My latest experiment with uranium damn near killed me, the top of the sepretory funnel had popped off, and a cloud of chlorine gas had taken to the air, took me a hour to start breathing normally.
Thorium processing is a bit different depending on the type of ore, but generally it's crushed up and leached either with hot sulfuric acid or hot concentrated NaOH solution, followed by some precipitation steps. We're looking to make a video of the processes in the future when we track down a good source for the ore.
Your reasons are not really true, I have used my aspirator for nitric acid distillation several times and have seen no corrosion in the aspirator as the fumes are diluted by the water(and I put Sodium
bicarbonate in the closed loop to negate any acidic fumes). You're other point about water pump is certainly not true, by researching the several threads about this on forums, I was able to build a closed loop system for around 45$ that creates a appreciable vacuum for it's cost.
Why don't you ever use the aspirator to vacuum distill, I find it to be good for everything except for very high boiling solvents as long as you are using ice cold water.
The water pump for the closed system would cost as much as if not more than the vacuum pump. An open system wastes huge amounts of water. Either way, lots of solvent-contaminated water is made, and a metal aspirator might not enjoy having some of the corrosive fumes we make run through it.
The mud is most likely composed of insoluble ammonium heavy metal salts and oxides. We'd need to conduct further research and tests to better determine its composition, but any radium present from the ore would most likely be washed out with other alkaline earth metals at the ammonia precipitation step. Most of the mud's radioactivity likely comes from polonium, actinides, unextracted uranium, and radioisotopes of lead and bismuth
@ReactionFactory A gamma spec of a similar sludge reveals it's largely 234Th, 226Ra, 214Pb and 214Bi (in addition to a little U235 left behind) - at least for the gammas which are the bulk of emissions. The only thing worthy of note here is that depending on the ore you can omit the first steps and directly leach through the carbonate process and precipitate out the peroxide directly after filtering. Wonderful video, it's great to see U-chem come out of the woodwork.
Thanks for your input. Indeed, if you're working with primarily secondary uranium ores that have already been oxidized (eg carnotite, autunite), the acid/oxidizer leach is not necessary, and can simply be pulverized and leached with carbonate. However we've found that this ore type contains significant amounts of coffinite, a primary ore with U in its 4+ state, and that improved extraction is performed when this is subjected to acid/oxidizer leach
Where are the eggs, flour, milk and sugar? Not to mention you didn't even make the Icing. Your Mom is going to really be pissed-off when she sees what you threw into the pool. Good Luck trying to make a Yellow Cake.
There is very little danger posed by handling this type of ore, or almost any other types of ore (radian barite comes to mind as an exception). Any radiological threat is mitigated by the fact that hands are quite insensitive to ionizing radiation due to their lack of major organs, and the time exposure to the ore is no more than a few minutes at most. It is still in good practice to wash your hands after handling ore to prevent ingestion of loose particles
Nice Job! Nice G-M counter! I live in Florida, so there's no Uranium ore around here... :-( Still though, it would be nice to live in New Mexico or Colorado for example. I used to go to Colorado every year, but way before I even owned anything that had to with radioactive materials. If I could go back, I'd bring my G-M Counter. I do have some radioactive chemicals, such as Ammonium Diuranate. I'd like to do this, but I just don't have that much ore! Those chunks alone can be worth a lot!
Due to college, ViggenGuy has the pleasure of being able to say that he lives in both New Mexico and Florida ... hence the forty pound shipment of ore.
Viggenguy here- Florida isn't a complete loss for interesting radiological specimens. The phosphate ore from central Florida's "Bone Valley" district has elevated levels of uranium and daughter nuclides. Miocene-pliocene period fossils from this area are especially concentrated. The black sand beach of Venice near Sarasota contains huge numbers of detectably radioactive fossil shark and ray teeth, and possibly placer monazite I'm trying to find an extraction scheme for
Untill I did a degree level chemistry course (about 40 years ago!) I would have said that it was not possible to have a negative pH. In fact any acid solution with a molarity of greater than 1, will have a negative pH. The problem is that in the average lab you won't be able to measure it! For example if you take 12M HCl, its pH is -log(12) = -1.08. Your common or garden glass electrode can't read that. Also acids at high concentration don't fully dissociate.
возьмите урановую руду, заебеньте аскорбинкой и перекисью и получите обагащенный уран. господи чо за бред. пойду на задний двор, наберу плутония да реактор построю
pH is simply the negation of the logarithm of the molarity (moles per liter) of protons, or, in water, hydronium ions. At a molarity of one, the pH would be zero. At a higher molarity, the pH would be lower. This happens frequently in concentrated solutions of strong acids. Any solution of hydrochloric acid stronger than 4% will have a pH below zero.
@zombieX111222333 To add to RF's answer, there are acids with significantly lower pH's. The strongest superacid (Fluoroantimonic acid) has a pH of -25. Since the pH scale is logarithmic, that means there about 10 million, trillion more hydrogen ions free than in concentrated sulphuric. All superacids are made from two components, and one of them is always HF. The second component 'captures' the F-, so it can no longer form the conjugate base that normally raises the pH of HF alone.
@lexichronicle2 There are some factual issues with this comment. When you say pH, you mean pKa. pKa does not refer to the hydrogen ion concentration, but instead the position of the acid dissociation equilibrium. It is not correct to say that fluoroantimonic acid has that many more protons than sulfuric acid, but you can say that it is that many times as strong. Fluorosulfuric acid and trifilic acid are examples of one-component superacids. It is true that the strongest are binary, though.
