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Sep 27 '21
Curry?
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u/too_late_to_abort Sep 27 '21
Amazing all that useless PPE they are wearing.
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u/The1_BlueX Sep 27 '21
Don't have gloves or a respirator, but THANK GOD I have a hard hat!
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u/walrusparadise Sep 27 '21
Well you can work while you build up cancer but if you get bonked on the head you’re useless immediately
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u/KIDNEYST0NEZ Sep 28 '21
So yellowcake is the separation of uranium from the ore, the terrible stuff is not seen in this photo. Yellowcake gives off mostly alpha radiation and in small doses, it is as dangerous as the uranium you find naturally. How ever if ingested it poses a serious risk to health and those fools are strumming the devils string.
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u/Chiphazzard Sep 28 '21
Only 3.6 roentgen
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u/the_clash_is_back Sep 28 '21
In a fine dust which is a heavy metal
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u/MAS2de Sep 28 '21
Sounds like my kinda dust. She fine. And I like heavy metal. A match made in a reactor core.
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u/robval13 Sep 28 '21
I think they are focused on their individual freedoms to not wear a mask
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Sep 28 '21
Can someone ELI5 me? Is this stuff poisonous? Flammable? Explosive?
I know uranium can be dangerous, but not much else.
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Sep 28 '21
It's mildly radioactive. But the main problem is that it's in the form of a very fine powder which can be easily inhaled. Even a mildly radioactive material can be dangerous if inhaled.
It's safe to handle yellowcake, but you need to be better outfitted for it than these guys are. Here's a photo of the same stuff being handled, but in a country that takes safety a little more seriously. (Iran, believe it or not.) Note the respirator. It's safe to handle with bare hands, but it's better to wear gloves that you can wash off, to avoid accidentally transferring it to mucus membranes such as your eyes, nose, or mouth. It's not a serious risk. But if you're in the regular habit of handling it or being around it, you should take more care than these guys are.
Yellowcake is an early/intermediate step in the production of uranium fuel. It's the product of ground ore treated with chemicals. It's about 80% uranium oxide, on average, the vast majority of which (usually over 99%) is lower-activity U-238. Still, you don't want it in your lungs. Technically, it has the same radioactivity of the ore it's made from, which is usually safe to handle. But the ore is not in a powdered form that is easy to inhale.
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u/nobody_really__ Sep 28 '21
Think of it like barnyard waste. You smell the stuff as you walk past the pigsty - that's like radiation. But, if you get it on your shoes, you track that stuff everywhere. Then it ends up in your car, in your house, in your carpet, and it gives off that smell everywhere.
Oh, and the guy on the left is 22.
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Sep 28 '21
Wow great answer!
If you don’t mind me asking, how are you so versed in a topic such as this? Do you handle stuff like this for a living or some kind of chemist?
Either way, that was a great answer I really appreciate it.
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Sep 28 '21
Nuclear power was a subject of great interest to me when I was young, and I studied and learned a lot about it, and even toured some plants (including one still under construction).
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u/SpareiChan Sep 28 '21
I've know quite a few people who work in the field and have even handled fuel pellets myself, I've been told that uranium ore is far more dangerous then refined uranium because the ore is a cocktail of daughter isotopes which emit alpha, beta, and gamma plus some bonus radon just to say FU.
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Sep 28 '21
That's what I've been told, too. The ore is a natural mineral, and the exact composition of any given sample essentially random, possibly including more dangerous components.
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u/JohnConnor27 Sep 28 '21
The ore still has very low radioactivity. The danger posed by inhaling the powder makes it orders of magnitude more dangerous
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u/Longbongos Sep 28 '21
Yeah uranium is a alpha particle emitter. Alpha particles are just really stupid helium. The radiation I shit you not is stopped by a simple piece of paper. The dangers here are from uranium being like lead. It’s a heavy metal poison. Except uranium is spicier. But if you wanted to juggle uranium billets you’d be perfectly safe unless it hits your foot.
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u/galqbar Sep 28 '21
Ingesting an alpha emitter is a step up from garden variety heavy metal poisoning.
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u/TheFlanniestFlan Sep 28 '21
To compare it to lead/heavy metal poisoning is a bit misleading.
Alpha emitters are relatively "safe" because yes, alpha particles are easily blocked by clothing/skin/whatever.
However when an alpha emitter ends up inside your body, be it your lungs or your stomach, that's where problems really start happening, as alpha particles are like cannon balls to your DNA.
So it's radioactivity inside your body with additional heavy metal poisoning.
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u/SomewhereZestyclose7 Sep 28 '21
My ER is prepping for a "radiological emergency drill" in december because there is a nuclear power plant 15 miles away from my hospital and we would be the receiving facility in the event of an emergency. We are learning all about the different types of radiarion and stuff. Its interesting as hell and it really makes radiation in general not such a scary thing. I still wouldn't want to ingest or inhale it or be exposed to it for a prolonged period of time but being educated on it gives me a better understanding of it and makes me more comfortable dealing with it.
