uranium ore + nitric acid = uranyl nitrate

[Athiril]

"Yes kids, you should really play with uranium and nitric acid outside"

[ShortyScooby]

What is your anal night rate?

[XxMRPWN4G3xX]

@ParaglidingManiac Are you planing a terrorist attack?hahahaha



[vidbyvid]

Thats No uranyl nitrate thats definetly Kryptonite...

[ParaglidingManiac]

Let's say I have a piece of uranium ore. How can I clean it from all the dirt and rocks, so that I would get as clean/pure uranium as possible?

[bionerd23]

@ParaglidingManiac

basically by "washing" it with acids. pretty complicated process, and pretty dangerous, too (involves very high temperatures and pressures).

[cassiavc]

Do a video when you mix them!

[bionerd23]

@cassiavc

of course. :)

[cassiavc]

If you mix nitric acid and thorianite, what would you get?

[bionerd23]

@cassiavc

AWESOME idea. why didnt i think of that yet?

i only had ONE small piece of thorianite before (when i did this video and was wondering what else i could put acid on), but i just got a batch of tiny micromounts a few weeks ago. guess i could use one and try this out! thanks!

[cassiavc]

@bionerd23 hhahaha I'm awesome. Love me love me xD

I have a tiny amout of thorianite too. But i don't have nitric acid. Would be great if you test it!

[megamarko94]

U probably develop cancer from all tha radioactivity and u r probably sterile so u can't have any kids.because of chronic radiation pioisoning

[invalidation]

@megamarko94 You should sterilize yourself, and save the world from more generations of stupid.

[mymommy1230]

Hello bionerd23!

I'm getting prepared for an experiment in which I will use uranyl nitrate to treat a gallon of distilled water. This is, of course a water soluble uranium salt so it should dissolve quite nicely. I plan on watering several plants under my care with this water, in hopes of measuring their uranium uptake levels. I will then study successive generations for mutations. Do you think this would work under proper, controlled conditions? Tips are appreciated from anyone!

[bionerd23]

@mymommy1230

well, i'd use normal / non-distilled water, or mix the distilled water with normal water when watering the plants. after all, limescale contains nutrients for the plant, so depriving it from them may affect the results.

apart from that, your experiment should work; however, BE CAREFUL. water soluble uranium salts (as you sure know) are highly toxic. you should, by all means, prevent ingestion from any mammal (cat, dog, human, yourself).

[mmaaxx1198]

You can sell that to the persians!

[blizzard242]

I could be wrong but I think this is the reaction. Cu + 2HNO3 = UO2(NO3)2 2NO input would be nice.

[newcomer9747]

wow! how did it light up?

[bionerd23]

@newcomer9747

you mean why it's fluorescent? because of the uranyl ion that formed in the chemical reaction.

[wowggscrub]

the photons excite the sample and by excite I mean they're absorbed and the energy goes to raising electrons to an upper state and when the electrons fall back down they fluores.

[hibraisil]

Have you ever heard of "uranium" or "vaseline" glass? Its 2% Uranium oxide but amazingly expensive. Any way I could get that from this stuff?

[runnersusan]

I've been browsing your videos, and they are all fascinating. I was wondering if you could make a suggestion on the best way to detect NORM in my yard? Someone with a geiger counter recently told me my levels were high after a spill from a natural gas well recently occurred. What would be the best beginner model to detect if my property was radioactive?

[bionerd23]

@runnersusan

well, a simple geiger counter for about $30 can tell you if something is radioactive, in theory; check e.g. ebay. for a dose rate calculation, you'd best get an actual dosimeter, which are from $100 onwards, i suppose. for a minor spill of a low grade radioactive material, you need a much more sensitive device, e.g. a scintillation counter (contamination monitor), but those are like $500 at least.

[bionerd23]

@bionerd23

all not worth buying just for the purpose... i'd try to lend one at a government office or something for a few days.

[PsychoticBovine]

Two atoms are walking down the sidewalk when they accidentally bump into each other.

"I'm really sorry!" the first atom exclaims."Are you all right?"

" Actually, no," the second atom replies."I lost an electron."

"Oh, no! Are you sure?"

"I'm positive!"

[bionerd23]

@PsychoticBovine

lol, not bad, i grinned. ^_^

[happyseralstudent012]

Hey I am making my own X-ray machine with a 100kv tesla coil and a 2x2 rectifier tube.

