Safety Warnings
This demonstration contains a sealed radioactive source with U-238 and its decay products. Verify that your institution's radiation safety officer has approved the generator and that it is properly licensed. The sealed, shielded bottle design minimizes exposure, but follow all institutional radiation safety protocols. Never open or attempt to modify the sealed generator.
Before use, inspect the polypropylene bottle for cracks or leaks in the sealed container. Check that the shielding is intact and properly positioned. Test the Geiger-Mueller tube and ratemeter with a check source to ensure proper operation before the demonstration.
Purpose
Measures the beta decay of Pa-234m (half-life 1.17 minutes) in real time using a Geiger-Mueller tube. Students observe exponential decay directly by plotting count rate vs. time and extracting the half-life from the data.
