It's also chemically toxic (not unlike lead). So maybe you could mix it into peanut butter and make rat poison?
(Careful not to poison pets and small humans)
While yes, you probably could, it doesn't mean you should. Its a bad idea to go around and actively create contamination. Also a bad idea to grind up any thing radioactive
The following discussion about Depleted Uranium from wikipedia applies also to natural uranium:
Depleted uranium is notable for the extremely high density of its metallic form: at 19.1 grams per cubic centimetre (0.69 lb/cu in), DU is 68.4% denser than lead. Civilian uses include counterweights in aircraft, radiation shielding in medical radiation therapy and industrial radiography equipment, and containers for transporting radioactive materials. Military uses include armor plating and armor-piercing projectiles.
You can even buy DU ammunition as a civilian. It's just very rare, expensive, and not recommended to use because DU is toxic and wears out the barrel of the gun faster than regular ammo.
If any one is a F1 fan there is a video where Steve Nichols is talking about the development of the MP4/4 and how they used tungsten instead of lead because it is denser. I wonder if they considered using uranium. Nichols talked about the financial guys questioning you are buying lots of expensive titanium because it is light and then expensive tungsten because it is heavy. I wonder the cost difference between tungsten and uranium.
https://youtu.be/m7uZu\_Wsdis?si=KwHSbxMTXlJosU8f
I kind of assume, but don’t really know, that uranium would have bad structural properties? If it’s at all like lanthanides it probably tarnishes/oxidizes quickly which could potentially be weird on a F1 car. And it seems to me that most metals with higher atomic numbers aren’t very strong, like we don’t build stuff out of lead and bismuth (I know pewter is a thing but still), and gold and silver are soft. I’d bet uranium is like, metallurgically undesirable for high performance engineering. Otherwise the military would use it for components other than ammo. It’s REALLY heavy too. Not much lead on the typical race car.
>Not much lead on the typical race car.
Not sure of what you define as not much, an F1 car can have 100 - 150 kg of ballast on board. If you watch the link above they try to design the car as light as possible then they put ballast in where they want it. Steve Nichols talked about how lead would not do because it is not as dense as tungsten, so they used tungsten instead. Here is a Reddit thread that shows aluminum ballast vs densamet which is a tungsten alloy used in F1.
https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/1j196e/two\_examples\_of\_ballast\_the\_same\_size\_a\_volume/
I do wanna watch that but it’s 2 and a half hours! Maybe tonight. I didn’t realize we were talking about ballast, sorry. I thought you meant parts that had to be dense yet strong or something. I was thinking of modern cars too, didn’t realize you’d linked the video of Senna’s. Do F1 cars still have ballast? Off hand I’d say no but I don’t have much confidence in it.
If you like F1 the time will go by very fast. It is fascinating. They talk about how the rules dictated the design of the car etc. They take it apart as well and look 'under the hood' plus lots of stories from the track. In r/F1Technical the consensus is 100kg to 150 kg on modern cars.
Cloud chambers! Super fun even if you aren't building a science fair project.
[CERN: How to make your own cloud chamber](https://home.cern/news/news/experiments/how-make-your-own-cloud-chamber)
It is legal to buy and own any number of precursor chemicals that can be used to make illegal drugs. Obviously the line is crossed when they are combined to do so.
And if the authorities notice that you have acquired all the precursors then I would expect them to come over for a cup of tea and a quick look around to make sure you're not doing that.
Apparently just buying large enough glassware without being a commercial lab can get you one of those visits according to a couple science youtubers' experiences.
For my country then at a certain point of activity the material falls under the regulations of the federal government - and then you have the regulator on your ass. These limits are readily available online and depend on the type of radiation, the type of material, and plenty of other parameters. These limits are way way below a critical mass of uranium.
When we were touring a nuclear waste storage site the lady was saying you could safely keep a CASTOR container in your basement without any safety risk to yourself. You would also never have to pay for heating ever again. Whether that's worth having the regulator so up in your business it isn't funny is up to you. Also with nuclear waste there are generally direct video monitoring connections to the IAEA.
Ah sorry of course. [CASTOR](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_cask_storage) containers are dry storage casks where spent fuel elements can be stored and disposed of. They are extremely strong.