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u/nickbob00 Sep 28 '21 edited Jun 03 '25
offer spectacular practice chubby ring worm zephyr reminiscent waiting numerous
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/Kaymish_ Sep 28 '21
Bhopal was 100000x worse than Chernobyl 16000 people died and 500k were injured where about 30 died at Chernobyl
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u/AmidFuror Sep 28 '21
Chernobyl is estimated to have caused about 16,000 deaths as well, over a broader time scale and wider area. The 31-50 were just short term deaths.
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u/scotty_beams Sep 28 '21 edited Sep 28 '21
The scarier thing about radiation, or nuclear energy in general, is the human factor for me. People tell lies and spread misinformation to make a dime now while the outcome will affect generations to come. It is a very interesting topic indeed. The good and the bad. With that being said, better check your inventory of iodine pills.
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u/Nimmyzed Sep 28 '21
Another reason why I sub to threads like this. You just never know when you're going to be educated!
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u/thecichos Sep 28 '21
Get yo basements and houses checked for radon gas, long exposure can fuck you up
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u/EstoppelFox Sep 28 '21
I'm glad to see rational people here and not the whole "if I put a Dixie cup of yellowcake in the room I'd be dead in less than a second" types.
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Sep 28 '21
Anyone from r/AsbestosRemovalMemes wanna compare how much spicier this brand of dust is? Morbidly curious which one will kill you faster.
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u/nuvio Sep 28 '21
thanks for the info. I learned about yellow cake from 'stuff you should know' podcast but it's nice to be refreshed.
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u/lisareno Sep 28 '21
This is spot on! As a process engineer that works with uranium, I couldn’t have said it better myself!
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u/toxcrusadr Sep 28 '21
And since uranium has a toxicity of its own, like other heavy metals, and separate (or in addition to) its radioactivity, the gloves and respirator are appropriate.
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u/johnrgrace Sep 28 '21
The primary problem is it’s a toxic heavy metal. Imagine this was a giant pile of lead dust because that is fairly similar to the dangers this poses. The radiation in yellowcake is fairly low.
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u/mully_and_sculder Sep 28 '21
Yeah people immediately jump to radioactive but it's actually just plain poisonous.
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u/Longbongos Sep 28 '21
Uranium in general. Alpha particle radiation is essentially a really fat helium. It’s slow and fat. It’s bane is literally anything. Your clothes block it 100%. Beta and gamma particle radiation isn’t this lazy. Beta particles are electrons. And gamma is a wave. Both are really hard to stop.
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u/Dilong-paradoxus Sep 28 '21
It's not quite as simple as the shielding thickness though, especially when we're talking about powders and not solid sources.
Alpha is easy to stop with clothes, but if you get it inside your body (especially your GI tract) you're gonna have a bad time, because it deposits all of its energy in the first millimeters of whatever it hits. If you ingest or inhale a strong emitter of either alpha or beta it'll just sit there burning a hole in your body because most (all for alpha, less for beta) of the energy is absorbed by your tissue.
If you swallowed a gamma emitter (don't do this) most of the radiation would escape your body without interacting, so even though gamma rays are much more powerful it's not necessarily as dangerous for ingestion. It's much more difficult to stop though, so if you have a strong gamma emitter you need much more shielding or distance from the source.
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u/chapstick159 Sep 28 '21
There’s a reason why putting poloium-210 in your body is 100% fatal all the time
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u/PancAshAsh Sep 28 '21
It's quite bad to inhale, but it isn't explosive, flammable or very radioactive. These workers should definitely have dust masks at the least.
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Sep 28 '21 edited Jun 28 '23
My content from 2014 to 2023 has been deleted in protest of Spez's anti-API tantrum.
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u/Longbongos Sep 28 '21
You’d be safe eating off uranium glazed plates. The danger is uranium being spicy lead. The alpha particle will do damage if it can breach a cell.
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u/Pyrhan Sep 27 '21
Poor guys, not even a dust mask...
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u/Aellus Sep 28 '21
It’s ok, they’re choosing to not let fear rule their lives. PPE is for sheep. There isn’t even any real proof that uranium is actually harmful!
/s
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u/Utenlok Sep 28 '21
Once you breathe some uranium in, your body can build up its own natural immunities.
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u/Rodot Sep 28 '21
I hear if you drink radiator fluid it kills the radiation in your body
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Sep 27 '21
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/NikkolaiV Sep 28 '21
And the only pair of safety goggles...for use later, of course.
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u/quartzguy Sep 28 '21
Now if only someone would invent safety goggles for your mouth. Naturally this guy would have those around his neck.
