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Museum of Radiation and Radioactivity

The ORAU Museum of Radiation and Radioactivity chronicles the scientific and commercial history of radioactivity and radiation. It has been deemed the official repository for historical radiological instruments by the Health Physics Society, and the Society has been generous in its financial support for the purchase of items.

The collection is the property of the not-for-profit ORAU Foundation. It is located at our health physics training facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Unless noted otherwise, the website only features items actually in the collection.

Tour the virtual museum

Impact Areas

A sample of what's in our virtual museum

El-Tronics CD V-710 "Rad-Tek"

The "Rad-Tek" CD V-710 was a medium-high range survey meter that employed a hermetically sealed ionization chamber located in the bottom front end of the case. The Rad-Tek ionization-type survey instrument, approved by the Federal Civil Defense Administration, measures intensities of 0.02-50 r/hr. It operates on flashlight and hearing-aid batteries said to be capable of giving over 100-hour operation.

See more civil defense instruments

Gilbert U-239 Geiger Counter

Pop Culture in the Atomic Age

Join Paul Frame, Ph.D., a health physicist and trainer at ORAU, as he shares a sampling of pop culture items and their backgrounds. Frame started the collection in the 1980s when he discovered X-ray tubes and other items in a cabinet. Over time, the collection has grown to include hundreds of items, many of them donated or purchased by either the Health Physics Society or the non-profit ORAU Foundation.

Pop culture in the atomic age video intro

Contact us

To find out more about ORAU's Museum of Radiation and Radioactivity, or if you are interested in making a donation, please contact Paul Frame.