To tell you the truth, most of what we do here has no practical use. Exploring the chemistry of uranium is the main goal here. Building a home-scale nuclear fission power station is out of the question with the amount of uranium here and our budget, which is not measured anywhere near the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars that would make that a possibility
The hydrochloric acid used is technical grade muriatic acid, 31.5% straight from the jug. They hydrogen peroxide used was 12% and added in large excess, about 100 mL for the roughly 1 liter batch of leachate. I have encountered literature that mentions that 3% peroxide can be used, though the precipitate will take more time to form.
If it's nearing the end of the day and you need to do a filtration, you can speed things up and give yourself a break sometimes by leaving it to settle over night and running the supernatant through first, so the paper is less prone to clogging. Then dump the gunk in last.
I'll have to give this a go though if I can find some ore. I know where some is, it's just that it's about 200 miles from my house :P
This is certainly a great idea for future runs of this procedure, I think we were just anxious to get a significant, tangible yield for the camera that night and rushed rather quickly through things. And isn't that the heck of it? The good uranium ore deposits always seem to be out in the middle of nowhere!
The highly active muddy precipitate at 4.40 likely contains the Radium from the Ore. I'm wondering if it might be worthwhile to extract the Barium from that and do a time exposure to see if you can actually see the tiny amount of Radium present glowing.
I was thinking of something along those lines; radium, being an alkaline earth metal, is probably most likely to be present in the filtrate seen at 2:56 along with the massive amount of dissolved calcium that is a byproduct of this procedure. Treating this filtrate with magnesium sulfate solution yields a significantly radioactive precipitate of what I can only assume is mostly gypsum along with barite and any radium present in the ore as microgram amounts of radian barite
Go for it if you're inclined, the amounts we're talking about are miniscule. I just remember the Curies discovering it after finding Uranium Ore was 4x more active than the Uranium content explained. They followed the activity and found it came down with the Barium.
You really shouldn't dry yellowcake with a stream of hot air cause it will blow the particles around your house. Airborne contamination with radioactive isotopes leads to lung cancer.
You dry the stuff by putting it in a dessicator and you use protection. It's ok when there's a solution as only rubber gloves are needed, but dust? Jesus, you didn't think this through, didn't you?
Were you more acquainted with the properties of the finished product, you would realize that it was far from dusty, in fact more sand-like than I'm sure you're imagining. Drying underneath a source of infrared radiation does very little to disturb the product as it is drying. It is true that chronic exposure to elevated levels of ionization radiation pose health hazards, any danger posed by this experiment is negligible compared to other, especially geolgical and geographic factors
@ReactionFactory You are not dealing with rays, or traces of radon so the danger lies in the chronic exposure. This is a solid chemical, partially dusty (remember Avogadro's number; even minute ammounts contain lots of atoms). It contains a heavy metal and it is radioactive. Airborne radiotoxic substance. Such substances are to be dried in a dessicator, not under a hot air blower. Be more careful.
It's not paranoia, it's common sense and laboratory rule. It's not benzene, it's yellowcake FFS.
Contrary to what you might think, the United States has established acceptable exposure limits for insoluble uranium compounds, none of which could be expected to be met considering the quantity of the sample prepared, physics properties of the sample, time spent handling the sample, and radiation detected around the lab with a very sensitive meter (not significant over background). There was absolutely no reason to believe that any industrial safety standards were violated.
We've encountered literature that recommends a temperature of between 80-100 degrees C for the precipitation with hydrogen peroxide. I can't remember doing any temperature readings ourselves at that point, but the acid-neutralized leachate was beginning to steam
U-235 makes up about 0.72% of all natural sources of uranium, with >99% of the rest being U-238. Therefore, the uranium made in this process could be considered to be 0.72% U-235. Any higher than that would be considered enriched, which is obviously impossible for most sovereign nations, much less amateur chemists, to produce.
That's correct. The ore was taken from an abandoned mine on public, government-owned BLM land; specifically, the Mt. Taylor Ranger District of the Cibola National Forest. Land regulations in national forests allow for fair use and exploitation of resources (that is, a legal operation must abide by local and federal environmental regulations), unlike land designated as a national or state park, which are entirely off-limits to exploitation of natural resources
I can't give you a straight answer for that question. A Geiger counter is not typically used to determine the amount of "harm" a given radiation source will do. Rather, it will indicate the amount of surface activity a given sample will emit, which is not necessarily proportional to the "harm" it doles out. There are better instruments, such as a energy-compensated scintillation detector, to quantify the amount of ionizing energy emitted by a given sample.
And even if you're given a number in microsievert/hours or millirad/hours, the amount of "harm" it does all depends on the duration of exposure, your own physiology, and whether your exposure is inhaled, as in radon, ingested, as in some sort of food contamination, or is absorbed externally, as in holding a source to your skin.
Quick question, the mud that was left over after the second to last step that was still radioactive, would you happen to know what radioisotopes might be present?
Great video by the way, I just hope YouTube doesn't take it down. : )
I'd have to bet that it was mostly uranium that we failed to extract, to tell you the truth. I'd suspect that radium was one of the most significant secondary radioisotopes, but I'll let ViggenGuy give a more complete answer next time he comes on-line.
