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If I want to buy from you, how do I pay?
How long will I have to wait for my stuff?
I live outside the UK – can I still buy from you?
My Geiger counter doesn’t work – what do I do next?
What's the life expectancy of Geiger Counters, do they wear out?
My stuff has arrived damaged.
Can I send it back?
How do I get in touch with you?
Why the warnings about using ‘radioactive’ signs and labels
responsibly?
Are your Geiger counters radioactive, dangerous or illegal?
How about radioactive samples?
Who are we?
How did it all start?
If I want to buy from you, how do I pay?
A:
Good question! We prefer PayPal: it’s free to you, safe, fast
and you use your credit or debit card. PLEASE NOTE: We do not receive any
credit/debit card details from PayPal.
Personal cheques from UK banks
are welcome but please allow 4 - 5 working days for clearance.
UK Postal Orders are also fine (please make payable to R. Maybury) and we will also accept cash (UK Sterling, Euros
or US Dollars) sent by registered mail. Please send to: RML, 73 Penrith Road,
Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 8PN, UK.
We do
not send out unsolicited emails to customers, or pass on any details to third parties and we do not retain customers' details.
Click HERE for printable order form.
How long will I have to wait for my stuff?
A: Ordering from anythingradioactive is not like
shopping at Tescos, many of our products are hand crafted or built to order by
our atomic artisans (a bit like the Munchkins, but bigger…) and this takes time, so please bear with us if something you want is temporarily out of stock
.
That said, once we have your order, your payment or cheque has cleared and we have the item then it will usually be sent straight away and you should have it within 7 days -- usually sooner. If an item is not in
stock, then we will notify you of the anticipated delivery date. All items (except high - value Recorded Mail items & Air Mail)) are
sent Royal Mail Second Class Registered/Signed - For.
NB: Should your item be lost or damaged in the UK please allow us time to sort the problem out. Outside the UK, please be aware that finding out what has happened to your goods and claiming compensation for lost/damaged items can take as long as 3 months to sort out - this is the maximum time-frame quoted by Royal Mail. However, we generally wouldn't keep you waiting that long for a replacement item...
I live outside the UK – can I still buy from you?
A: Of course you can! Please
click HERE for all inclusive prices for North America, Europe and other destinations. You can also email us for other options. Please refer to above notes concerning lost/damaged items.
My Geiger counter doesn’t work – what’s next?
A: The chances are it is okay – they are very reliable - and the lack of
clicks and flashes is actually a good sign, it means background radiation
levels are very low where you live. To give you an idea, the DSRB-88 will typically click between 5 and 30
times a minute (counts/clicks per minute) in the UK but it can be more or less than that. Providing it clicks at least once or twice a minute then it is working. Please refer to the leaflet sent with your Geiger Counter.
Other reasons why it might appear not to work is the battery; please
make sure you use a fresh battery and that it has been inserted the right way
round (you’d be surprised…). All Geiger
counters are tested before they leave us. If you are still unsure, we can supply
a radioactive sample that you can test it out with.
If you still feel that it is faulty then please return it to us –
in its original packing – by registered post within 30 days of purchase and we will
check it for you. If it is found to be
faulty we will send you a replacement and reimburse your postage costs.
Do not dismantle your Geiger counter or dosimeter. There are no
user-serviceable parts inside. The case is fitted with tamper-evident seals and
any attempt to fiddle with the innards will invalidate the warranty (you might
also get a small shock: the circuitry inside generates up to 400 volts!).
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What's the life expectancy of Geiger Counters, do they wear out?
Most of the components in a geiger counter are fairly ordinary electronic devices, the sort of bits and pieces you find inside radios, personal stereos and other electronic gadgets and these have a life expectancy of several decades. The only unusual component is the Geiger Muller radiation detector and these can be expected to work reliably for at least 50 years, probably longer.
My order has arrived damaged.
Can I send it back?
A: All items leave here packed
securely and in good condition.
However, if items do arrive damaged, please let us know and we will sort
it out.
How do I get in touch with you?
A: Email is the quickest and most efficient way to get hold of us. Just
click the Contact button. We
will try and get back to you within 24 hours – but we are usually much quicker
than that!
Why the warnings about using ‘radioactive’ signs and labels
responsibly?
A. The distinctive three-leaved
‘trefoil’ symbol is an internationally recognised warning sign for the presence
of radioactive materials. Misuse of these signs -- on discarded boxes or containers,
for example -- might cause concern and could result in a false alarm or ‘NAIR’ alert (National Arrangements for
Incidents Involving Radioactivity), which you really wouldn’t want to be
responsible for, or involved in! By all means use them for decoration in your
home etc. but they should never be attached to objects or anything in public
view that could be mistaken for a container of radioactive materials.
Are Geiger counters dangerous or illegal?
A: Simple answer here – Absolutely not, and No!
What about radioactivity and the Law?
A. Many everyday items are radioactive and most of them, such as old clocks and watches with luminous dials, some types of glass and pottery, smoke detectors and so on are safe and perfectly legal to own as they are covered by the ‘Exemption Order’ categories of The Radioactive
Substances Act 1993, as outlined in the Radioactivity Legislation and
Regulation Exemption Orders, (Geological Specimens, Uranium, Thorium, Luminous Articles and Substances of Low Activity), published in February 2006 by DEFRA.
Be sure to read our rough guide to radioactivity
In the US the equivalent legislation is ‘Unimportant
quantities of Source Material’ as defined by the US Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (2005 revision). See also Radioactivity in Materials not Requiring Regulation for Purposes of Radiation Protection, published by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and United States Postal Service (USPS) Publication 52. Nevertheless sensible precautions should be taken
in the storage and handling of any item you believe to be radioactive. Treat them as you would any small objects and containers of potentially
harmful substance and keep them well out of the reach of
children.
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Who are we?
A: Well, let me introduce ourselves. Based in London, UK, we are Rick
Maybury and Jane Trotman. You may know
Rick from his weekly column in the Saturday edition of The Daily Telegraph and its web pages, the various magazines and publications he has written for over the
years and also from our sister site, Bootlog.com. Rick has been a journalist for around 30 years and Jane
has been known to do the odd journalistic stint . She recently gave up working part time at a local school to devote more time to anythingradioactive's website.
How did it all start?
A: Back in April 1986 we were on an escorted tour of the USSR when we started
hearing rumours of an industrial accident somewhere in Russia. Of course, back then, no one told you
anything and it wasn’t until our plane was parked on the tarmac at Gatwick Airport’s
furthest-flung outpost being greeted by grinning firemen with hoses, and
finally meeting our friends who were waiting for us that we found out something
major had occurred at Chernobyl. Full Story HERE
It was then that Rick’s interest in all things nuclear started to
blossom. Back then Geiger counters were
quite hard to come by, so he decided to build his own (which still works
today).
Fast-forward to 2005 – Jane, having been previously diagnosed as having
an overactive thyroid decided to have it sorted out by means of
a radioactive iodine treatment, which involved taking a simple tablet. The only downside to this was that she was
to remain impressively radioactive for around a month afterwards. As you can imagine, this produced some rather interesting clicks
on Rick’s old DIY Geiger counter and resulted in the invention of that
ever-popular game, radioactive hide and seek!
This prompted thoughts of one day setting up a web site to deal with
all things nuclear as it were -- radioactivity gets a really bad press, no-one ever mentions the fun side -- and so, finally, the idea of
anythingradioactive.com was born. Thanks for visiting and we
hope you like it and may your Geiger counters never tick in anger...
Jane and Rick
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