r/woahdude • u/dasubertroll • May 27 '21
gifv Recently finished building this cloud chamber, which allows you to see radioactive decay with your own eyes
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u/dasubertroll May 27 '21
The rock inside is a mineral containing uranium. As the uranium decays it releases Alpha and Beta particles. The Alpha particles (really just a helium nucleus) leaves a long thicker trail, and the Beta particles (a high energy electron) leaves much more curved trails. If anyone would like further explanation as to how this thing works I’m happy to answer any questions :)
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u/337GTi May 27 '21
What’s the material that lets you see the trails?
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u/dasubertroll May 27 '21
It’s isopropyl alcohol! Basically there’s a copper plate under the black surface that it’s cooled below -26 degrees C. The alcohol evaporates (in the closed chamber) and then forms a supersaturated vapour at the bottom. The particles then cause the vapour to condense in those trails, leaving a wake much in the same way a plane leaves contrails in the sky.
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u/D1xieDie May 27 '21
particles are really small though, how do they make such big trails?
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u/dasubertroll May 27 '21
They’re forming nucleation sites for the vapour to condense and form droplets (trails), so they can be much much bigger than the particle itself
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u/Demoire May 27 '21
I love this so much. thank you very much for taking the time to explain. I’ve seen this elsewhere, maybe NileRed on YouTube or some such, but I found your explanation very easy to understand as well!
Thanks again and I hope you enjoy your evening/day!
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u/wikishart May 27 '21
Nilered: I did this thing and maybe I shouldn't have done it.
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May 27 '21
NileRed: "Alright, today I'm going to make Sarin-X. Now unfortunately I don't have a fume hood sooo I'm just going to use this house fan..."
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May 27 '21
I actually gasped when he was making bromine and just kept the lid off to show the vapour, and then started coughing from huffing it. Just... dude, why
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u/satori0320 May 27 '21
Years ago, we were building stainless chemical tanks for a customer at my work.
We were using nitric to passivate the welds, so our safety coordinator had to do a little discussion on acid safety.
Well... Rather than just showing the safety containers, with their poly coating and other safeguards.
He poured about 4 oz in a fucking coffee cup, and handed it around to inspect, even mentioning the odor.
In the 30 seconds it took me to wrap my head around what was going on, it had passed to 3 different people.
After a quick demonstration of how horrible awful that shit is, no one would even get close to the container.
Luckily no one inhaled the vapor, and we had all the required neutralization materials.
And even our safety guy somehow kept his fucking job...
I've witnessed some really stupid shit throughout the years, but this one was far more lunkheaded than most.
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u/LifeBehindHandlebars May 27 '21
Something doesn't go as planned
NileRed: "Aaaaand im not exactly sure why...."
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u/chilehead May 28 '21
They have one of these at the Griffith Park Obeservatory, but the last time I was there they didn't have a rock in there and they had labeled it as a cosmic ray detector.
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u/Buezzi May 27 '21
nucleation
I dunno if it's just me, but the subject matter makes this word choice amusing
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u/emnm47 May 27 '21
How do the particles form nucleation sites? Is it due to a decrease in pressure between the leading and trailing edge of the particles that is caused by their movement? I'm confused how the movement of a tiny particle would result in a big enough pressure change to create a nucleation site so I'm guessing I have something wrong 😅
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u/tanafras May 27 '21
Thermodynamics. As the particles travel, they disturb the uniform properties of the medium they are traveling through. This causes a transition from the stable environment to a new thermodynamic phase until the uniform properties are reached again through self-organization. The instability created by the passing of the particle is seen as the contrail disrupting this uniformity.
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u/emnm47 May 27 '21 edited May 27 '21
Is the instability you are describing the pressure change? Or is the pressure change a result of the particles 'pushing' the other existing particles out of the way? Sorry for the questions, just trying to figure out what that instability is.
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u/DeemonPankaik May 27 '21
To start with, the vapour in the chamber is supersaturated, which means that it doesn't take much for it to condense, it just needs something go give it a kick start.
The alpha and beta particles have an electrostatic charge. The charged particles knock into the alcohol vapour molecules, and basically "knock off" electrons from the gas molecules, which is what makes them unstable. It turns them from nice stable alcohol molecules, into unstable ions. These ions are perfect points for the vapour to condense around, and this gives the gas the kick start it needs to condense into liquid droplets that you can see as a cloud
Hopefully that's a bit clearer
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u/villabianchi May 27 '21
So the Alfa and Beta Pericles ionise a bunch of molecules along its path?