The residual radioactivity should mostly be due to the presence of isotopes of radium, polonium, protactinium, radon, short-lived isotopes of thorium, and radioisotopes of bismuth, lead, and thallium. Another leach could be done to get a good idea of how much uranium might still be present. The nucleus of U238 also has the very, very small chance to undergo spontaneous fission, which could produce really any isotope, radioactive or not, of any element lighter than uranium.
Now, I've watched this before, but the drying of the product like that flat on the ground susceptible to breezes kicking the powder around makes me cringe every time
No worries! The drying was done in a closed garage. No unexpected wind to deal with. Several square feet surrounding the drying area were washed down with soap and water to pick up any stray uraniferous dust that might have escaped the paper during the drying process. The paper towel used showed no significant increase in radioactivity over background after cleaning.
Thank you! We believe we've located a good source of thorium from a beach sand from the Gulf Coast of Florida, the only problem is that we're still looking for a good way to separate out the suspected monazite from the rest of the sand. Magnetic separation seems to be the best option, though it's slow and inefficient without something like a nice electromagnet. Research is ongoing!
If you should have any luck on the Thorium extraction, you might consider making your own Propane Lantern Mantles using Thorium Nitrate/cloride and silk bags, because that is all they really are. The silk turns to carbon and the Thorium oxidizes into a very refractory oxide that holds the bag shape and really glows nicely. Let me know if you are successful in your extraction.
It is possible to produce metallic uranium from this, but it would be quite hard. Strongly reducing conditions are required to reduce U (IV) to a lower oxidation state. A thermite reaction can be used, but this is a nasty, low yield process on our scale.
Aside from ceramic pigments and glass tinting, uranium is useful in photography, leather, wool, and wood processing, and as a stain for microbiology.
Nothing in the video is illegal or potentially violent, or even particularly dangerous. While it was annoying, I can understand why Youtube removed the nitroglycerin video; if they removed this one though, we'd be pissed.
You bet, the chlorine oxidation step smelled pretty nice as well. Don't worry, measures were taken to prevent local surface and ground water contamination. I'd hate to have alligators stop showing up out back. The pool's just fine, too, if not a bit full.
To bad there isn't ore that has a higher concentration of depleted uranium in it; cause then you could play around with the compound possibility some more.
separating it your self would get you unwanted attention and low yields (of depleted).
Depleted uranium doesn't occur naturally. It's a byproduct of uranium enrichment, the unwanted U-238 that's been separated from the fissile U-235. There are rare cases in which natural nuclear reactors have run billions of years ago and depleted the U-235 concentration in the ore somewhat, but by and large, what is extracted from ore is referred to as "natural uranium"
I agree with you. I think it will be on the "left" coast, possibly Portland Oregon (they're already in a position to "test" an "emergency martial law condition"). I also think it will be a domestic device that was "lost" by our own agents. Then we will have all the blind hatred necessary to blow up some sand dunes.
Uranium is a pure alpha-emitter, so the high activity, even with a layer of plastic between the source and the detector, means that your sample is contaminated with decay products of uranium, such as radium and polonium.
Sadly, it's rather difficult at this point to get rid of the microgram quantities of daughter isotopes that would register that highly on the Geiger counter.
The Soviets were pretty keen on radioisotope thermal generators to keep their Arctic ocean lighthouses running. I think those used thermocouples with the heat of decaying nuclear waste such as Sr-90 or Cs-137, but your idea sounds pretty neat, too. Activated zinc sulfide fluoresces under alpha radiation, this sounds like a very plausible idea!
@ReactionFactory Ok true enough. I guess my question should have been how did you guys dispose of the wastes from this. Spread it back out in the area where you found the ore?
Unfortunately, since we work in Florida, we haven't had the opportunity to dispose of the waste back at the New Mexico mine where the ore was collected. For now, liquid waste solutions that read noticeably above the background radiation level are being kept in empty plastic milk cartons. Eventually, we'll probably dry out the waste and take it to one of the hazardous waste disposal sites the county government sets up every once in a while
The specific activity of 5 g of uranium (about what our yield turned up) is about 62.2 kBq, which corresponds to a dose of about 7.82 mrem/hr at one centimeter and 0.782 urem/hr at one meter. Which is to say, carrying it in your pocket for an hour is equivalent to about one chest x-ray, while having the same sample 1 meter away for 1,000 hours would provide the same dose. Uranium is a very weak gamma emitter and not particularly radioactive compared to something like radium
That's right, the biggest concern of ours was inhalation of uranium-bearing dust because while your outer dead layer of skin is sufficient to block and deflect the alpha particles emitted by the uranium, your lung tissue is much more sensitive to this damage and because the yellowcake is insoluble, it is likely that any uranium you inhale is going to be lodged in there for decades. Ingested uranium, while still dangerous, can be passed relatively quickly
We have no reason to believe that this video will be taken down. It is legal to own up to fifteen pounds of unenriched uranium, and the yellowcake we produced would be useless for making a weapon. (unless we did what commenter vevenaneathna suggested and enriched it by separating the uranium-235 out) The yellowcake's primary value is only as a curio.
@ReactionFactory Despite the legality of it I wouldn't be surprised if they did. They wont say "wel we cant take it down because its legal", its at their discretion and whatever they think is "not appropriate for any audience. I mean, they took down your nitroglycerin video.
to refine uranium to its pure isotope, use the law of diffusion of gasses. react the uranium with fluorine to obtain UF6 or UF8, i forget what state its in, and then the heavier isotopes will effuse out of a balloon slower then the lighter ones.
