Plutonium isotopes in the North Western Pacific sediments found
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Re: Plutonium isotopes in the North Western Pacific sediments found
#2It's comforting to know that after we inevitably destroy ourselves in nuclear fire whatever crawls out of the leftovers will eventually find a strange plutonium signature at this moment in time and argue vigorously on their version of the internet about what it means.
Re: Plutonium isotopes in the North Western Pacific sediments found
#3It's comforting to know that after we inevitably destroy ourselves in nuclear fire whatever crawls out of the leftovers will eventually find a strange plutonium signature at this moment in time and argue vigorously on their version of the internet about what it means.
Half-life seems to short, only ~88 years.
Re: Plutonium isotopes in the North Western Pacific sediments found
#4This is an impressive feat of analytical chemistry. Note the extremely low radioactivity of plutonium contained in their samples, which peaked at just over 7 millibecquerels per gram:
Total 239Pu + 240Pu activities in BMC19 core reach their maximum of 7.14 mBq/g at 48.5 cm bsf and then sharply drop to ca. 2.09 mBq/g.
For comparison, a single banana contains approximately 2000 times more radioactivity just from its naturally occurring potassium content:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dose#Source_...
Re: Plutonium isotopes in the North Western Pacific sediments found
#5It's comforting to know that after we inevitably destroy ourselves in nuclear fire whatever crawls out of the leftovers will eventually find a strange plutonium signature at this moment in time and argue vigorously on their version of the internet about what it means.
Half-life seems to short, only ~88 years.
You appear to be referring to plutonium 238. This work analyzes the ratio between plutonium 239 and 240, which respectively have half lives of 24110 years and 6561 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_plutonium#List_of_...
Re: Plutonium isotopes in the North Western Pacific sediments found
#6Ah shucks ... I was hoping the Pu dated to sometime before the Holocene.
Re: Plutonium isotopes in the North Western Pacific sediments found
#7It's comforting to know that after we inevitably destroy ourselves in nuclear fire whatever crawls out of the leftovers will eventually find a strange plutonium signature at this moment in time and argue vigorously on their version of the internet about what it means.
Half-life seems to short, only ~88 years.
Oh, well there goes any small comfort, into the void then!
Re: Plutonium isotopes in the North Western Pacific sediments found
#8This is an impressive feat of analytical chemistry. Note the extremely low radioactivity of plutonium contained in their samples, which peaked at just over 7 millibecquerels per gram: Total 239Pu + 240Pu activities in BMC19 core reach their maximum of 7.14 mBq/g at 48.5 cm bsf and then sharply drop to ca. 2.09 mBq/g. For comparison, a single banana contains approximately 2000 times more radioactivity just from its na…
To be fair, how many single bananas were in their sample?
Re: Plutonium isotopes in the North Western Pacific sediments found
#9Ah shucks ... I was hoping the Pu dated to sometime before the Holocene.
This is the earliest report of terrestrial plutonium predating the Holocene:
Nature volume 234, pages 132–134 (1971)
"Detection of Plutonium-244 in Nature"
Mass spectrometric measurements of plutonium isolated from Precambrian bastnasite confirm the presence of 244Pu in nature. Although the existence of 244Pu as an extinct radioactivity has been postulated to explain the xenon isotope ratios observed in meteorites, this is the first indication of its present existence in nature.
Plutonium 244 of course has a much longer half life (80 million years) than the isotopes analyzed in these sediments.
https://www.nature.com/articles/234132a0 (https://sci-hub.ru/10.1038/234132a0)
Re: Plutonium isotopes in the North Western Pacific sediments found
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Half-life seems to short, only ~88 years.
You appear to be referring to plutonium 238. This work analyzes the ratio between plutonium 239 and 240, which respectively have half lives of 24110 years and 6561 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_plutonium#List_of_...
Unless it's a post WW-whatever-we-nuked recovery of humans or an offshoot again, the 6500 years halflife sounds likely to expire before a new scientifically intelligent species arises. Though I really hope things don't come to that.