Improved: Uranium, yellowcake, centrifuges & atomic bombs

[diamond14]

Uranium

This "very tiny" summary of Uranium is for everybody who wants to know more about "yellow-cake", centrifuges, nuclear bombs, and all that. As our National debate continues on the bush* "yellowcake" lies (claiming saddam was creating atomic bombs), a CHEMIST has stepped up to present an overview. So here it is, with very fascinating links for all you "science buffs", who want to explore further.

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Uranium (Element #92, abbreviated "U", named after the Planet Uranus)

Plutonium (Element #94, abbreviated "Pu", named after the Planet Pluto)

When purified into a suitable chemical compound, BOTH these elements can be used to generate power in a Nuclear Power Plant. In a different chemical form, BOTH these elements can be used to make NUCLEAR BOMBS. Both elements are radioactive, meaning that they emit dangerous radiation for thousands of years (radiation is high energy particles that disrupt molecular structures, causing your body chemistry to malfunction in many ways, often forming cancers)

Uranium exists in the earth, and can be located and mined by geologists.
Plutonium is a "human-made" element, that only exists where scientists created it.
The first Plutonium was created by the USA for making nuclear bombs in WWII.
(That let the genie out of the bottle, creating an element! We have "poisoned ourselves" with major environmental damage, from an insidious world-class toxicant. For over 50 years now, discussions continue over what to do with Pu, where to store it, and how to clean up this mess).

There are essentially two BIG steps to making a nuclear bomb:

1. Extract Uranium from the ground, process and extract it to make "yellowcake"

2. Chemically separate the Uranium isotopes, and purify those chemicals. (U can then be used by itself for a nuclear bomb, as the Hiroshima bomb) or take it further, in a nuclear reaction to create Plutonium (as the Nagasaki bomb). Either U or Pu can also be used to generate power in nuclear power plants.)

These are VERY COMPLEX and expensive steps. The closer that you get to the final purified U or Pu, the more valuable the chemical compounds become, and the more dangerous. The more steps are completed, the easier to make a nuclear bomb from it. "Yellowcake" is light-years away from a final nuclear bomb, but the possession of yellowcake eliminates ONE difficult step.

Here'e a good flowchart showing the process (for power production "nuclear materials", but the process is essentially the same to create "nuclear materials" for ATOMIC BOMBS, which are now called Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)





Uranium is removed from the earth in mining operations. After removing it from the earth, the ore must be processed using chemicals to extract the actual Uranium.

Here is info on mining Uranium, the production process: from blasting to shipping…
http://www.rossing.com/uranium_production.htm

A huge amount of rock must be processed to get a tiny bit of Uranium, which is then called "yellowcake", because it's a yellow compressed powder. The mining leaves a huge environmental mess, as shown here.



Geologists call these Uranium chemical compounds: Minerals, and have "geological names", while chemists have a very organized naming system that allows you to draw the chemical structure and predict the chemical reactions.

Here's a list (with some pictures) of different chemical forms of Uranium, with the geological names, and the chemical formulas…
http://webmineral.com/chem/Chem-U.shtml



There are TWO kinds of reactions that Uranium undergoes

1. Chemical reactions with other compounds, such as sulfur, oxygen, fluorine, and nitrogen. If you hit element 92, you can explore all the chemical forms of Uranium, and many crystal structures, Uranium - sulfides, oxides, fluorides and more…(on the left side), and the colors of each chemical compound.
http://www.webelements.com/

2. Nuclear Reactions. Physicists change the number of neutrons in the center of the atom, and create NEW elements. For Uranium (Atomic Number 92), the physicist adds two neutrons to create Plutonium (Atomic Number 94).

Before the physicists can create Plutonium, or use Uranium for a nuclear bomb, it must be purified by a very complex, environmentally damaging series of chemical extractions. The manufacturing plants for this process are VERY large, and in the USA, include the Hanford Plant in Washington, the Rocky Flats plant in Denver, and the Pantex Plant in the Pan Handle of Texas….with a variety of other manufacturing plant making components like electrical and explosives. These plants are not "mobile" and cannot be "hidden". Two examples are shown: 1) WMD plant, and 2) Nuclear Power plant.

1. An example of just ONE plant is shown here (the actual "enrichment" was done at Hanford and Oak Ridge, other HUGE Nuclear Weapons Manufacturing Facilities. Rocky Flats only did the "clean-up" of the Nuclear Materials that were sent from Hanford)

Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons plant
http://www.em.doe.gov/bemr96/rfts.html




Read more about the chemical separation of Uranium isotopes, and the creation of Plutonium:
http://www.uic.com.au/nip50.htm


2. In these links, you can see a second type of Uranium isotope use, that of creating power. Centrifuges similar to these are used to separate U for Atomic BOMBS.