Its how we did it in WW1 and could take a lot of ore and a lot of time.
isotope purification is a closely guarded secret now days but they might have used vacuum pumps to speed up the process.
sort of like how we make heavy water. electrolysis repeat
On the international commodities market (yellowcake is traded under the symbol Ux), 8.4 grams is worth about $1.16 USD... But it's hard to tell what a collector will pay because of stringent regulations eBay has put in place regarding the sale of refined uranium ore.
Luckily, the creation of an atom bomb requires enriched uranium, which is impossible for any entity short of a national government to produce. The uranium produced by this procedure maintains the natural ratio of isotopes found within the earth
My latest experiment with uranium damn near killed me, the top of the sepretory funnel had popped off, and a cloud of chlorine gas had taken to the air, took me a hour to start breathing normally.
mmelvin88 1 day ago in playlist Uploaded videos
@mmelvin88
Yeah, chlorine is fairly nasty stuff. Glad to hear you're okay.
ReactionFactory 1 day ago
osti.gov/bridge/servlets/purl/4803043-5sbYOT/4803043.pdf
this is some interesting reading on Thorium extraction
it was me that asked about Thorium 5days ago i just happend to be logged in on afrend computer as homselennart
surplusdriller 2 days ago in playlist Uploaded videos
@surplusdriller
Great information, I'm hoping this will come in handy in the future!
ReactionFactory 2 days ago
can this prosess be used on Thorium ore to?. as i have 15% off the world reserve just 2h drive from here
homseLennart 6 days ago in playlist Insane knowledge
@homseLennart
Thorium processing is a bit different depending on the type of ore, but generally it's crushed up and leached either with hot sulfuric acid or hot concentrated NaOH solution, followed by some precipitation steps. We're looking to make a video of the processes in the future when we track down a good source for the ore.
ReactionFactory 5 days ago
Your reasons are not really true, I have used my aspirator for nitric acid distillation several times and have seen no corrosion in the aspirator as the fumes are diluted by the water(and I put Sodium
bicarbonate in the closed loop to negate any acidic fumes). You're other point about water pump is certainly not true, by researching the several threads about this on forums, I was able to build a closed loop system for around 45$ that creates a appreciable vacuum for it's cost.
PyroPudding 1 month ago
Why don't you ever use the aspirator to vacuum distill, I find it to be good for everything except for very high boiling solvents as long as you are using ice cold water.
PyroPudding 1 month ago
@PyroPudding
The water pump for the closed system would cost as much as if not more than the vacuum pump. An open system wastes huge amounts of water. Either way, lots of solvent-contaminated water is made, and a metal aspirator might not enjoy having some of the corrosive fumes we make run through it.
ReactionFactory 1 month ago
What's in the insoluble mud? Mostly radium I take it?
magicstix0r 4 months ago
@magicstix0r
The mud is most likely composed of insoluble ammonium heavy metal salts and oxides. We'd need to conduct further research and tests to better determine its composition, but any radium present from the ore would most likely be washed out with other alkaline earth metals at the ammonia precipitation step. Most of the mud's radioactivity likely comes from polonium, actinides, unextracted uranium, and radioisotopes of lead and bismuth
ReactionFactory 4 months ago
@ReactionFactory A gamma spec of a similar sludge reveals it's largely 234Th, 226Ra, 214Pb and 214Bi (in addition to a little U235 left behind) - at least for the gammas which are the bulk of emissions. The only thing worthy of note here is that depending on the ore you can omit the first steps and directly leach through the carbonate process and precipitate out the peroxide directly after filtering. Wonderful video, it's great to see U-chem come out of the woodwork.
U235hexafluoridedude 1 week ago
@U235hexafluoridedude
Thanks for your input. Indeed, if you're working with primarily secondary uranium ores that have already been oxidized (eg carnotite, autunite), the acid/oxidizer leach is not necessary, and can simply be pulverized and leached with carbonate. However we've found that this ore type contains significant amounts of coffinite, a primary ore with U in its 4+ state, and that improved extraction is performed when this is subjected to acid/oxidizer leach
ReactionFactory 1 week ago
Comment removed
U235hexafluoridedude 1 week ago
Where are the eggs, flour, milk and sugar? Not to mention you didn't even make the Icing. Your Mom is going to really be pissed-off when she sees what you threw into the pool. Good Luck trying to make a Yellow Cake.
Cheers
teredude 4 months ago
@teredude the cake is now radioactive
DaNsEb1337 3 months ago
Is it quite safe to hold that piece of ore, without gloves? =/
TheCrazyFinn 4 months ago
@TheCrazyFinn
There is very little danger posed by handling this type of ore, or almost any other types of ore (radian barite comes to mind as an exception). Any radiological threat is mitigated by the fact that hands are quite insensitive to ionizing radiation due to their lack of major organs, and the time exposure to the ore is no more than a few minutes at most. It is still in good practice to wash your hands after handling ore to prevent ingestion of loose particles
ReactionFactory 4 months ago
Nice Job! Nice G-M counter! I live in Florida, so there's no Uranium ore around here... :-( Still though, it would be nice to live in New Mexico or Colorado for example. I used to go to Colorado every year, but way before I even owned anything that had to with radioactive materials. If I could go back, I'd bring my G-M Counter. I do have some radioactive chemicals, such as Ammonium Diuranate. I'd like to do this, but I just don't have that much ore! Those chunks alone can be worth a lot!