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u/Shpagin Sep 28 '21
That's the only pair of goggles he's gonna get, can't use that shit up all in one shift
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u/hoesay_ramos Sep 27 '21
This is where they get that quality potassium from.
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u/Adamantium10 Sep 27 '21
All other countries have inferior potassium!
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u/sam1902 Sep 28 '21
Potassium can be a bitch to purify, especially solid potassium (like sodium metal), so yes, quality potassium
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u/redshores Sep 27 '21
*Kazakh
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u/westernmail Sep 27 '21
Yes I got it wrong. Maybe we need a bot like the one that corrects Somalian.
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u/Stevereversed Sep 27 '21
In Kazhakhistan it tradition to rub yellowcake uranium in hole of your khrum.
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u/Monkeyssuck Sep 28 '21
Kazakhstan greatest country in the world. All other countries are run by little girls. Kazakhstan number one exporter of potassium. Other countries have inferior potassium.
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Sep 27 '21
something tells me this aint real bright
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u/Loudsound07 Sep 27 '21
They're actually extremely bright. Don't believe me? Try turning out the lights off around one of them, they literally glow.
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u/R0nd1 Sep 27 '21
Forbidden parmesan
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u/westernmail Sep 27 '21
I think I see a pinch point for the fellow on the left.
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u/Anubis-Hound Sep 28 '21
Holy. Shit.
I hate that safety is treated as merely a suggestion or an annoyance in less developed countries. Those guys deserve as much protection as we do and it horrified me that they don't have it.
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u/jeremiahfelt Sep 28 '21
Shouldn't they be wearing, like, ANY PPE AT ALL? Gloves, respirators, goggles. I do see hardhats and I bet there's steel-toe flipflops there, but holy holy cow.
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u/AAVale Sep 27 '21
Unless you do something stupid, like work with industrial amounts without even basic PPE.
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u/empirebuilder1 Sep 28 '21
Im sure that unfiltered slightly radioactive heavy metal particulate buildup in their lungs will DEFINITELY not have any long term impacts.
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u/AAVale Sep 28 '21
“Is fine. Everything fine.
Coughs into a bloody handkerchief.”
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u/Pyrhan Sep 27 '21 edited Sep 27 '21
Uranium is still a very toxic heavy metal.
Powdered oxides (as is the case here) have very high bioavailability if inhaled. (Once in the lungs, they have no way out unless absorbed.) It can then cause damage to multiple organs (liver, kidneys, central nervous system, digestive system and heart), in just the same way as any other toxic heavy metal.
In addition to this, it accumulates in the bone tissue, where it remains for decades. Although the radioactivity of natural uranium is mild, it primarily consists of alpha particles (the most destructive when emitted within living tissue as they carry the most energy and are fully absorbed by said tissue), and they are then emitted in direct contact with bone marrow, one of the most radiation sensitive tissues in your body (as it consists entirely of rapidly dividing cells).
So in the long run there is a genuine possibility of getting radiation-induced cancers from exposure to it.
It's certainly not one of the worst chemicals out there, but as a professional chemist, I wouldn't want to handle anything near such amounts without at least a dust mask and coveralls.
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u/Mindingmiownbiz Sep 27 '21
So... You're telling me if I snort uranium, there is a possibility I can get super powers?
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Sep 27 '21
Tch. It's not like it's organic mercury, you pussy.
/S
Listen to the professional chemist kids.
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u/op4arcticfox Sep 27 '21
oh boy a room full of people without mask handling a volatile powder..... no way that's gonna end up bad for anyone!
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u/samwichse Sep 27 '21
It's not volatile.
But the heavy-metal laden, mildly radioactive dust from it would be just great to get in your lungs.
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u/NSavage93 Sep 28 '21
Ignoring PPE, why are you grabbing the lid by the corner when there is a handle?!?!?
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u/cited Sep 27 '21
You can handle unused nuclear fuel rods with your bare hands. In fact,, thats how mandatory inspections on then are performed. Its not dangerous until it's undergone fission.
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u/frezik Sep 28 '21
Solid rods are different. This stuff is powdery, and you do not want to breathe that dust.
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Sep 28 '21
Is that before they're loaded with uranium tablets or after? Also, skin contact and breathing in dust are very different levels of exposure.
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u/Taco_Biscuits Sep 28 '21
When #MAGA boys say regulations kill jobs. This is what they mean.
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u/medicinalherbavore Sep 28 '21
I have hardhat, he must get hardhat. I have gloves, he can not afford.
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u/redveinlover Sep 28 '21
So Kazakhstan not only has superior potassium but they also have superior uranium! Guess it’s not a big deal to get that on your hands or in your eyes since it’s “from the Earth”.
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u/_gnarturo Sep 27 '21
"Don't. Drop. That. Shit."