Polonium-210 from Uranium Ore - Nuclear Chemistry

Polonium-210 from Uranium Ore

Chemicals:
• Uranium ore (3g)
• Concentrated hydrochloric acid
• Metallic silver
A part of my bachelor's thesis was to separate Polonium on a silver sheet. To make sure that the fundamental idea produces measurable results, we started with a strong Polonium source (uranium ore)... and it worked VERY WELL!

0:00 Hello :)
0:21 Kilos of uranium ore
2:07 Depositing Polonium on the silver sheet
2:53 Ammonium diuranate
3:07 Measurement
3:13 Alpha spectrum of Po-210
3:51 chemical equation?
5:28 How much Polonium?
6:15 Goodbye :)

#radioactivity #polonium #uranium #nuclear

[Anon]

And once you've got the polonium, you can invite your least favorite people over for dinner...

[MartynDerg]

looks like youtube's doing that thing it does where it just scatterguns your content to a bunch of people who are not actually interested, but it just so happens that I AM interested. I'm very fond of chemistry, and nuclear chemistry is not something I ever get the opportunity to learn about for obvious reasons, so I'll be here for the long run, looking forward to videos from you in the future!

[jamesfahey]

Wonderful! It has been almost forty years since I worked on the chemistry of neptunium, berkelium and californium but you have renewed my interests. Keep up the good work. You will inspire a new generation of scientists. Sincerely James A. Fahey PS Germany has provided you with an excellent education.

[christopherleubner]

Polonium will stick to silver like flies to fly paper as silver preferentially binds to group 6 elements sulfur and below. ❤

[zbret]

Love radioactive chem (and most regular chem) and nuclear vids. I'm subbing. :)

[LittleWhole]

There is such a dearth of radiochemistry on YouTube that you have no idea how much of a blessing videos like yours are to people around the world who are seriously interested in this stuff but are just amateurs with no academic or professional training. Thank you so much.

[ThePeterDislikeShow]

You could use a silver Marie Curie coin, I think they made some in France at one point as a commemorative. As a tribute to Marie Curie. Bet you could then resell the treated coin for profit.

[Diamonddavej]

When I studied mineral engineering in the 90s, I discovered a 10kg lump of pure Uraninite in a draw at the back of the class about the size of a frozen chicken. It was 2 feet from the head of a student all year (I sat in the front of the class). There were some smaller bits too, I "borrowed" one (200g) but I got scared of it after a couple of days, so I buried it in the garden of my student digs. I can see the garden on Google street view, the garden is now concreted over. I'd like to visit it with my gamma ray scintillation detector to see if it is still there some day.

[pjbth]

I have zero idea how i got here but im glad I did! Awesome video

[Muonium]

Ah, the "old friend" is back, and has reappeared at 3:15 ... If anyone wants to know how ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko was assassinated with polonium in 2006 (using about a trillion times as much as was separated on the silver here), and how precisely we came to understand this fact with complete certainty in the West; here it is. The shape of this alpha spectrum, and its peak at an unmistakable 5.3 MeV is the smoking gun, and also, the fact that one of the assassins, Dimitry Kovtun, nearly killed himself in the process and spent time in a Moscow hospital recovering from radiation sickness (now dead of covid - supposedly - as of last year). The video "Alexander Litvinenko's murder: The inside story - BBC Newsnight" has an interview with professor Ian Shipsey explaining how this was done.

[Auroral_Anomaly]

This is exactly how you get put on a watchlist.💀 I know it’s not exactly enough polonium to hurt anyone.

[RobertCraft-resf]

Polonium-210 is very radioactive, so would a piece of the metal be red hot, like Pu-240? I remember reading that the first nuclear bombs used a neutron initiator in the core made out of Polonium and Beryllium.

[paulscherz]

i don’t know anything abt chemistry but nice video !

[moncarlomillor]

How can someone extract at make it Powder or Liquid Polonium 210? Is it true if someone inhale it or ingest it they will die 3 weeks? is it possible to survive polonium 210 poison

[IziPizi]

idk why did yt recommend this to me, but i wanna know, is there any long term effects to working with that? because i thougt radiation is like more dangerous then what you make it look like (sorry for broken english)

[jperez]

can you create a battery using radiation as an energy source?

[MarioRodriguez-owrl]

What is the main mineral in your Uranium ore and from which mine came from?

[moncarlomillor]

can i ask Question? if someone inhale it Polonium 210 they will die 3weeks? How just put 50nano grams?

[ThePeterDislikeShow]

How about a neutron source and bismuth? Can you try it and test?

[Yaivenov]

Is that a butane filled alpha detector?