Use
Commercially made radiation meters are typically based around electronic circuitry or require a battery-powered charging apparatus, allowing susceptibility to battery shortages and to electromagnetic pulse. The Kearny Fallout Meter was designed to utilize static electricity, produced by (for example) a hard plastic rubbed on dry paper. The KFM was also engineered to be less expensive to build than dosimeters were to purchase, and to be made out of commonly available materials, such that they could be constructed even after a disaster. Most commercial radiation meters also require initial and periodic professional calibration, but "If a KFM is made and maintained with the specified dimensions and of the specified materials, its' accuracy is automatically and permanently established by unchanging laws of nature".
The designed operating range is from 30 mR/hr to 43 R/hr, with accuracy of +/-25%. "A KFM looks like a toy" has been cited as a "major disadvantage" of the design.
Read more about this topic: Kearny Fallout Meter
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