Alarming news about the radiation enhancement/irradiating of diamonds/gems.

[Coloratura]

Hi.

I'm not sure I'm posting in the right section , I have a technical question about radiation-treated or enhanced diamonds.

I am in love with natural blue diamonds , Graff has some outstanding beauties. I just love that "steely" blue color.

I would never buy the "fake" blue diamonds but , I came across some on a website and I also read about the irradiating/radiation-enhancement of diamonds on wikipedia.

I need some technical expertise here on this , some of what I read was frightening. In fact , the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Committee) , as of 2007 , is supposed to be cracking down on irradiated gems after learning that some radiation-enhanced gems give off twice the acceptable level of background radiation , making them unsafe for someone to wear.
I think they're supposed to spontaneously check for this with different gem distributors or something. There isn't THAT much information out there about this but , it definitely causes concern.

Here's an extraction from wiki:

"Nowadays diamond is safely irradiated in four ways: proton and deuteron bombardment via cyclotrons; gamma ray bombardment via exposure to cobalt-60; neutron bombardment via the piles of nuclear reactors; and electron bombardment via Van de Graaff generators. These high-energy particles physically alter the diamond's crystal lattice, knocking carbon atoms out of place and producing color centers. Irradiated diamonds are all some shade of green, black, or blue after treatment, but most are annealed to further modify their color into bright shades of yellow, orange, brown, or pink. The annealing process increases the mobility of individual carbon atoms, allowing some of the lattice defects created during irradiation to be corrected. The final color is dependent on the diamond's composition and the temperature and length of annealing."


What caused me to jump up a little while reading this was "piles of nuclear reactors"!?

Now , the point of my post and question is this , I'm not interested in buying any of these radiation-enhanced or treated stones but , if I'm buying a natural , untreated gem from a store that also supplies these radiation/irradiated gems , if one of them happenes to be radioactive , could it not contaminate all of the other gems they carry?

For instance , the store sells radiation-enhanced "blue" diamonds , say one of those diamonds might carry above-acceptable levels of radiation and is therefore dangerous , could it affect the other gems they carry if they're stored together? I'm wondering if it's safe to buy a garnet or topaz from a store that sells these radiation-treated diamonds?

This is a confusing. Some of these articles raise great alarm that some of these stones could be radioactive or carry above acceptable levels of radiation and actually be harmful.

Anyone know anything about this?

 

[EEFranklin]

While I may not have a definite answer, I wanted to chime in. In all of our lab-grown blue, yellow and white diamonds, the color is as-grown and permanent. They do not undergo any irradiation or post-growth treatment.

Though it is not our primary focus, we do have some pink, purple, green and reds that are treated yellows (irradiation and/or annealing depending on the color). I am not involved in the treatment process, so I am not familiar with too many of the specifics, but our finished stones are completely safe.

As you noted there are strict federal guidelines and regulations with irradiated gemstones to ensure their safety. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says that all irradiated gemstones currently on the market are safe to wear. Most do not exhibit any radiation, and those that do it is very insignificant.

"A study done by the NRC estimated that a person wearing a blue topaz stone at the highest level of radioactivity allowed for distribution under NRC regulations would receive an annual dose of 0.03 millirem (NUREG 1717, page 2-21). By contrast, a chest X-ray is about 60 millirem."

Source: NRC: Fact Sheet on Irradiated Gemstones

From my understanding, there is no concern for contamination of other stones and are completely safe to wear.

Is there anyone on PS directly involved in the irradiation of gemstones that could provide any more insight?

 

[purrfectpear]

Just an FYI, they''ve been selling irradiated diamonds for better than 30 years now. If the radiation posed a problem don''t you think we''d have heard about abnormal cancers of the finger, or people''s fingers falling off by now

 

[Ninama]

Date: 7/30/2008 12:41:46 PM
Author: purrfectpear
Just an FYI, they''ve been selling irradiated diamonds for better than 30 years now. If the radiation posed a problem don''t you think we''d have heard about abnormal cancers of the finger, or people''s fingers falling off by now

The effects may be apparent in offspring... so tragic!

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

I am just a humble gemmologist with a geology education.
To the best of my knowledge, unless a diamond has some mineral inclusion that can become radiative, there is no residual radiation in diamond.

The most common gem that the NRC would refer to is blue topaz, and I believe the common warning is that when someone picks up a 20kg parcel of treated rough, it is not recomended they conceal it in their usual hidden money belt.
I believe an individual gem has so little radiation that it is not an issue.

Also radiation is typically used to turn diamonds green and not blue, but again, do not quote me.

 

[diagem]

Date: 8/9/2008 2:06:29 AM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)
I am just a humble gemmologist with a geology education.
To the best of my knowledge, unless a diamond has some mineral inclusion that can become radiative, there is no residual radiation in diamond.

The most common gem that the NRC would refer to is blue topaz, and I believe the common warning is that when someone picks up a 20kg parcel of treated rough, it is not recomended they conceal it in their usual hidden money belt.
I believe an individual gem has so little radiation that it is not an issue.

Also radiation is typically used to turn diamonds green and not blue, but again, do not quote me.

Remember there used to be a "rumor" that natural green Diamonds were releasing radiation??/

 

[fireopal]

I read about green diamonds releasing radioactive stuff.. but wonder how true is it?