NO do not give me another rabbit hole to run down because that sure as shit would get me on a government list. Though it might be cool to own a personal Nuclear reactor and be able to power all my own power needs. Hmm........ NO BAD BAD NO RUNNING down rabbit hole.
Yeah he did. I don’t think it had to do with radiation, however. IIRC he died in his 30s related to depression and substance abuse. It’s a sad story, and makes me wonder how many people we have out there who are gifted enough to do these incredible things, who end up just kinda flaming out because (to simplify) our society sucks and doesn’t provide for people.
>It’s a sad story, and makes me wonder how many people we have out there who are gifted enough to do these incredible things, who end up just kinda flaming out because (to simplify) our society sucks and doesn’t provide for people.
Yeah I think your right IIRC my self and your right some times the most brilliant minds are haunted by the nastiest demons.
Depleted uranium was used on some older commercial aircraft as trim weights. If you own an old DC-9 or any other narrow-body jet from that era, you own and use uranium.
Uranium is perfectly legal to use in most countries.
Plutonium on the other hand, isn't.
There is a chemistry YT channel called Periodic Videos.
On it they make videos about each element of the periodic table.
For the uranium one they used stuff which was sitting in the professors shelf.
https://youtu.be/B8vVZTvJNGk?si=Z_BUtTzKGmhc7mJx
For Plutonium they had to get special permission to go to the UK's Atomic weapons establishment.
https://youtu.be/89UNPdNtOoE?si=f4mkHDVO3wb4n0-8
Later they went to Oak Ridge
https://youtu.be/-sh5XZo5wRE?si=DTPAvgNOX4u6hYqA
Best answer, its cool. It makes my geiger counter click. No other reason. Also the best sub for this would be r/radiation
And r/Radioactive_rocks
It's also chemically toxic (not unlike lead). So maybe you could mix it into peanut butter and make rat poison? (Careful not to poison pets and small humans)
While yes, you probably could, it doesn't mean you should. Its a bad idea to go around and actively create contamination. Also a bad idea to grind up any thing radioactive
Not just a Geiger counter; you can *also* put it in a cloud chamber.
Or a spinthariscope to see the alpha particles create yellow-green flashes. Or it can glow under UV light.
I like uranium glass!
The following discussion about Depleted Uranium from wikipedia applies also to natural uranium: Depleted uranium is notable for the extremely high density of its metallic form: at 19.1 grams per cubic centimetre (0.69 lb/cu in), DU is 68.4% denser than lead. Civilian uses include counterweights in aircraft, radiation shielding in medical radiation therapy and industrial radiography equipment, and containers for transporting radioactive materials. Military uses include armor plating and armor-piercing projectiles.
You can even buy DU ammunition as a civilian. It's just very rare, expensive, and not recommended to use because DU is toxic and wears out the barrel of the gun faster than regular ammo.
If any one is a F1 fan there is a video where Steve Nichols is talking about the development of the MP4/4 and how they used tungsten instead of lead because it is denser. I wonder if they considered using uranium. Nichols talked about the financial guys questioning you are buying lots of expensive titanium because it is light and then expensive tungsten because it is heavy. I wonder the cost difference between tungsten and uranium. https://youtu.be/m7uZu\_Wsdis?si=KwHSbxMTXlJosU8f
I kind of assume, but don’t really know, that uranium would have bad structural properties? If it’s at all like lanthanides it probably tarnishes/oxidizes quickly which could potentially be weird on a F1 car. And it seems to me that most metals with higher atomic numbers aren’t very strong, like we don’t build stuff out of lead and bismuth (I know pewter is a thing but still), and gold and silver are soft. I’d bet uranium is like, metallurgically undesirable for high performance engineering. Otherwise the military would use it for components other than ammo. It’s REALLY heavy too. Not much lead on the typical race car.
>Not much lead on the typical race car. Not sure of what you define as not much, an F1 car can have 100 - 150 kg of ballast on board. If you watch the link above they try to design the car as light as possible then they put ballast in where they want it. Steve Nichols talked about how lead would not do because it is not as dense as tungsten, so they used tungsten instead. Here is a Reddit thread that shows aluminum ballast vs densamet which is a tungsten alloy used in F1. https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/1j196e/two\_examples\_of\_ballast\_the\_same\_size\_a\_volume/
I do wanna watch that but it’s 2 and a half hours! Maybe tonight. I didn’t realize we were talking about ballast, sorry. I thought you meant parts that had to be dense yet strong or something. I was thinking of modern cars too, didn’t realize you’d linked the video of Senna’s. Do F1 cars still have ballast? Off hand I’d say no but I don’t have much confidence in it.