[ema576]

funny thing about nitric acid is it will make nitrogen dioxide and that can be used to make nitric acid by making it go into water

[bionerd23]

@ema576

yep, that's why it's not really great to breathe NO2, as that very reaction will happen WITHIN YOUR LUNGS then, lol.

[ccronn]

Yes, it is really awesome!

[Geomanb]

Now you start doing real badass chemistry ;-)

[ryan50ryan]

Atom 1: "Hey, let's be friends."

Atom 2: "Yeah, let's stick together!"

[Phacias]

1:22 - 1:35 proves that You are a real scientist. Congrats Bionerd23 ;)

[chao129]

Try making a uranotype with it.

[chao129]

Where did you get the nitric acid? I need a cheap source of it, making my own is inefficient.

[bionerd23]

@chao129

i got it from a small, local chemistry shop.

[999BelialMr]

@chao129 nurdrage has a video on how to make nitric acid along with other acids and various chemicals.

[chao129]

@999BelialMr

I know, I tried the copper/KNO3/HCl method. I made very weak and impure nitric acid. It is a pretty green though.

[wowggscrub]

Uranyl nitrate very toxic.

[bionerd23]

@wowggscrub

yep. gotta be careful with it, like, not handle it with bare hands / make sure you dont ingest it, make sure it doesnt end up in the public sewer system, etc. etc.

[wowggscrub]

@bionerd23 usually uranium salts are unfortunatly

[bionerd23]

@wowggscrub

yeah, because they're water soluble... and it's a heavy metal. it's not even the radioactivity that matters, it's the toxicity that makes your kidneys fail etc. - same as with lead or mercury, if it's in a water-soluble compound.

[CorrosiveNerds]

How do you work with raqdioactive materials without getting cancer?

[bionerd23]

@CorrosiveNerds

because the amounts are absolutely minor and harmless (unless i'd eat them etc.). you still gotta know what you do, of course. however, in this experiment, adding the acid was the most dangerous part.

[joeyjj23675]

Very cool as always!!

Is the vapor radioactive as well??

[bionerd23]

@joeyjj23675

no, the vapor is just a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen.

[windowlicker1]

very nice

[uhf21]

Would the amount of sides (and types of shapes) of the crystal have any relationship to its own natural resonance frequency?

I hope I wrote that question correctly.

[bionerd23]

@uhf21

errr... i have no idea, sorry.

[kpshc707]

about time

[1ownjoo2]

Rofl... its tiberium growing... Get harvesters out bionerd....

[tesla242]

Always great material!

[weldmaster80]

cool as alwatys thanks

[dondude69]

Very cool!

[cyberbadger]

Will it stay green under uv light permanently?

[bionerd23]

@cyberbadger

i think so, yeah :)

[kneecaps2000]

Fascinating video as always! Great stuff.

[doktorfuture]

How does one create the radioactive poison used against that Russian dude, "Alexander Litvinenko"?

[kneecaps2000]

@doktorfuture Po210? You can create it by bombarding Bismuth209 with neutrons, this will then decay into Po210. Bismuth is not easy to come by, and you'd need a nuclear reactor or other neutron source to activate the Bismuth with neutrons.

[bionerd23]

@doktorfuture

polonium? that can be extracted from pitchblende uranium ore as well.

[Wcoltd]

does adding uranium to a compound effect the half life (or the radioactivity) of the Uranium in the ore?

[bionerd23]

@Wcoltd

nope, the radioactivity cannot be affected by any environmental factors; not by pressure, temperature, chemicals added, etc. - it's always the same... unless you're using the mightiest of all particles - neutrons - and actually change the nucleus itself. chemically adding uranium into compounds wont affect it at all.

[Wcoltd]

@bionerd23 That is really interesting.

[10mintwo]

@Wcoltd Once every 2 years or so a paper will come out in some obscure shit journal claiming that half life can be accelerated using increased pressure or some such, the media will shit all over itself in breathless excitement and the result is NEVER replicated. Wash, rinse, repeat.

As a side note though, K-shell capture decay rates actually CAN be affected by the chemical bond the atom is in before decaying, but only by about 1%. (end ramble)

[bionerd23]

@10mintwo

thanks for the info about the ε - very interesting.

yeah, i also heard claims about an effect on - or even a cause of general radioactivity by cosmic rays... not sure what to think of that.

[AScannerClearly]

Wow very interesting! I love fluorescent minerals, but never actually made any before like you just did! =D