KarbineKyle 4 months ago
@KarbineKyle
Due to college, ViggenGuy has the pleasure of being able to say that he lives in both New Mexico and Florida ... hence the forty pound shipment of ore.
ReactionFactory 4 months ago
@KarbineKyle
Viggenguy here- Florida isn't a complete loss for interesting radiological specimens. The phosphate ore from central Florida's "Bone Valley" district has elevated levels of uranium and daughter nuclides. Miocene-pliocene period fossils from this area are especially concentrated. The black sand beach of Venice near Sarasota contains huge numbers of detectably radioactive fossil shark and ray teeth, and possibly placer monazite I'm trying to find an extraction scheme for
ReactionFactory 4 months ago
безстрашный человек! держит дома уран, и берёт его голыми руками!!1
panomari 5 months ago
Untill I did a degree level chemistry course (about 40 years ago!) I would have said that it was not possible to have a negative pH. In fact any acid solution with a molarity of greater than 1, will have a negative pH. The problem is that in the average lab you won't be able to measure it! For example if you take 12M HCl, its pH is -log(12) = -1.08. Your common or garden glass electrode can't read that. Also acids at high concentration don't fully dissociate.
intercomsec 5 months ago
возьмите урановую руду, заебеньте аскорбинкой и перекисью и получите обагащенный уран. господи чо за бред. пойду на задний двор, наберу плутония да реактор построю
sionmr2 6 months ago
some of you people scare me, and that gieger counter was all like, "SHIT U BE RADIOACTIVE"
SuperNoobdude 7 months ago
Holy-Terrorist:>*=* cool!
Agentoxedo07 7 months ago
The pH of 0 or less? Can pH reach less then 0?
Phacias 7 months ago
@Phacias
Yes, why couldn't it?
ReactionFactory 7 months ago
@ReactionFactory Well, You are right. I've never been taught about this fact. 'm cluv'er now ;) Thanks.
Phacias 7 months ago
@Phacias It only goes to 1. no lower.
zombieX111222333 6 months ago
@zombieX111222333
False! pH has no problems going below zero.
ReactionFactory 6 months ago
@ReactionFactory but how?
zombieX111222333 6 months ago
@zombieX111222333
pH is simply the negation of the logarithm of the molarity (moles per liter) of protons, or, in water, hydronium ions. At a molarity of one, the pH would be zero. At a higher molarity, the pH would be lower. This happens frequently in concentrated solutions of strong acids. Any solution of hydrochloric acid stronger than 4% will have a pH below zero.
ReactionFactory 6 months ago
@zombieX111222333 To add to RF's answer, there are acids with significantly lower pH's. The strongest superacid (Fluoroantimonic acid) has a pH of -25. Since the pH scale is logarithmic, that means there about 10 million, trillion more hydrogen ions free than in concentrated sulphuric. All superacids are made from two components, and one of them is always HF. The second component 'captures' the F-, so it can no longer form the conjugate base that normally raises the pH of HF alone.
lexichronicle2 6 months ago
@lexichronicle2 There are some factual issues with this comment. When you say pH, you mean pKa. pKa does not refer to the hydrogen ion concentration, but instead the position of the acid dissociation equilibrium. It is not correct to say that fluoroantimonic acid has that many more protons than sulfuric acid, but you can say that it is that many times as strong. Fluorosulfuric acid and trifilic acid are examples of one-component superacids. It is true that the strongest are binary, though.
ReactionFactory 6 months ago
@ReactionFactory I stand, correctedth
lexichronicle2 6 months ago
:) good i like, ¿is a prepare from atomic bomb ? :) ;)
Bonsay3 7 months ago
the more i learn about nuclear energy the more i worry
sweetscience1988 8 months ago
ok so we got the yellow cake now what do you do with it ?
defkon99 8 months ago
Comment removed
archangel1092 9 months ago
Where did you get the ammonia and what conc. was it?
ChemCrazy81 9 months ago
@ChemCrazy81
It was 10% clear ammonia from Ace Hardware.
ReactionFactory 9 months ago
@zzZSsleeper
To tell you the truth, most of what we do here has no practical use. Exploring the chemistry of uranium is the main goal here. Building a home-scale nuclear fission power station is out of the question with the amount of uranium here and our budget, which is not measured anywhere near the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars that would make that a possibility
ReactionFactory 9 months ago
also, how much hydrogen peroxide is used, and what concentration?
alphadecay90 9 months ago
@alphadecay90
The hydrochloric acid used is technical grade muriatic acid, 31.5% straight from the jug. They hydrogen peroxide used was 12% and added in large excess, about 100 mL for the roughly 1 liter batch of leachate. I have encountered literature that mentions that 3% peroxide can be used, though the precipitate will take more time to form.
ReactionFactory 9 months ago
Of what concentration was the Hydrochloric acid?
alphadecay90 9 months ago
will those powder be pur enough to make a bomb?
zcuzcu 10 months ago
@zcuzcu No
lexichronicle2 10 months ago
@lexichronicle2
Well put!
ReactionFactory 10 months ago
Great job!
If it's nearing the end of the day and you need to do a filtration, you can speed things up and give yourself a break sometimes by leaving it to settle over night and running the supernatant through first, so the paper is less prone to clogging. Then dump the gunk in last.
