Lasers and URANIUM 235!

[grainde]

never put it next to beryllium as alpha particles and beryllium will produce a lot of neutrons, and unless you have enriched U, just keep it away from you and don't carry it around a lot.

Alpha and even beta particles are stopped by a thin layer of glass... :beer:

 

[DrSid]

First you wrote you got uranium 235 .. now you say it is uranium ore .. which can have like 10% of uranium, if it is rich, of which 0.07% is U235, most of it is U238.
Anyway, as was said .. as lasers go, only thing interesting to do with it, is to shine 405 or 445nm at it, and it will glow. Even the ore does glow, in nature it's simpler to find uranium ore with UV lamp than with geiger counter.
Btw. if you didn't know what to do with it, why did you get it in the first place ?

 

[EpicHam]

First you wrote you got uranium 235 .. now you say it is uranium ore .. which can have like 10% of uranium, if it is rich, of which 0.07% is U235, most of it is U238.
Anyway, as was said .. as lasers go, only thing interesting to do with it, is to shine 405 or 445nm at it, and it will glow. Even the ore does glow, in nature it's simpler to find uranium ore with UV lamp than with geiger counter.
Btw. if you didn't know what to do with it, why did you get it in the first place ?

Good question.
A question that passed by my head when I bought a copper ball off the internet that apparently serves no purpose aside from being pretty and special

Just wondering if there's anything I can do with the samples thats all.
Since I have vial of them chunky bits

 

[DrSid]

Ok .. well .. I'd like to get myself some too, but I'd rather picked them up in their nature habitat. Luckily Czech Rep has some uranium mines.
Anyway .. as I said .. they glow under UV (and 405 and 445) and they are rather safe test source for geiger, if it can pick up alpha or beta (the cheapest ones only pick up gamma, so uranium wont register).

 

[Sigurthr]

You've got raw ore. See if it glows under UV, that's all you can do with it.

My sources are used as either check / calibration sources or as ionization start sources for vacuum tube work.

Get the idea of refining that out right out of your head. It is a contamination nightmare for one and two it is highly illegal. The NRC specifically prohibits any alteration of ore - even breaking/cutting it.