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My inbox has filled up with questions about a video that appeared on youtube this past evening after the storm blew through:
Simply put, before you read all the thanks and details.. it seems that potrblog might have gotten an unintended false high reading due to the metal he was wiping on , or the other material in the grit on the metal.
The actual precipitation is only returning moderate amounts of radiation (less than half of alert levels).
It is important to use something that is clean, and only shows the precipitation.. others must try to avoid any other particulates contaminating the samples .
I have seen several false high readings appear on youtube coming from windshields (brake pad dust is ceramic and returns false high readings for instance).. or people doing a test near large rocks like Granite .. or even people using ceramic plates to hold their measurements (ceramic produces a non-harmful high radioactive return).
It may just be that the grit on the metal and possibly the metal itself would throw off his reading. Grit/sand could easily be made up of granite -- producing a false high. Metal can produce high readings after it has oxidized.
One must collect the water in a clean plastic or glass container.. and do the test using clean tissue --- prefer to have the tissue dipped and then dry or just partially damp.. since the H20 itself can block alpha particles .
The point of these tests is to determine how much radiation is in the PRECIPITATION -- which means one should NOT introduce other particulate matter into the test .
Here is the video in question from http://www.youtube.com/potrblog --- showing VERY high returns in Saint Louis (STL) Missouri :