I'll have to give this a go though if I can find some ore. I know where some is, it's just that it's about 200 miles from my house :P
lexichronicle2 10 months ago 3
@lexichronicle2
This is certainly a great idea for future runs of this procedure, I think we were just anxious to get a significant, tangible yield for the camera that night and rushed rather quickly through things. And isn't that the heck of it? The good uranium ore deposits always seem to be out in the middle of nowhere!
ReactionFactory 10 months ago
Geiger counter noise is scary lol
epikrato 10 months ago
-MOOOOM! I'M GONNA VACUUM FILTRATE THE URANIUM! CAN I LET THE WATER TO THE POOL???
-Yes, sure honey!
Phacias 11 months ago
The highly active muddy precipitate at 4.40 likely contains the Radium from the Ore. I'm wondering if it might be worthwhile to extract the Barium from that and do a time exposure to see if you can actually see the tiny amount of Radium present glowing.
brianf55 11 months ago
@brianf55
I was thinking of something along those lines; radium, being an alkaline earth metal, is probably most likely to be present in the filtrate seen at 2:56 along with the massive amount of dissolved calcium that is a byproduct of this procedure. Treating this filtrate with magnesium sulfate solution yields a significantly radioactive precipitate of what I can only assume is mostly gypsum along with barite and any radium present in the ore as microgram amounts of radian barite
ReactionFactory 11 months ago
@ReactionFactory
Go for it if you're inclined, the amounts we're talking about are miniscule. I just remember the Curies discovering it after finding Uranium Ore was 4x more active than the Uranium content explained. They followed the activity and found it came down with the Barium.
brianf55 11 months ago
You really shouldn't dry yellowcake with a stream of hot air cause it will blow the particles around your house. Airborne contamination with radioactive isotopes leads to lung cancer.
You dry the stuff by putting it in a dessicator and you use protection. It's ok when there's a solution as only rubber gloves are needed, but dust? Jesus, you didn't think this through, didn't you?
endimion17 1 year ago
@endimion17
Were you more acquainted with the properties of the finished product, you would realize that it was far from dusty, in fact more sand-like than I'm sure you're imagining. Drying underneath a source of infrared radiation does very little to disturb the product as it is drying. It is true that chronic exposure to elevated levels of ionization radiation pose health hazards, any danger posed by this experiment is negligible compared to other, especially geolgical and geographic factors
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
@ReactionFactory You are not dealing with rays, or traces of radon so the danger lies in the chronic exposure. This is a solid chemical, partially dusty (remember Avogadro's number; even minute ammounts contain lots of atoms). It contains a heavy metal and it is radioactive. Airborne radiotoxic substance. Such substances are to be dried in a dessicator, not under a hot air blower. Be more careful.
It's not paranoia, it's common sense and laboratory rule. It's not benzene, it's yellowcake FFS.
endimion17 11 months ago
@endimion17
Contrary to what you might think, the United States has established acceptable exposure limits for insoluble uranium compounds, none of which could be expected to be met considering the quantity of the sample prepared, physics properties of the sample, time spent handling the sample, and radiation detected around the lab with a very sensitive meter (not significant over background). There was absolutely no reason to believe that any industrial safety standards were violated.
ReactionFactory 11 months ago
In the stage where you may or may not have to heat the solution, what temperature did you heat it to?
jrbpyro101 1 year ago
@jrbpyro101
We've encountered literature that recommends a temperature of between 80-100 degrees C for the precipitation with hydrogen peroxide. I can't remember doing any temperature readings ourselves at that point, but the acid-neutralized leachate was beginning to steam
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
so u are not useing uranium 235
helloamill 1 year ago
@helloamill
U-235 makes up about 0.72% of all natural sources of uranium, with >99% of the rest being U-238. Therefore, the uranium made in this process could be considered to be 0.72% U-235. Any higher than that would be considered enriched, which is obviously impossible for most sovereign nations, much less amateur chemists, to produce.
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
so u got this free wow cause of your land regulations
helloamill 1 year ago
@helloamill
That's correct. The ore was taken from an abandoned mine on public, government-owned BLM land; specifically, the Mt. Taylor Ranger District of the Cibola National Forest. Land regulations in national forests allow for fair use and exploitation of resources (that is, a legal operation must abide by local and federal environmental regulations), unlike land designated as a national or state park, which are entirely off-limits to exploitation of natural resources
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
What measurement is considered harm full on the Geiger counter?
ubuntupokemoninc 1 year ago
@ubuntupokemoninc
I can't give you a straight answer for that question. A Geiger counter is not typically used to determine the amount of "harm" a given radiation source will do. Rather, it will indicate the amount of surface activity a given sample will emit, which is not necessarily proportional to the "harm" it doles out. There are better instruments, such as a energy-compensated scintillation detector, to quantify the amount of ionizing energy emitted by a given sample.
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
@ubuntupokemoninc
And even if you're given a number in microsievert/hours or millirad/hours, the amount of "harm" it does all depends on the duration of exposure, your own physiology, and whether your exposure is inhaled, as in radon, ingested, as in some sort of food contamination, or is absorbed externally, as in holding a source to your skin.
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
I keep looking up yellowcake and am getting yellow cake.
Perfect for any occasion, be it a child's birthday party or a nuclear weapons lab tour.
TheBubaSqua 1 year ago
Quick question, the mud that was left over after the second to last step that was still radioactive, would you happen to know what radioisotopes might be present?