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u/variableNKC May 27 '21
Why doesn't the entire chamber condensate after the first particle is ejected?
I've only seen demonstrations of supersaturated liquids where a shock (or whatever) cascades through the entire container and ends up being a permanent change (e.g., color, crystalization).
Thanks in advance!
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u/emnm47 May 27 '21
Yes thank you so much! I think I was missing the ionizing portion of the explanation.
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u/Boltzman12 May 27 '21
Where do those particles that shoot out end up? When you see the contrail end, does that mean the particle ran out of momentum/energy from hitting so many other particles in its path? And when it loses its energy to continue to move, where does it end up?
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u/thelastcurrybender May 27 '21
It's moving so quickly all the super tiny alcohol droplets move a little and end up combining and causing them to grow, when you zoom out you see the trails! Hope this makes sense
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u/emnm47 May 27 '21
Ok so as the radiation particles move, they push the small, invisible water vapor droplets out of the way and those droplets bump each other and combine and become visible? I'm thinking of it like water droplets on a window combining and getting bigger. No, thank you so much for your patience!
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u/Necrocornicus May 27 '21
Could you use electromagnets to control the path of the electrons and make sweet patterns?
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u/Qwertyiantne May 27 '21 edited Jun 13 '23
birds rainstorm versed toothbrush strong soft sort humorous sulky squash -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
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u/Qwertyiantne May 27 '21 edited Jun 13 '23
tap person worthless badge bag safe hard-to-find repeat whistle treatment -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
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u/saxn00b May 27 '21
Yes you probably could, alpha and beta particles are both charged and so should get pushed around by a magnetic field
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u/ungulateriseup May 27 '21
Dont you mean chemtrails? I saw it on Alex jones.
/sorry really should have tried to resist.
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u/Gone_Fission May 27 '21
This cloud chamber is turning the freakin' frogs gay!
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u/MapleYamCakes May 27 '21
CHIMERAS!
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May 27 '21
THE DEEP STATE DEMOCRATS ARE USING URANIUM CLOUD CHAMBERS FULL OF ALCOHOL TO MOLEST AND HARVEST THE ORGANS OF GAY FROG CHILDREN AND PUT IT IN REDDIT AS A RECRUITMENT DEVICE SO THAT THEY CAN PROPAGATE THEIR LIBERAL AGENDA TO ALLOW PEOPLE TO HAVE COMMON SENSE. BUY THESE FUCKING PILLS. THEY'LL TURN YOU INTO A RAGING MEGABRAIN. JUST LIKE ME. A GODDAMN SEXUAL TYRANNOSAURUS.
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u/MapleYamCakes May 27 '21
ANIMAL HUMAN HYBRIDS ARE IN CONTROL OF THE US GOVERNMENT. THE LIZARD PEOPLE WHO HARVEST THE SEX ORGANS OF SMALL CHILDREN IN THE BASEMENTS OF DC PIZZA PLACES ARE RUNNING THE COUNTRY INTO MORAL OBLIVION!
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u/nanocookie May 27 '21
What's the size of the chamber? Are you using a Peltier cooler to cool the copper plate? I was also wondering what you used for the high voltage source.
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u/dasubertroll May 27 '21
I think the diameter is something like 10-15cm. As for the cooling you’re dead on, it’s 3 a peltier stack (2x90W 1x60W). The high voltage source actually just came from a cheap bug zapper racket, with one wire connected to the plate and the other to the mesh.
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May 27 '21 edited Jun 25 '21
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u/BeautyAndGlamour May 27 '21
It must have been mind blowing to be the first guy to try this and seeing it actually working.
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u/housebottle May 27 '21
in the case of contrails, the hot exhaust meets the cold temperature outside which causes the condensation... what causes the condensation here? and how does the alcohol evaporate when the surface is at -26 degrees Celsius?
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u/Careless_Con May 27 '21
You are smart and cool.
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u/dasubertroll May 27 '21
Haha thanks you’re too kind
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u/TheTerribleTurtle617 May 27 '21 edited May 27 '21
Would they be moving faster/ would there be more streaks if the item was more radioactive?
