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Analysis of Soviet smoke detector plutonium

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Re: Analysis of Soviet smoke detector plutonium

#11

Post by gumby »

Hey kids, if you plan to play with Pu, what the author fails to mention is that it is not only radioactive but actually poisonous (chemically) as well.

On the other hand, another little known fact is that you can weld it, which isn't true of all metals.

Re: Analysis of Soviet smoke detector plutonium

#13

Post by URSpider94 »

lokedhs wrote: post #12
URSpider94 wrote: post #7

This has to be the best amateur science write-up I have seen in years, maybe ever.

Although the author is a professional nuclear engineer, I do agree with you on the quality of the writing.

I didn't look at his bio, but I assumed that he must do something in the field in his day job -- it would be really hard to stockpile this much knowledge from scratch, even with the help of the Internet ...

Nonetheless, he did this with the gamma spectrometer in his spare room ...

Re: Analysis of Soviet smoke detector plutonium

#15

Post by InclinedPlane »

mmmBacon wrote: post #8

Reminds me of David Hahn, a kid who tried to make a breeder reactor in a garden shed. He massed Americium from smoke detectors in an attempt to make Plutonium. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn

Yeah, crazy stuff. Shows what's possible if you have no boundaries. He collected old glow in the dark paint and extracted the radium from it then used beryllium foil to make a neutron source that he used to irradiate thorium from kerosene lamps, producing U-233. Very tiny amounts, but remarkable nonetheless.

Re: Analysis of Soviet smoke detector plutonium

#16

Post by seesomesense »

mmmBacon wrote: post #8

Reminds me of David Hahn, a kid who tried to make a breeder reactor in a garden shed. He massed Americium from smoke detectors in an attempt to make Plutonium. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn#Death

Re: Analysis of Soviet smoke detector plutonium

#17

Post by anfractuosity »

gumby wrote: post #11

Hey kids, if you plan to play with Pu, what the author fails to mention is that it is not only radioactive but actually poisonous (chemically) as well. On the other hand, another little known fact is that you can weld it, which isn't true of all metals.

That's interesting with respect to welding. I just assumed all metals could be welded, do you know the reason why some can't out of interest.

Also is plutonium welded for any application, out of curiosity?

Re: Analysis of Soviet smoke detector plutonium

#19

Post by anfractuosity »

Reason077 wrote: post #18

Modern smoke detectors seem to have done away with ionization in favour of optical technology, and so no longer contain radioactive materials. Bad news for mad scientists!

Are you sure about that, I thought ones with Americium were more sensitive? I'm pretty sure you can still get both.

Edit: Seems I'm not right regarding sensitivity, wiki says:

"Ionization detectors are more sensitive to the flaming stage of fires than optical detectors, while optical detectors are more sensitive to fires in the early smouldering stage"

Wow it also says:

"Where an ionizing smoke detector has been the only detector, fires in the early stages have not always been effectively detected."

That's worrying.

Re: Analysis of Soviet smoke detector plutonium

#20

Post by dexen »

exabrial wrote: post #3

"... the guest bedroom of the home (the least radioactive room, as it should be)..." I think that's my new favorite quote from a scientist.

Another quote mine is "Things I Won't Work With" by Derek Lowe the chemist.

http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/category/thing...

Examples: http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2010/02/23/thi...

http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2008/02/26/san...

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