remains high even after the paint is worn off.

Jim Bland
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When I worked at Goodyear Atomic Corporation uranium enrichment plant in Piketon, Ohio, we were not allowed to even WEAR luminus dialed watches, regardless of age, as the watches could POSSIBLIY have radium paint. If the detectors were set off, a report had to be made, false alarm or not, and the area supervisor did NOT like having to do extra paperwork when it could have been avoided. That was back in the 70's and early 80's!

Regards! Mark

Thanks, Jim Interesting reading.

Mark, perhaps since Radium hasn't been used in watches for some time now, a whole generation is unaware of them ever existing. The guard at the plant was in his late twenties and stood in disbelief when I remove the watch and passed through the detector. I'm sure my presence that day has enligtened many. I can now see another item being added to the checklist before entry to the plant.

Thanks again,
Mike

No surprise to me, Mike.

I had a physics professor ask me to open the back of the Hamilton 940 I was carrying last year so I could show several of his students how a mechanical watch movement worked. They were absolutely flabbergasted (and all were military officers too!), and had never even HEARD of a mechanical watch before. They were born and raised when the quartz watch made it's appearance, and that's all they had ever owned, seen, or heard of.

Needless to day, I was more shocked than they were on discovering this about our current crop of Master and Doctorial level students coming through our Institute....ESPECIALLY considering they were all engineers!!!

Regards! Mark