Quantum random number generator with radioactive decay

[alfcoder]

hello!

i'm planning to build such a generator, but i have some questions:

1. what dimensions and materials are needed to shield one typical geiger-muller tube
from the background radiation?

2. even with the complete protection, is it possible that the counter tube will trigger
without any radioactive decay present?

3. I'm thinking about to use thorium as radioactive source in form of wolfram welder rods
(these rods are 98 percent wolfram and 2 percent thorium oxide) and hoping for 100-150
events per sec, is this possible?

4. i read that some external parameters can affect the radioactive decay, but my goal is
to protect my radioactive material from any such external sources, so again what kind of
protections should i use? i can provide some kind of isolation box with constant temperature
but what about the high speed particles?


thanks

 

[Vanadium 50]

1. You can't. Even 2000 feet below the Earth in a mine there is background.

2. Yes, the tube can trigger without a real decay.

3. My experience with welding rods is that it's easy to get tens of Hz of counts. 100 or 150 might be tricky.

4. External parameters do not affect radioactive decay.

Wouldn't it be easier to use a noise source? Johnson or shot noise could be used.