Great video by the way, I just hope YouTube doesn't take it down. : )
yellowmetalcyborg 1 year ago
@yellowmetalcyborg
I'd have to bet that it was mostly uranium that we failed to extract, to tell you the truth. I'd suspect that radium was one of the most significant secondary radioisotopes, but I'll let ViggenGuy give a more complete answer next time he comes on-line.
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
@yellowmetalcyborg
The residual radioactivity should mostly be due to the presence of isotopes of radium, polonium, protactinium, radon, short-lived isotopes of thorium, and radioisotopes of bismuth, lead, and thallium. Another leach could be done to get a good idea of how much uranium might still be present. The nucleus of U238 also has the very, very small chance to undergo spontaneous fission, which could produce really any isotope, radioactive or not, of any element lighter than uranium.
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
@ReactionFactory Thank you. It makes sense that the radioactivity would be due to radon because it's in the uranium decay chain.
yellowmetalcyborg 1 year ago
Now, I've watched this before, but the drying of the product like that flat on the ground susceptible to breezes kicking the powder around makes me cringe every time
UC235 1 year ago
@UC235
No worries! The drying was done in a closed garage. No unexpected wind to deal with. Several square feet surrounding the drying area were washed down with soap and water to pick up any stray uraniferous dust that might have escaped the paper during the drying process. The paper towel used showed no significant increase in radioactivity over background after cleaning.
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
5 stars! You should make a video of thorium isolation.
plutoniumiscool 1 year ago
@plutoniumiscool
Thank you! We believe we've located a good source of thorium from a beach sand from the Gulf Coast of Florida, the only problem is that we're still looking for a good way to separate out the suspected monazite from the rest of the sand. Magnetic separation seems to be the best option, though it's slow and inefficient without something like a nice electromagnet. Research is ongoing!
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
@ReactionFactory
Yes, monazite is a good source for thorium, but I heard thorium mantles can contain up to 90% ThO2,.so that should also be a good source, good luck!
plutoniumiscool 1 year ago
@ReactionFactory
If you should have any luck on the Thorium extraction, you might consider making your own Propane Lantern Mantles using Thorium Nitrate/cloride and silk bags, because that is all they really are. The silk turns to carbon and the Thorium oxidizes into a very refractory oxide that holds the bag shape and really glows nicely. Let me know if you are successful in your extraction.
JagdtygerII 1 year ago
Is there a way to make a metallic uranium from this, and is there any use for uranium(that isnt illegal).
HowToScience 1 year ago
@HowToScience
It is possible to produce metallic uranium from this, but it would be quite hard. Strongly reducing conditions are required to reduce U (IV) to a lower oxidation state. A thermite reaction can be used, but this is a nasty, low yield process on our scale.
Aside from ceramic pigments and glass tinting, uranium is useful in photography, leather, wool, and wood processing, and as a stain for microbiology.
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
I cant believe this is on youtube....wow.
They really should take this down.
EmpathyWorks 1 year ago
@EmpathyWorks
Nothing in the video is illegal or potentially violent, or even particularly dangerous. While it was annoying, I can understand why Youtube removed the nitroglycerin video; if they removed this one though, we'd be pissed.
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
Very Nice!
All that HCl and Ammonia must have smelled like fun. I hope you didn't get anything in your lovely pond!
macbeth41science 1 year ago
@macbeth41science
You bet, the chlorine oxidation step smelled pretty nice as well. Don't worry, measures were taken to prevent local surface and ground water contamination. I'd hate to have alligators stop showing up out back. The pool's just fine, too, if not a bit full.
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
To bad there isn't ore that has a higher concentration of depleted uranium in it; cause then you could play around with the compound possibility some more.
separating it your self would get you unwanted attention and low yields (of depleted).
opaldragon75 1 year ago
@opaldragon75
Depleted uranium doesn't occur naturally. It's a byproduct of uranium enrichment, the unwanted U-238 that's been separated from the fissile U-235. There are rare cases in which natural nuclear reactors have run billions of years ago and depleted the U-235 concentration in the ore somewhat, but by and large, what is extracted from ore is referred to as "natural uranium"
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
@ReactionFactory
The waste seems more radioactive than the product. Is there anything useful in it?
@simbeau
I agree with you. I think it will be on the "left" coast, possibly Portland Oregon (they're already in a position to "test" an "emergency martial law condition"). I also think it will be a domestic device that was "lost" by our own agents. Then we will have all the blind hatred necessary to blow up some sand dunes.
ldanielrosa 1 year ago
Great!
Now, show us how to isolate strontium 90 from spent nuclear fuel so that I can make my own nuclear powered satellite!
JK
I would like to make my own nuclear battery though, that would soak up most of my free time during these cold winter months.
Merry Christmas!
(or Hanukkah, whichever)
yellowmetalcyborg 1 year ago
Uranium is a pure alpha-emitter, so the high activity, even with a layer of plastic between the source and the detector, means that your sample is contaminated with decay products of uranium, such as radium and polonium.
sciencoking 1 year ago
@sciencoking
Sadly, it's rather difficult at this point to get rid of the microgram quantities of daughter isotopes that would register that highly on the Geiger counter.
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
@ReactionFactory I know I know, I just wanted to point it out =)
sciencoking 1 year ago
That's what we don't see everyday,
thanks for the nice video! :D
kuro96inlaila 1 year ago
I've always wanted to put a phosphorescent substance on a solar cell and then a layer of radioactive material to make an atomic battery.
pinkytm1 1 year ago
@pinkytm1
The Soviets were pretty keen on radioisotope thermal generators to keep their Arctic ocean lighthouses running. I think those used thermocouples with the heat of decaying nuclear waste such as Sr-90 or Cs-137, but your idea sounds pretty neat, too. Activated zinc sulfide fluoresces under alpha radiation, this sounds like a very plausible idea!