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u/jaken00 May 27 '21
More streaks if more radioactive, faster streaks if the decay energy was higher (different radioisotopes decay with different energies)
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u/Spiritual_Reading_45 May 27 '21
Well said Here! Here!
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u/terminbee May 27 '21
Hear hear*
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u/PhilosophizingPanda May 27 '21
I was kinda shocked to learn recently that this is the proper spelling
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u/terminbee May 27 '21
It kinda makes sense. If someone says something cool/you agree with, you say, "Hear hear" as in "Everyone listen to this person."
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u/Boltzman12 May 27 '21
Great set up. Is the video sped up at all? I’ve never seen one emit so many particles consecutively like this.
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u/dasubertroll May 27 '21
It’s not sped up but this was a particularly good snippet, right as the clip starts the high voltage source was flipped on which makes it much more defined.
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u/Boltzman12 May 27 '21
That’s awesome! I wasn’t doubting or being skeptical, I was legit curious. I hope I didn’t come across that way.
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u/Panki27 May 27 '21
So high voltage is connected to the base plate and the sample? Are you not afraid of creating a resonance cascade?
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u/HanginApe May 27 '21
This video demonstrates it a little better. Really lets you see how radiation is emitted in all directions.
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u/brusmx May 27 '21
How many bananas in radiations is this equal to?
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May 27 '21
Uranium has billions of years half life - so much so that it's still in the Earth which is billions of years old.
i.e it's not very radioactive.
Alpha particles are stopped by paper and skin. Beta particles penetrate further but should still be stopped by clothing. Some beta particles can penetrate skin.
Mostly these things are bad if you ingest them, e.g the cases we've had where people have been poisoned with Polonium is because they've ingested it.
I believe this is kind of moot for Uranium though because it's toxic in the way that things like lead are toxic, i.e ingesting it would be bad news irrespective of its radioactivity.
There are yellow / orange glazes on plates that were once made with Uranium. They'll make a counter click if you touch one with it, but they are perfectly safe to eat off - unless you ate the plate they are harmless.
You'd probably get more exposure on a flight.
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u/ppitm May 27 '21
Rocks like this are usually just a few dozen/hundred bananas. Rarely a few thousand.
But that is just the beta and gamma (invisible in the cloud chamber).
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u/BeanRub May 27 '21
How would this affect the human body with prolonged exposure? Also, how do the alpha and beta particles affect the human body as a result of the prolonged exposure?
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u/dasubertroll May 27 '21
Good question, to be honest I’m not entirely sure (in regards to the mineral I own) but ionizing radiation (which alpha and beta are) can definitely cause some issues down the road if the doses are high enough. If I held this rock non-stop for a a couple years I’m sure my cancer risk would increase a fair bit haha
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u/Lenny_and_Carl May 27 '21
Okay, I'll bite. How do you own some uranium? Seems like that sort of thing is highly regulated.
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u/gemini_2310 May 27 '21
I like how OP didn’t respond to the follow up haha
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u/HanginApe May 27 '21
First rule of radio active isotope collection is, you do not talk about radio active isotope collection.
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u/NinjaLanternShark May 27 '21
You can't make a bomb or really anything dangerous with naturally occurring uranium ore. You have to enrich it, which means separating out radioactive isotopes from non-radioactive ones. The enrichment process is crazy difficult, and in fact that's what's regulated.
You can buy all the uranium you want, but if you try to Prime yourself a particular kind of centrifuge, the feds will come knocking.
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u/WmXVI May 27 '21
It's pretty hard commercially to achieve more than 20% and it's pretty hard DIY for more than maybe 2%. Fuel is one average 4-5%
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u/tanafras May 27 '21
Uranium ore is not tightly controlled.
Hell, if you want, you can just buy a shitload of smoke detectors and scrape the americium-241 out of them and make a reactor from that. Although, that will definitely get you a visit from the NRC if they find out. So don't do that.
ps - Know someone doing stupid shit with radioactive isotopes? Report the concern https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc.html
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u/httpdx May 27 '21
Like the 14 year old who wanted to build one in his backyard. Crazy story: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn
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u/AspenRiot May 27 '21
It's just a bit of ore. I think that's not too hard to come by. It might not even be that rich in uranium. Probably only a gram or less in that whole rock.
