Random Thoughts.....What Are You Thinking?

So yesterday went into my office to find out if boss knows when we might have more work (haven't had any in a couple of weeks) he said no, so I asked if I could talk to one of the other "bosses" there about working for them in the mean time and he said go for it. She wasn't there yesterday though so I had to go back today.

She has plenty of work for fields other than what I was doing. She's got me on radiography now. Still don't know when I start but radiographers have more steady work so hopefully I stay here. The thing is though, that we have to climb severe heights sometimes (well above 500 feet) and radiation scares the hell out of me because of the risk involved. The seemingly most minor screw ups can actually give you a fatal dose and it's sometimes so quick you and your tech won't even notice until it's too late.

This is the field I was originally going for though, and why I have a safety certificate for it.

The person who did our safety class told us a story of a bunch of dumbasses who did stupid ***with radiation because they were dumbasses. one of the ones that stick in my mind is the dude who had like 7 kids or something and didn't want anymore. He wasn't a radiographer but he paid one like 50 bucks to let him sit with the source between his legs to become infertile. (The source was sealed, so nothing bad happened) but someone from the NRC was there and witnessed what happened.

The radiographer went to prison for life for it. They do not play around. That's another thing that concerns me with becoming a tech for Radiography. We are responsible for every idiot. If some idiot breaks our barrier (basically caution tape) that says "Danger Radiation" just because he doesn't feel like walking all the way around, we can be charged and go to prison over it. If we missed even one tiny thing in our procedure we'll take the blame, the only way we're safe is if we literally do everything by the book.

There was another one who wasn't following regulation for securing the source and it ended up falling out somehow. Well someone else, who has no idea what it is (the source for all intents and purposes is a 6 inch long fuse, the cylinder type with the glass and 2 metal ends) and stuck it in his back pocket. He walked around with it in his back pocket all day. He showed it to a bunch of people, too. I can't remember the dose he received but 600rad is pretty much a guaranteed death sentence, his was either in at least the thousands, but I want to say it was something ridiculous like 10,000+. Just all the people he showed it to, to ask what it was, got radiation sickness.