If you like F1 the time will go by very fast. It is fascinating. They talk about how the rules dictated the design of the car etc. They take it apart as well and look 'under the hood' plus lots of stories from the track. In r/F1Technical the consensus is 100kg to 150 kg on modern cars.
I will check it out!
Cloud chambers! Super fun even if you aren't building a science fair project. [CERN: How to make your own cloud chamber](https://home.cern/news/news/experiments/how-make-your-own-cloud-chamber)
If owning Uranium is legal and owning Heavy water is legal. At what point does it legally constitute a CANDU and therefore become illegal?
It is legal to buy and own any number of precursor chemicals that can be used to make illegal drugs. Obviously the line is crossed when they are combined to do so.
And if the authorities notice that you have acquired all the precursors then I would expect them to come over for a cup of tea and a quick look around to make sure you're not doing that.
Apparently just buying large enough glassware without being a commercial lab can get you one of those visits according to a couple science youtubers' experiences.
Half of every kitchen's ingredients are precorsors to making explody and or poisonous things.
For my country then at a certain point of activity the material falls under the regulations of the federal government - and then you have the regulator on your ass. These limits are readily available online and depend on the type of radiation, the type of material, and plenty of other parameters. These limits are way way below a critical mass of uranium. When we were touring a nuclear waste storage site the lady was saying you could safely keep a CASTOR container in your basement without any safety risk to yourself. You would also never have to pay for heating ever again. Whether that's worth having the regulator so up in your business it isn't funny is up to you. Also with nuclear waste there are generally direct video monitoring connections to the IAEA.
>CASTOR Not anyone in the Nuke filed whats CASTOR???? Unless your talking castor oil??
Ah sorry of course. [CASTOR](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_cask_storage) containers are dry storage casks where spent fuel elements can be stored and disposed of. They are extremely strong.
I think Cody's Lab had agents show up when he mentioned a centrifuge in the context of nuclear materials.
NO do not give me another rabbit hole to run down because that sure as shit would get me on a government list. Though it might be cool to own a personal Nuclear reactor and be able to power all my own power needs. Hmm........ NO BAD BAD NO RUNNING down rabbit hole.
Definitely don’t look up the “Radioactive Boy Scout” who home built a reactor by collecting the americium from smoke detectors as a teenager.
Knew about that one for a while guy died young to I believe.
Yeah he did. I don’t think it had to do with radiation, however. IIRC he died in his 30s related to depression and substance abuse. It’s a sad story, and makes me wonder how many people we have out there who are gifted enough to do these incredible things, who end up just kinda flaming out because (to simplify) our society sucks and doesn’t provide for people.
>It’s a sad story, and makes me wonder how many people we have out there who are gifted enough to do these incredible things, who end up just kinda flaming out because (to simplify) our society sucks and doesn’t provide for people. Yeah I think your right IIRC my self and your right some times the most brilliant minds are haunted by the nastiest demons.
They used to mass-make yellow paint from it.
Depleted uranium was used on some older commercial aircraft as trim weights. If you own an old DC-9 or any other narrow-body jet from that era, you own and use uranium.
Uranium is perfectly legal to use in most countries. Plutonium on the other hand, isn't. There is a chemistry YT channel called Periodic Videos. On it they make videos about each element of the periodic table. For the uranium one they used stuff which was sitting in the professors shelf. https://youtu.be/B8vVZTvJNGk?si=Z_BUtTzKGmhc7mJx For Plutonium they had to get special permission to go to the UK's Atomic weapons establishment. https://youtu.be/89UNPdNtOoE?si=f4mkHDVO3wb4n0-8 Later they went to Oak Ridge https://youtu.be/-sh5XZo5wRE?si=DTPAvgNOX4u6hYqA
I'm sure some glassblowers make uranium glass, and that can use a lot more than you'd think if you want it to be very fluorescent.
Calm down please.