Here's some pictures showing how Uranium enrichment works. These are very challenging chemical reactions, involving HOT Hydrofluoric Acid ( HF - a chemical that "eats" through glass, plastics, steel and more…HF also "eats" through humans, damaging nerves, so that the person will not feel the burning and can not know of the damage as it progresses…HF is a very dangerous chemical to work with.)
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf28.htm


The large Tricastin enrichment plant in France (beyond cooling towers)
The four nuclear reactors in the foreground provide over 3000 MWe power for it.


A bank of centrifuges at a Urenco plant


Here is a site that covers the complex history of Uranium and Plutonium in bombs..
http://www.atomicarchive.com/


After chemical purification in these HUGE manufacturing facilities, nuclear reactions are used to create Plutonium. For Uranium (Atomic Number 92), the physicist adds two neutrons to create Plutonium (Atomic Number 94).

here's pics of the interior of the Nuclear Reactor at the U of Missouri - Rolla.
http://web.umr.edu/~reactor/

Plutonium manufacture and fabrication
http://nuketesting.enviroweb.org/hew/Library/Plutonium/


Pu and U are always emitting radiation continuously for thousands of years.
These emissions are primarily dangerous alpha, beta, and gamma rays that damage cells, quickly, causing radiation burns/poisoning, and long-term, causing cancers.

here's another "Periodic Chart of the Elements" with links on bottom to explain everything (from the chemists at Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratories)
http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/default.htm

if you like pretty green-yellow glass, here is a link to the "Uranium Glass Gallery" where you can learn more about exotic collector glass made with radioactive Uranium.
http://www.parkcity.ne.jp/~ken-toma/

In recent news stories, Uranium and Plutonium have been called radionuclides, nuclear materials and radioactive isotopes and more. All of these names are correct, but emphasize different properties. Because these atoms are so BIG and heavy (atoms are smallest at the top of the Periodic Chart and biggest at the bottom), they are also called "heavy" metals.

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Here is little background on "The Atom", so you can better understand the terminology and the reactions:

1. The nucleus (the center) of an atom is composed of positively-charged particles called "protons" and neutral particles called "neutrons".

2. The atomic number is the number of protons found in the nucleus. For example: Uranium is Atomic Number 92, which means that there are 92 protons in the nucleus (92 - positively charged particles in the center of the atom).
Plutonium is Atomic Number 94, which means that there are 94 protons in the nucleus.

3. Electrons are negatively charged particles that circulate continuously around the center of the atom, like the planets circulating around the sun. Chemical reactions often use the outermost electrons to join elements to each other.

4. Isotopes are atoms that have the same number of protons (positive-charged particles), and that gives the isotopes the SAME Atomic Number. But, the isotopes have different numbers of neutrons (neutral particles). Uranium has 14 isotopes, all are radioactive. The isotopes are commonly written as U-235 (meaning that there are 235 neutrons in that isotope) or U-238 (meaning that there are 238 neutrons in that isotope).

Both U and Pu are very chemically reactive. As a metal, these elements chemically react on contact with air, which is called "pyrophoric". This property has caused many fires and explosions when handling the purified metal. Even in other chemical forms, the continuous emission of radioactivity eats through almost all materials: glass, steel, plastics. U and Pu are dangerous, both for their chemical and nuclear properties. Pu is so chemically reactive, it reacts with virtually every non-metal in the Periodic Table of the Elements, except the Nobel Gases.

To conduct any of the nuclear reactions, one must first clean-up (purify) the chemical compounds. The purification processes are very complex, dangerous, and toxic.

nuclear fission from the chemists…
http://www.chemsoc.org/timeline/pages/1945.html

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There are TWO nuclear problems going on in the bush* Iraq debacle.

1. The bush* claim that "yellowcake" was being purchased from Niger to make nuclear bombs in Iraq. Recently, bush* minions admitted that this claim is a lie.

2. A defunct nuclear plant in Iraq, inspected and regulated by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Commission). During the war, the scientists all left. The plant was NOT protected by American soldiers (as they were busy protecting the OIL ministry), and the plant was vandalized. This resulted in many unsuspecting people being poisoned by the "yellowcake" left in drums, as they took the drums to store their drinking water. These people will DIE horrible deaths. In addition, there is now a "missing" yellowcake and other radioactive materials, such as purified Uranium (that may be used to make nuclear bombs).