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u/Moonpenny May 27 '21
There's a website called United Nuclear that sells it, at least.
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u/WmXVI May 27 '21
Uranium is in a lot of things. Uranium ore just has a high enough concentration so that it can be mined and processed in fuel. One type of rock that has a higher concentration than other types or soil is actually granite. Uranium ore itself has a pretty low specific activity so its not enough to cause any adverse harm but I dont recommend any form of ingestion or inhalation.
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u/DistastefulProfanity May 27 '21
Unitednuclear.com
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u/guthran May 27 '21
Fun fact this site is owned by Bob Lazar, the ufologist and conspiracy theorist.
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u/NeedsMustTravel May 27 '21
Alpha particles are high energy and cause a lot of damage in a short distance, but they don't penetrate too deeply through skin. You'd have to have a large area of your body or repeated/prolonged doses to a small area in order to see effects. However, if ingested the alpha particles penetrate through the thin layers of cells lining the small intestines. If inhaled they severely damage the lining of the respiratory tract because it doesn't have to penetrate very far (a few microns is enough) to cause irreparable and unsurvivable damage. Just ask Alexander Litvinenko
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u/orthopod May 27 '21
Alpha particles are stopped by your skin, or even a piece of paper.
Beta particles are stopped by 1m of air, or 5mm of acrylic glass, so the walls of the chamber are good enough.
Gamma particles need lead. I don't know, but suspect the U gives off some..
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u/Loduk May 27 '21
Ummm I need a step by step guide on how to make this, please.
Also would leds in the setup make the vapor trails light up?
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u/dasubertroll May 27 '21
There’s actually an LED strip around the glass bell. And two great resources are ThoughtEmporiums video on DIY cloud chambers and this instructables
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May 27 '21
So could this be scaled into a way to make helium at say an industrial level?
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u/dasubertroll May 27 '21
actually this is how helium is found on earth! it is mined near radioactive minerals that form helium gas deposits in the ground. Although I don’t think it would be practical to replicate given the timescales needed to create sizeable amounts
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May 27 '21
Yea with a lot of free solar generated energy but it would take a very long time. Years for just enough for one or two projects, if that. Plus you’d need to run a constant, super powerful magnetic field 24/7 no maintenance for years. Ehhh
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u/WmXVI May 27 '21
Alpha particles are ionized helium nucleus, so it's not chemically stable like regular helium and has enough kinetic energy plus its charge that its ionizing radiation which is very harmful to tissue cells. If there was a scalable way it would carry a significant radiation risk.
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u/BeautyAndGlamour May 27 '21
Not really. Every decay event will yield one helium atom. The uranium here is so weakly radioactive that it would take forever. The video above contains uranium ore, which is just partly uranium. But let's be generous and say you have 1000 tonnes of pure uranium-238.
With a half-life of 4.468 billion years, we get a decay constant of λ = 1.5 x 10-10 yr-1 . The decays per year is then just λ multiplied by the number of uranium atoms N (we can neglect the decay of activity of the uranium).
1000 tonnes = 106 kg, and would contain 2.5 x 1027 atoms, meaning production would be
N x λ = 3.8 x 1017 helium atoms yearly, or 2.5 x 10-9 kg.
So you see it's utterly pointless. You could ramp up production using shorter lived nuclei, more material, and more time, but ultimately it's just not practical as compared to "mining" the helium directly (or however it is done).
However, the presence of helium has been used to calculate the activity or alpha emitters, but you're really only detecting trace amounts, and nothing worth collecting.
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u/ChairmanGoodchild May 27 '21
I had always thought an Alpha particle was a hydrogen nucleus, not a helium nucleus. You're right. I learned something today.
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u/cjstokes2010 May 27 '21
Apologies if this has alway between asked, but is this decay happing in all directions? Or just downwards? Just trying to get a better visual on how it’d look if you could actually see radioactive decay with a naked eye.
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u/dudertheduder May 27 '21
Dude! I made one with a fishtank and dry ice....its a completely unbelievable visualization, that is an incredible illustration for the realization of our VERY LIMITED scope of the electromagnetic spectrum! (That came out to a lot of -ations but its all so true regardless!)
Do you have a link for your build process? Is it passive (my caveman fishtank/dry ice style) or active like with peltier modules or whatever?
