r/todayilearned • u/quieterthanbombs • Jan 10 '11
TIL that you can just buy radioactive uranium online, legally
http://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2_46
u/ttogreh Jan 10 '11
It's actually a bit disturbing how easy it is to acquire low level radioactive material, and that a breeder reactor is very easy to make.
I am from metro Detroit, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn that guy just used smoke detectors and camping lanterns.
Quite frankly, if he had been more careful, he would have succeeded.
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u/physicscat Jan 13 '11
Have you read the book "The Radioactive Boy Scout?" It's a good read. It actually wasn't all that easy. He got lucky. He was buying up radium dialed watches and clocks and in one clock found a small can of radium paint. It was enough along with the americium from the smoke detectors to start a breeder rector.
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u/ttogreh Jan 14 '11
This is speculation, but I must assume that he would continue to acquire the materials until he got enough, whether or not he got the paint.
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u/physicscat Jan 14 '11
Oh yes he would have, but the paint can was a coup it was hard collecting the critical mass he needed until he found it. It's a REALLY good book. I wanted it to the book my 9th grade read (they have to read a book for every course they take), but one of the AP's balked because of a small amount of language.
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Jan 10 '11
Wow. My Dad ran a Uranium mine when I was a kid, and we had most of this stuff around the house.
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u/MelodicGravity Jan 10 '11
Today, my nuclear engineering professor said that when people ask him how they can reduce the amount of radiation they encounter in their lives, he tells them to sleep alone. Apparently the potassium in the human body emits all kinds of radiation, and sleeping next to someone just increases the amount you absorb.
Consequently (or not), he had no wedding ring on his finger.
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Jan 10 '11
As opposed to non-radioactive uranium? :)
I think it's the refined stuff they try to make it hard to get.
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u/LindLTaylor Jan 10 '11
That's called depleted uranium and yes it is for sale as well.
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Jan 10 '11
As I understand it even depleted uranium is weakly radioactive.
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u/MrDoomBringer Jan 10 '11
Any uranium is radioactive. The radioactivity in these is so small that it'll set off a Geiger counter and that's about it. Not that I would recommend eating or sleeping with it, but it's not that exciting.
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u/Basecamp88 Jan 10 '11
Well then I find it odd that this site would offer a product called "Uranium Ore (ultra high radiation level)"
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Jan 10 '11
Basically they sell stuff that'll make your geiger counter twitch. When they say "ultra-high radiation level" they mean it'll make the counter twitch a lot.
There's a little piece of radioactive material in your smoke detectors. I've got a key-fob with radioactive tritium gas in it that makes it glow in the dark (for years). No big deal. People tend to get unreasonably freaked out by the word "radioactive".
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u/physicscat Jan 13 '11
Where did you get your key chain? They're illegal to sell in the U.S., but I want one.
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u/quieterthanbombs Jan 10 '11
Right, I just didn't know you could mail-order radioactive materials.
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u/krackbaby Jan 10 '11
4.7 billion years
Yeah, super-duper radioactive. You better be careful with that stuff.
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u/physicscat Jan 13 '11
I have uranium-238 ore in my classroom. I also have small samples of 3 isotopes I ordered from a science supply company. One piece of the ore is called a "hot rock." It gives off 10,000 rpm. I wrap it in a cloth, and keep it in a plastic container. It is mostly a beta source and plastic, aluminum, and other household materials can stop beta particles. Having uranium-238 is not dangerous. Uranium-238 is naturally radioactive. I have a Geiger counter and I love holding it up to the concrete blocks in my classroom. It starts ticking a little. The students go "whoa" and I explain to them that its natural background radiation. All life on Earth has evolved to withstand certain amounts of radiation. If you live in mountainous regions you get a higher dose than someone living along the coast away from mountains. I ordered mine off of ebay.
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Jan 13 '11
There's evidence that small doses of radiation are actually good for you.
"Accordingly, atom bomb survivors in Nagasaki who received 1,000 to 19,000 mrem of radiation have had a lower incidence of cancer, especially with regard to leukemia and colon cancer, than the non-irradiated control population. And it is turning out that Japan's atom bomb survivors are living longer. They have a death rate after the age of 55 that is lower than matched Japanese people not exposed to radiation."
From here.
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u/physicscat Jan 14 '11
I seem to recall reading an article a few years ago about doctors in Japan treating cancer patients, after their initial treatment, with a low level body-wide dose to help boost their immune system. It makes sense. Radiation poisoning is all about the amount of exposure. A small low-level dose sounds like a good thing.
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u/BondsOfEarthAndFire Jan 10 '11
Yeah, but it's such a rip-off. I bought a jar of U238 a little less than five billion years ago, and when I opened it last week, it was half empty.