Load Checked For Radioactivity....

I see the big drive through detectors at a few places I pickup from and in some recycling yards.

Good question. Is there something we should know about?

 

Can't answer to your specific situation, but I know for a fact that used oil well pipe and sucker rod WILL be somewhat "hot" after it comes out of the ground. Don't know why, but know it's true.

 

I have hauled into a steel plant that makes you go through the radioactivity sensor then straight on to the scale.

Last time I was there, I supposedly set the radioactivity sensor off...which required me to back through it from the scale, and of course it wasn't straight-line backing and there isn't much room to wiggle through that sucker.

Fun fun fun...I grew up in NJ, so I blamed it on that. On the second try, everything was okay, so I don't know what the deal was.

 

We have hauled drill pipe used on and even samples of uranium sampling.
Cobalt is very similar.
Both of these are usually above the WHO limit of what is safe for long term exposure.
The thing to remember is that a load of bananas probably also puts you close if not over the limit.
If you live in and industrialized area or near an area where there are are a host of natural occurring minerals you can be exposed to to limits above what is considered safe.
Hot is another thing though.

 

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hac/pha/pha.asp?docid=425&pg=1

 

I dont think its anything to worry about, one of my cousins scraps gun barrel oil tanks for a living. He loads them onto a trailer and takes them directly to the scrap yards. He was telling me they always go over them with a geiger counter before accepting. Same with pipe and rod, its the scale build up they are testing for radium etc. Theyll reject anything over a certain level, but they all register at least a little bit on the counter.