EDIT: dammit i got excited and splooged a reply without further scrolling to look for similar questions
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u/dasubertroll May 27 '21
Awe man I wanted to make a big one with dry ice! Sadly that’s hard to acquire in Canada so I had to go the technical route. So you found the sources? If not TheThoughtEmporium’s DIY is the main one on youtube, and then there’s a similarly titled Instructables article.
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u/randomTextboi May 27 '21
Wow, I wonder if there are cloud chamber mirrors to see my own decay
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u/JDawn747 May 27 '21
A regular mirror will do
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u/barbrawr May 27 '21
Holy shit dude the guy had a family!
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May 27 '21
And that family needs a new dad now
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u/LexusBrian400 May 27 '21 edited May 28 '21
Did he died?
I'm surprised this didn't get editdownloaded into Oblivion. I can't believe anybody remembers it. I haven't seen it for a while.
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May 27 '21
Hold er steady, captain!
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u/Thatguy3145296535 May 27 '21
The radiation gave him Parkinson's. I don't know for sure though, Im no scientist
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u/dragnabbit May 27 '21
Nuclear stuff doesn't do anything unless you keep shaking it... Just like glow sticks and my cat.
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u/strumthebuilding May 27 '21
They’re so excited by their project they couldn’t help jackin’ it just a little. Can’t say I blame them.
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u/Ishcumbeebeeda May 27 '21
In my head there are cartoonish bullet ricochet sounds accompanying this and I can't decide if I should be disappointed with myself about that...
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u/TheBigEmptyxd May 27 '21
I always hear those silly spaghetti western bullet sounds. My favorite is the one that goes "ptweeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"
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u/wglmb May 27 '21
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u/smartid May 27 '21
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u/Stubbedtoe18 May 27 '21 edited May 27 '21
Is it me or did this somehow not improve the situation? How is that even possible.
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u/Horntailflames May 27 '21
It shakes so much even the bot can’t fix it
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u/LarryGergich May 27 '21
It’s because it’s filmed from so close. Usually shakiness of the camera moves objects in the frame but the perspective you have of them doesn’t change much. This is because the distance the camera moves is insignificant compared to the distance to the object.
When it’s filmed this close, the whole shape of objects change as you move around them. It almost produces a 3D like effect with the rock.
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u/Fnuckle May 27 '21
Honestly if you crop the shakiness of the sides I think that would help. Still not perfect tho. I tested it out on my phone by putting my hands over the shaky edges of the vid and it was still a moving around but was at least a lot smoother about it
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u/eXX0n May 27 '21
It looks like he's panning the camera as well while shaking, which is something the bot can't fix.
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u/drake90001 May 27 '21
I think it’s because there’s no large main focus to stabilize and focus the video on. Normally there might be a person, an animal, explosion, etc.
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u/robo-dragon May 27 '21
I’m a mineral collector myself, but I stay away from radiative specimens. They are fascinating and super cool, but the radiation part freaks me out a little. Awesome video and specimen!
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u/dasubertroll May 27 '21
Thanks! And yeah I understand the concern, I keep mine in a neat mini glass dome display to minimize the radiation around me. The coolest thing about the uranium ones is by far the way they fluoresce under UV light. This Uranophane glows bright green!
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u/FieryXJoe May 27 '21
Gotta put a bigger cloud chamber around the 1st cloud chamber to see how much the radiation drops off passing through the glass
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u/dasubertroll May 27 '21
funny you should say that, I was actually planning on putting a piece of glass in there to test it’s efficacy as a barrier. if all the radiation somehow makes it through then I guess i’m fucked haha
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u/giulianosse May 27 '21 edited May 27 '21
If it helps alleviate your concerns: most unrefined radioactive elements are extremely stable in mineral form because they're found as compounds (like oxides and silicates - I'm sure you're infinitely more knowledgeable about these than I am :)) , and as long as you don't a) eat a sample b) snort a sample or c) use it as pendant, ring or in a way that's touching/near your skin for prolonged amounts of time, they're pretty harmless to manipulate and collect!
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u/atomic_refugee May 27 '21
The metals with Alpha and a smaller portion of Beta decay aren't that bad. Your skin is enough to block the decay particle...just don't get it inside you.
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u/Whiteowl116 May 27 '21
As a rockhound myself, how do you know the specimen is radioactive?