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
Neat! Now build an open-source nuclear reactor.
Duffytoler 1 year ago
I knew I shouldn't have looked at the comments for this video. Now I need to go get drunk.
nucleochemist 1 year ago
How do you dispose of the wastes for something like this?
karmicthreat 1 year ago
@karmicthreat
An isolated place, where it will have plenty of time away from humans to be reabsorbed into the earth from whence it came.
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
@ReactionFactory Ok true enough. I guess my question should have been how did you guys dispose of the wastes from this. Spread it back out in the area where you found the ore?
karmicthreat 1 year ago
@karmicthreat
Unfortunately, since we work in Florida, we haven't had the opportunity to dispose of the waste back at the New Mexico mine where the ore was collected. For now, liquid waste solutions that read noticeably above the background radiation level are being kept in empty plastic milk cartons. Eventually, we'll probably dry out the waste and take it to one of the hazardous waste disposal sites the county government sets up every once in a while
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
@karmicthreat
Ideally, you take the waste back to the location where you found the uranium. Otherwise, sequestration is the nest best idea.
viggenguy4411 1 year ago
And people wonder why I lay odds of 50/50 we'll see a weaponized nuclear explosion in my lifetime.
simbeau 1 year ago
nice video. but cant that radiation hurt you. doesnt uranium emit gamma?
lamboroghini 1 year ago
@lamboroghini
The specific activity of 5 g of uranium (about what our yield turned up) is about 62.2 kBq, which corresponds to a dose of about 7.82 mrem/hr at one centimeter and 0.782 urem/hr at one meter. Which is to say, carrying it in your pocket for an hour is equivalent to about one chest x-ray, while having the same sample 1 meter away for 1,000 hours would provide the same dose. Uranium is a very weak gamma emitter and not particularly radioactive compared to something like radium
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
@ReactionFactory oh so it cant really hurt you except for extra long exposure and ingestion i guess?
lamboroghini 1 year ago
@lamboroghini
That's right, the biggest concern of ours was inhalation of uranium-bearing dust because while your outer dead layer of skin is sufficient to block and deflect the alpha particles emitted by the uranium, your lung tissue is much more sensitive to this damage and because the yellowcake is insoluble, it is likely that any uranium you inhale is going to be lodged in there for decades. Ingested uranium, while still dangerous, can be passed relatively quickly
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
nice video. but cant that radiation hurt you. doesnt uranium emit gamme?
lamboroghini 1 year ago
LOL be careful to the uneducated uranium is a synonym for al qaeda
mewrox99 1 year ago 11
@mewrox99 I think yellow-cake uranium is a synonym for cake to the uneducated person as well.
bradcasali 9 months ago
Uranium Extraction at home = EPIC WIN
mewrox99 1 year ago
We have no reason to believe that this video will be taken down. It is legal to own up to fifteen pounds of unenriched uranium, and the yellowcake we produced would be useless for making a weapon. (unless we did what commenter vevenaneathna suggested and enriched it by separating the uranium-235 out) The yellowcake's primary value is only as a curio.
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
@ReactionFactory Despite the legality of it I wouldn't be surprised if they did. They wont say "wel we cant take it down because its legal", its at their discretion and whatever they think is "not appropriate for any audience. I mean, they took down your nitroglycerin video.
hkparker 1 year ago
@hkparker and i dont get it there are plenty of other videos of making nitroglycerin on youtube
lamboroghini 1 year ago
@lamboroghini yea, but none done nearly as well :)
hkparker 1 year ago
@hkparker i guess these guys really do great jobs on their videos. i guess a little too good for youtube
lamboroghini 1 year ago
to refine uranium to its pure isotope, use the law of diffusion of gasses. react the uranium with fluorine to obtain UF6 or UF8, i forget what state its in, and then the heavier isotopes will effuse out of a balloon slower then the lighter ones.
Its how we did it in WW1 and could take a lot of ore and a lot of time.
isotope purification is a closely guarded secret now days but they might have used vacuum pumps to speed up the process.
sort of like how we make heavy water. electrolysis repeat
vevenaneathna 1 year ago
this is so cool! how much is that 8.4 grams worth?
neddy17 1 year ago
@neddy17
Thanks, but the uranium we extracted is worth only about one dollar, if I'm doing the math correctly.
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
@neddy17
On the international commodities market (yellowcake is traded under the symbol Ux), 8.4 grams is worth about $1.16 USD... But it's hard to tell what a collector will pay because of stringent regulations eBay has put in place regarding the sale of refined uranium ore.
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
So how long do you think YouTube will keep this up? I am guessing 2 days at the most.
sambino97 1 year ago
Well time to download this video to prepare to mirror just in case youtube decides to remove this.
TickyTack23 1 year ago 14
you make atom bomb now?
krazypunk50 1 year ago
@krazypunk50
Luckily, the creation of an atom bomb requires enriched uranium, which is impossible for any entity short of a national government to produce. The uranium produced by this procedure maintains the natural ratio of isotopes found within the earth
ReactionFactory 1 year ago
@ReactionFactory haha just a joke. but thanks guys awesome vid
krazypunk50 1 year ago