The bench-mounted or handheld count-rate meter, usually with a pancake Geiger-Mueller probe, stationed at step-off pads and controlled area exits. Workers use it to frisk themselves and their tools, and an audible click rate or alarm warns of contamination. A frisker in a high-background spot is nearly useless, so RP places them away from shine and checks them daily with a source.
Frisker by the pump room door is reading 400 background, move it out to the corridor.
Related terms
Frisking
Slowly scanning a person or object with a contamination probe to find radioactive material before it leaves an area.
Pancake probe
A flat, wide-window Geiger-Mueller detector used for frisking because it picks up beta and alpha contamination well.
Step-off pad
The marked clean spot at the exit of a contaminated area where workers remove protective clothing and step out.
Background
The ever-present radiation from natural and other sources that an instrument reads when no source of interest is near.