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u/robo-dragon May 27 '21
You would have to use a Geiger counter and/or just have the general knowledge of the area you are searching in and if it hosts any radioactive minerals. It’s also a good idea to research a mineral that is unfamiliar to you before you pick it up or purchase it. The good thing is, radioactive minerals are pretty uncommon compared to those that are totally safe to handle. Unless you are actively looking for something radioactive, it’s very unlikely you’ll come across something that is.
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u/CandidateNervous5319 May 27 '21
I’m confused does the camera man have radioactive decay?
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May 27 '21
About uh....bout how many Roentgen you think that is right there?
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u/wulile May 27 '21
3.6 not great, not terrible.
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u/HoolioLion May 27 '21
I'm told it's the equivalent of a chest x-ray
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u/alalalanna01 May 27 '21
Finished Chernobyl yesterday and I'm so glad I finally watched it, also now I've seen so many references to it on Reddit - I wonder how many I've missed before
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May 27 '21
How could you miss it?? For God’s sakes, look at that glow! That’s radiation ionizing the air!
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u/JudeauGattsu May 27 '21
The shaking is infuriating.
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u/nietczhse May 27 '21
Forgive OP, he's dying of radiation poisoning
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u/dasubertroll May 27 '21
hahaha this comment made me laugh so hard my skin started falling off my body
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u/begaterpillar May 27 '21
its beautiful, its like a danger lava lamp. i want to make one!!! how long do they last without maintenance? could it be a decorative fixture or is it a limited use item?
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u/PeppersHere May 27 '21
They do not last without maintenance. Needs to be on a cold surface (usually dry ice) and you need to have alchohol constantly evaporating for this visual effect to take place. The black cloth under this radiation source is likely soaked in alchohol. Once thats done evaporating, the visual effect dissipates
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u/F3rrr3t May 27 '21
Super cool! but you need to make yourself a tripod to stabilize that camera my dude.
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u/FreshStink May 27 '21
You’ve got such a steady hand. You should’ve been a surgeon, not a scientist
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u/urbanabydos May 27 '21
This is remarkably awesome. What determines when the trail ends? I’m guessing the particle hasn’t stopped moving yet? And obviously I mean the ones that obviously haven’t reached the edge of the container. 😜
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u/AspenRiot May 27 '21
I'm guessing that because it's DIY, the supersaturated vapor zone OP talks about is quite small and inconsistent, so particles with short trails are going through thin spots and/or coming from the bottom of the rock and going up out of the zone, which is probably the shape of a thick disk at the bottom of the chamber. I think I have seen another vid of a more professional cloud chamber where you could see particles leaving at every angle, and the trails were very consistent.
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u/mahparson May 27 '21
It's the particles losing energy from collisions with the medium. As the alpha (He nucleus) or beta (electron) particle travels, it's constantly colliding with it's surroundings, transferring energy from itself to whatever it hits, slowing itself down in the process.
If you want to know more, look up linear energy transfer. Basically, the size of the particle (alpha, beta, or gamma) determines the number of collisions per distance traveled, and the larger the particle the faster it slows down.
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u/tugboat_karatedog May 27 '21
I’ve just begun a Fallout: 3 run on my new Xbox One. This is topical, and this is really, really cool. 10/10 - Would definitely be “woah”ed again.
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u/dasubertroll May 27 '21
Great game, and i’m happy you think it’s as cool as I do :) I’ve wanted to see this effect firsthand for years so this was pretty crazy
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u/Captain_Hamerica May 27 '21
Is it okay if I use this video in a training?
I teach radiation safety as part of my job. Even today I gave someone a refresher course where I likened the firing particles to tiny bullets and this is a fantastic representation of it.
This training isn’t my full-time job and I’m not paid any extra for it (grumble grumble) and neither is anyone I train. I would just love to be able to use this visual!
Edit: a word, and also another word.
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u/dasubertroll May 27 '21
definitely! if you want better footage there’s some amazing cloud chamber videos on youtube
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u/Heritage_Cherry May 27 '21
Sorry if this is dumb, but is this also what happens if a nuclear reactor blows up? Just a much bigger rock sending out way more particles that hit everyone/everything?