This bush* mess is extremely dangerous for the whole world, since these nuclear materials could be in the hands of terrorists, with the looting of the plant just a cover.

about the IAEC (International Atomic Energy Agency
http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/About/Profile/

the IAEA and Tuwaitha and Rashdiya facilities in Iraq
http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/Programmes/ActionTeam/nwp2.html

The IAEA reports, as of December 1998:
" There were no indications that there remains in Iraq any physical capability for the production of amounts of weapons-usable nuclear material of any practical significance."



massive storeroom full of Plutonium in containers at Rocky Flats
(America has plenty of Plutonium, and we have NO IDEA where to store all this
and the radioactive waste from nuclear power plants. Bush* decided recently to start producing MORE Plutonium).


The end product of this entire process: Plutonium buttons to make bombs


photo of the refined Plutonium "buttons" used in the Fat Man Bomb to destroy Nagasaki, made by the USA. Notice the "pitting" of the button on the right, showing the effect of the continuing dangerous chemical reactions.

[diamond14]

1. Please comment, so I can improve this brief....thanks......nt

.

[slackmaster]

2. Besides the exotic glassware in your link...

In past decades common household ceramic items were colored with uranium salts. Many people own original orange Fiesta ware plates like the one shown in the photos at http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/nuclear/nucbuy.html . I checked out a friend's plate collection with a survey meter once - It detected radiation through a thick wooden cupboard door, probably gamma rays from the uranium in the orange Fiesta ware plates. People should regard any orange ceramic item especially made before World War II with suspicion. Get it checked with a Geiger counter and don't prepare or serve food on it until you have determined it to be free of uranium.

http://www.oldandsold.com/articles/article063.shtml says the Laughlin company used some uranium in its glazes up to 1972. See that and search around for additional information.

Note other items that contain significantly radioactive materials, like the Coleman lantern mantles which contain thorium. Old luminous watch or clock dials, aircraft instruments, etc. often contain radium which can be very dangerous if ingested. The documentary film Radium City is required viewing for anyone interested in the subject.

[diamond14]

3. Radium dial painters suffered horrible deaths from radiation

poisoning. These were mostly women who painted the dials on alarm clocks and aircraft instrument dials to "glow in the dark"....

for most of these people, there was no "toxicology", no warning, no Material Safety Data Sheets...and often, they died and were buried with no report...it is only through historical documents, and the environmental mess left behind, that we now reconstruct the story...

the Uranium glasses emphasizes the real "low-level" radiation, and the never-answered questions about "how much radiation is OK ?"

Federal Government radiation exposure limits have been reduced to lower and lower limits as we realized how poisonous radiation is...at the Nevada test site, OUR Soldiers stood outside near atomic bomb blasts to watch the mushroom clouds...and we no longer test atomic bombs above ground, as was quite common in the 50's and 60's, during the cold war, since the radiation clouds poison people for miles....then the Navajo Indian Uranium miners started dying horrible deaths, and the Federal government finally compensated them, for failing to inform them of the danger in their workplace...then it was discovered that Radon gas (which is a by-product of Uranium) seeps up into people's homes from Uranium mill tailings used for foundations (in places like Grand Junction, Colorado)....

these low-level exposures continue to be debated furiously...as I noted, some like their radiation in their drinks, others prefer it without radiation....

[diamond14]

6. here's the horror of the radium dial painters deaths (link)

Suffering Endures for 'Radium Girls' who painted watches in the '20s

By Martha Irvine, Associated Press
4 October 1998


... The company prospered as the glow-in-the dark concept expanded for use on military aircraft controls and the hugely popular Westclox "Big Ben" alarm clock.

Results of the tests would become public in a Chicago courtroom in 1938 after one worker, Catherine Wolfe Donahue, sued Radium Dial. She testified that she and a co-worker asked supervisor Rufus Reed why the company didn't post the results of the physical exams. Donahue, who was so ill she had to be carried into the courtroom, died that same year, shortly after the company agreed to pay her a few thousand dollars. Earlier lawsuits filed by five Radium Dial workers in New Jersey also ended in settlement.

But most women who got sick never sued. "Let's just say they didn't have a whole lot of social authority. They couldn't just bang on doors and get noticed," says Claudia Clark, an assistant professor of history at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Mich., and author of the new book "Radium Girls." Deaths were often attributed to other causes, anemia being one of the most common. But experts, including scientists at Argonne National Laboratories, now affirm that radium did kill some of the women.

Some women had tumors bulging from their jaws or leg bones, where radium was said to settle. Looney's family watched in horror as she pulled teeth and parts of her jaw from her mouth. Her declining health forced her to leave Radium Dial on Aug. 6, 1929. Eight days later, age 24, she was dead.

http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/doe_rocky_01.htm

[Bossy Monkey]

4. Too wide for my screen

too frustrating to read. It looks like you did an outstanding job, though.

[diamond14]

5. Can someone help me fix this, please ? can't figure out why

this is happening....the picture of Rocky Flats is the one that is too wide....PLEASE help me, so people can read this easier....thank you so much....