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JohnWW
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Being electronically homologous, I have an idea that depleted uranium (U-238), of which there are huge stockpiles sitting around especially in the U$A
waiting for uses to be found, could be used as a substitute for neodymium (of which supplies are rather limited, coming mainly from China) in
neodymium-iron magnets. That would be better than using the stuff as ballistic material in bullets or shells in places like Iraq and Afghani$tan, or
as a heavier substitute for lead (but requiring an higher temperature to melt in order to cast into shapes) in the keels of racing yachts.
Like the rare-earth metals, those actinide metals having several 5f electrons, including uranium and especially plutonium, are strongly ferromagnetic.
However, except for U-238, they are too radioactive to use safely in bulk in magnetic alloys, and are costly due to having to be made artificially.
[Edited on 14-6-10 by JohnWW]
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mfilip62
pierced by a crossbow under a bridge while eating Billy goats
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Depleted U is regulary used as balast in Boening 747.
I am sure it has same use in many secret sporting and military designs.
And how do you think it could be used as Nd substitute!?
Is it that much magnetic!?
USA being U$A,someone will sooner or later realize my idea to use U-238 as AP ammo in small arms.
Combining heavy compact,insanely pentetrative U proyectile with silencer in subsonic mode would be great idea,at least for spec-ops where there is no
place for error and political concern.
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psychokinetic
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I though depleted U was old news, small or not.
“If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found
the object of his search.
I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor.”
-Tesla
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Skyjumper
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Didn't they use D-U for tank shells, but a tonna soldiers got sick? in 'nam or something
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Contrabasso
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Even the stable isotope (238) presents handling problems, and it naturally tarnishes to oxides rapidly in air. One of the eastern european mafias was
suspected of selling radioactive steel waste as radioactive uranium -it's a rare individual that can do much better than point a geiger counter at the
lump, a spot test would show positive for U whatever isotope mix and whatever proportion in steel.
While I'd like free electricity for life, I'm looking forward to living longer than having any U235 at home would indicate.
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mfilip62
pierced by a crossbow under a bridge while eating Billy goats
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You are right,they sold sold scrap metal,actually working miliatary hellos,lorrys ect. that was used in rescue and abondednd after Chernobil disaster
by Soviet Army.
But problem was not U,but MANY other far more dangerous shor liveing isotopes,so called "nuclear fallout"
Today this scrap is far less dangerous.
Same thing happened in Bosnia few times when gypsies stole lead containers from hospital containing radioisotopes of Cobalt and Iodine and sold it as
scrap metal.
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The WiZard is In
International Hazard
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Quote: Originally posted by mfilip62  | They are desperate because N. Korea stole them big batch... the use the wicked ways to impose monopole on U so that
Hell doesn't freeze!  |
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"In 1968, 200 tons of uranium ore disappeared from a ship in the
Mediterranean Sea and probably diverted to Israel."
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/israel/dimona.htm
&c., &c....
--------
Remember The Radioactive Boy Scout?
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mfilip62
pierced by a crossbow under a bridge while eating Billy goats
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As I said,looks like they had rund out of it again....
Damn they really sell anything to anybody if you have money.
You would know what I mean If you watched "Lord of War"
or just lived here on Balkan in 90's
[Edited on 15-6-2010 by mfilip62]
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Contrabasso
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There was (has anyone the news stories?) a radio isotope source in lead in a scrap yard in Spain (I'm thinking of 60's or 70's) the owner's children
liked the scintillating powder but sadly became inadvertent tests for the effects of extreme intensity radiation poisoning. The family died within
days, very painfully.
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not_important
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Two separate incidents, both involving caesium-137. In Spain in the late 19902 it was smelted, some escaped in the flue gases, and was detected
around Europe. The one with people coming into contact was in Brazil, where a radiation treatment unit was salvaged from an abandoned hospital and
later broken open; still later the materials were sold to a scrapyard. The wife and daughter of the scrapyard owner died, as did two of his
employees; a number of other people were exposed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acerinox_accident
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident
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JohnWW
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I have heard of an instance, several years ago, of radioactive cobalt-60, used as a gamma-ray source, being obtained by breaking up old X-ray and
radiation treatment devices in México, $old to a scrap metal dealer, and then, due to its ferromagnetism, being magnetically extracted along with
scrap steel, melted down, and after milling, incorporated into steel chair frames and concrete reinforcing bars. The people who handled the Co-60
later died of radiation poisoning, and there was an intense hunt for the steel chair frames and reinforcing rods.
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Contrabasso
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So put simply if it comes out through the bottle, be very sure what you are buying and what you are going to do with it.
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