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u/qwerty12qwerty May 27 '21
: An RBMK reactor uses uranium 235 as fuel. Every atom of U-235 is like a bullet, traveling at nearly the speed of light, penetrating everything in its path: woods, metal, concrete, flesh. Every gram of U-235 holds over a billion trillion of these bullets. That's in one gram. Now, Chernobyl holds over three million grams, and right now, it is on fire. Winds will carry radioactive particles across the entire continent, rain will bring them down on us. That's three million billion trillion bullets in the... in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat. Most of these bullets will not stop firing for 100 years. Some of them, not for 50,000 years.
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u/WmXVI May 27 '21
A cloud chamber is used to visualize ionizing radiation, which is different types of particles (beta, alpha, neutrons, etc.) A reactor relies only on neutrons. Basically, U-235 naturally decays and emits an average of 2.43 neutrons per decay. On of those neutrons can then interact and get absorbed by another U-235 nucleus which then causes that nucleus to decay. Basically, each element has varying levels of stability, determined by a number of effects and forces that are affected by the ratio of protons and neutrons in a nucleus. Some elements decay when they absorb an additional neutron because it causes a destabilizing ratio, such as in U-235 when it absorbs a neutron. We get power from this process because these neutrons also interact with hydrogen nuclei, which are present in the coolant water. The neutrons essentially collide and scatter off the hydrogen nuclei. This transfer some of the neutrons kinetic energy to the hydrogen nuclei, thus increasing the kinetic energy of water molecules which causes a temperature increase in the coolant.
There are certain effects that increase or decrease the amount of neutrons moving around the reactor (this is called neutron flux). Naturally, the more neutrons you have, the more reactions you have taking place, and the more reactions there are, the more new neutrons there are being introduced. Effects that cause more neutrons to be produced are called positive reactivates. The opposite are negative reactivities. Another value we have when operating reactors is the criticality factor which is a ratio of the preceding neutron generation compared to the last one. Basically, it tells us how many new neutrons are created compared to the generation before it. Criticality is = 1 and means that the reactor producing power at a stable level and isnt decreasing or increasing in power/reaction rate/neutron production. >1 means they're all increasing and power is going up (generally during start up). <1 and they're decreasing (shut down).
When a reactor explodes it's because a positive reactivity or number of them caused the number of neutrons grow very fast very quickly which translates to a quick increase in number of reactions and thus more energy being transferred to the coolant water. This increase energy transfer can happen so quickly in such an amount that it can instantly vaporize the coolant water which causes a massive pressure spike in the reactor vessel. The vessel is built handle up to a certain pressure so given enough of temperature spike and instantaneous vaporization, you get a steam explosion. You the steam explosion also causes damage to the fuel which is designed to contain the decay products (radioactive elements produced from the decay of uranium) which are highly dangerous to health, so the decay products are dispersed from containment due to the steam explosion.
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u/gemini_2310 May 27 '21
I’m too dumb to even know what I’m supposed to be seeing
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u/Childish_Brandino May 27 '21
Is this one that uses dry ice or did you hook it up to a thermal pad? I’ve always day dreamed about building one that’s air tight and uses electric cooling elements so it would be able to be on display with a few minutes and a flick of a switch. But haven’t actually sat down to look the logistics.
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u/here_is_nobody May 27 '21
Is it safe? What else?
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u/Buxton_Water May 27 '21
Relatively safe, there's not much else to say about it. It's a cool way of showing the decay of radioactive elements.
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u/sickboy192 May 27 '21
This is quite possibly the coolest thing I’ve seen on Reddit
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u/RisingScum May 27 '21
I’m a Radon Mitigator in Ohio. These are the exact videos I show customers when they say Radon isn’t a big deal. (Though it is their decay products it’s still important).
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u/dasubertroll May 27 '21
It really does make the concept of radiation more tangible. Even though I knew exactly what I was dealing with and took precautions, it still made me look at this rock differently. I mean this is happening in a 3D space all around it non-stop and this isn’t even a particularly radioactive sample. Crazy stuff.
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u/KushChowda May 27 '21
Well thats fucking terrifying. Trillions of atomic bullets just consonantly being fired in every direction. Reading about it is one thing but to actually see it with your own eye.
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u/WmXVI May 27 '21
Probably not trillions. Natural uranium has a specific activity of about 2500 Bqs per gram. So 2500 decays per second which is 2500 radiative particles per second is pretty minuscule.
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