How can I apply small amounts of radiation?

Question

I am scaling a magnetosphere down to a small magnetic field and applying radiation to it as a project.

How can I safely apply small amounts of radiation, similar to the ionizing radiation that is foubnd it space, to my magnetic field for testing.

I thought of a microwave but that has a different kind of radiation then then the ionizing radiation in space, correct?

Source?

Answer 1

I found a nuclear shielding classroom experiment kit in a Flinn Scientific catalouge that contained small amounts of urainium-238 and lead-208.  If you could get ahold of a physics department at a local collage, they may also be able to supply small sources of low-level ionizing radiation.  The source kit I found does, however cost about 226 American.  

You'll probably get lots of answers about this already, but yes, microwaves are about the farthest thing you can get from ionizing radiation.  Microwaves are lower frequency than light, and ionizing radiation you're looking for probably is of the particulate nature, like Alpha and Beta rays.  They are actually high energy sub-atomic particles, whereas Microwaves up to UV are merely different frequencies of light.  Yes, yes, I know, Gamma rays are a highly ionizing type of radiation that is also photons.  But that's nasty stuff.  I doubt you need nor want X-rays for your experiment.

Answer 2

Smoke detectors have a small alpha particle source in them.

If you look on ebay you will find some:

http://shop.ebay.com/items/_W0QQ_nkwZgei...