Geiger Counter, § I

❧ A few weeks ago I mentioned hooking a portable geiger counter to a drone as a way to measure radiation levels in dangerous areas.  Also, radiation from the 2011 Japanese Tsunami and Fukushima reactor damage is being monitored nearer to Japan and projected to be drifting across the Pacific nearer to Hawai'i.  There are some reports of small spikes in radiation levels at a monitoring station in Kauai.

❧ Not to sound alarmist, these are low levels of radiation here and probably harmless.  Aside from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, it would also just be fun to have a geiger counter to play around with.  Also, I was thinking of some higher voltage experiments with our
« new » vacuum pump and would like a way to monitor for x-rays.  Libelium electronics in Spain has been working on a cheap, portable geiger counter to help people in Japan monitor radiation levels.  The models with the Geiger–Müller tube included have been sold out, but the circuit boards are still available.  I ordered one and it came in the mail!  Basically the board is a shield that plugs into our Arduino microcontroller.  It has a transformer to convert the 500V required for a GM tube, and a speaker and LCD display to show the results. 

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❧ Libelium also had an option of shipping a vaseline glass bead as a low level radiation source to test the geiger counter.  Since my vaseline glass find turned out to be fake I requested the glass bead.  However it was not included in the package with the circuit board.  Instead was a letter that said,

"La empresa que suscribe ante administracion de aduanas manifiesta:

Mediante presente escrito certifica que la mercancia amparada con nuestra factura ... que viaja bajo albaran ... no son productos de doble uso y no estan incluidos en el Anexo I del Reglamento (CE)№428/2009"

❧ Apparently the glass beads are considered « dual use » which implies they could have both a civilian and military use and are thus restricted from export out of the EU under regulation 428/2009.  I looked through the regulation document (link).  It mentions enriched uranium and depleted uranium, but I don't see anything about restricting trace amounts of natural uranium used to color glass beads.  Seriously, this is an absolutely harmless level of radiation.  What is Spain worried about, that the US will use glass beads to start a nuclear program⸮

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Update: a relative of mine helped me precisely translate this and it seems that I have confused a negative.  It thought it said no double use products could be included and that it was not included in the shipment because it was in 428/2009, but I am told that this actually says it is not in 428/2009 and thus not considered dual use.  This is even more confusing because they did not ship the glass beads.
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Another update: Now I get it; the current shipment, without the vaseline bead, is in compliance with 428/2009.  So the issue still stands, apparently vaseline glass can not be shipped out of the EU...?