finding uranium in nature
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- čas přidán 27. 10. 2008
- i went to saxony (a part of germany) to find uranium 'in the wild' at abandoned uranium mines, dig sites and stockpiles.
due to the increased uranium content in the earth's surface, saxony is a lot more irradiated than berlin, as you can clearly see in the video (although there are other means of contamination - such as the chernobyl accident - that can also be a cause for increased background radiation).
this video also includes a visit to the uranium mine 'MARKUS SEMMLER' and, of course, me digging for (and finding some) uranium minerals. =)
the radioactive minerals i found are uranocircite and autunite. they now have a new caring and loving home at my place.
ps: i know it's not just uranium in there but a lot of other radionuclides that are within the decay chain, as well as the endproduct - stable lead. i just called it all 'uranium' for simplicity. :-)
MUSIC: KRAFTWERK - RADIOACTIVITY
www.kraftwerk.de - Věda a technologie
@RebornAc3
i already mentioned that in the description, but anyway: the song is called "radioactivity" and was made by "kraftwerk".
hab den gleichen gamma scout und kenn ich damit noch nicht so aus. manchmal hast du den regler in der mitte (gamma) und manchmal ganz rechts (alpha betta gamma) wann nehm ich welche einstellung?
@raitaleo
thanks for the suggestions! i am working on visiting both chernobyl and brazil within the next months for a report on the levels of radioactivity there. i dont know how to get permission to enter the fukushima area currently - but if anybody has a suggestion, let me know, and i'll be on my way asap. :)
@RH2dogs
what makes you think i am not getting irradiated, with this video showing my geiger counter reading being up to a THOUSAND times higher than normal background radiation?
*URANIUMM FEVERRR HAS GOT AND GOT ME DOOWN*
@ddoleiden
yep, it's a gamma scout w/alert. i did a thorough review on this device, which is amongst my most recent videos.
I bought the same gamma scout that you have. do i have to do something with the settings or when does the alarm goes off. i mean at which microsievert does it start to beep?
You watch bionerd too? Small world
Like your videos
He lost his yt acc so he cant reply you
@@astrox9097 She didn't lose her youtube account, she disappeared completely from the internet. Probably died from the radioactive shit she took home
No shes Active on other accounts
@tyeedillon
because of the uranyl ion contained in it. this is e.g. the case in uranocircite and autunite; but also, the uranyl ion forms when you pour nitric acid onto pitchblende, as i did here: watch?v=QQNnfpNNWJI
Well why don't you look for uranium at night with a UV lamp?
it's dangerous to touch uranium without knowing it's radioactivity. it's hard to detect radioactivity using the UV lights.
Josiah Dave Cool, than use the uv light with the geiger counter... It's that simple...
radioactivity doesn't determine the number of those green pigment. yes you observed it for a very long time and having fun with it, but as time passes by, you will die.
Josiah Dave You don't get what i'm saying.. UV means you can find it quickly, without touching or even coming close to it. Than using a geiger counter you'd determine if you need that particular piece and take or leave it.
Jeffery Peters Maybe there is some kind of ban for night search.
That's so pretty under the UV light
also, uranium ore is very radioactive because of secular equilibrium with short-lived daughter nuclides, where some of them are beta and / or gamma emitters. pure natural uranium (isotope mix) is much less radioactive than uranium ore. enriching uranium means increasing the amount of the isotope U-235 (main isotope: U-238) in the mix, which still does not necessarily make it very dangerous. low enriched reactor fuel can be less radioactive than rich uranium ores.
This Explains The +0,62 msv The U-235 have very Isotops, REALLY! Thanks Friend for share a didatic information
Your videos certainly reflect your passion for radioactivity. You excite, entertain, and educate, marvelous combination. Many thanks for your dedication and sharing.
still love her early videos and those about saxony and minerals. nowadays mother nature has reclaimed these places.
@guitargod909
ebay, etc. etc. - just google it. dosimeter, geiger counter, something like that. the device used here is a gamma scout.
@AVincent2
thanks for your concern. yes, i am aware of radon and it being an alpha emitter, which has a radiation weighting factor of 20; thus, it's most dangerous when ingested or inhaled - and the latter is easily done due to it being a gas.
so, yeah, i am aware of the dangers - but, for me, the gain / benefits from handling this material greatly outweighs the risks.
and, while i e.g. dont smoke, i dont think it's worth sacrificing every "fun" in life just to live a little longer...
@raitaleo
i just went to brazil. you'll see what's there if you check out my latest videos; more background radiation than in most of the area around chernobyl... what, you dont believe that? dont worry, i am soon going to chernobyl, too, so you can have proof. =)
Thanks for sharing this video. I always wondered how people extract these radioactive items and now, got a glimpse of it. Keep it up!!
thanks! :-)
the uranium mine was just a guided tour, i didnt get anything from there - the rest, ie. the stockpiles i've been using the geiger counter at or been digging at, were open and abandoned - not a single soul there but us...
by the way, check out my flickr photostream (link is on my youtube channel); just had a chest x-ray done, and no lung cancer yet - so i'm gonna keep spamming the world with vids like this for quite a while to come, hehe. =)
@bottle2lip
yeah, i have them in sealed display cases (acrylic and see-through, very nice, you can get them as e.g. train model display cases). that prevents radon from escaping, which is a vital protection.
further on, i'm shielding the rich pitchblende ore with lead, so called "diver's lead" - basically bricks of lead that are very easy to duct tape together and cheaper than most other forms of "professional" lead bricks.
that mine was an official visitor's mine that has monitoring and ventilation systems.
i keep the best pieces of the uranocircite and autunite 'open' except for the plastic case because the radiation that is being emitted is minor. i do, however, shield the pitchblende (uraninite) with lead, yes.
the flashlight is from ebay.
@kraken58
for about three years now, i suppose - and so far, i seem to have no health effects at all from it - not good nor bad.
That is so cool. When you turned on that UV light it sent chills down my spine
@logicCplusplus
precautions to reduce radon levels, especially in basements, are taken in newer buildings, yes.
government agencies also provide radon measuring equipment for people concerned about that.
With the cost of uranium ore on Ebay in the USA you are rich ;-)
Yet another informative and interesting video BioNerd!
mine is only nearing the end of life of the geiger mueller tube due to too many ionisations, but that can be fixed by replacing the tube, anyway - you can see the electronics work fine in my older "insane radioactivity on pitchblende uranium ore" video.
@cortexedge
yes. fission neutrons typically have around 2 MeV afaik, so that'll lead to a single capture here and there, i suppose. not enough to detect it with easy means, but the plutonium atoms are there. :)
@mangoismycat
cant really tell for sure without gamma spectroscopy etc., but it's the geological properties of that area of my country (which has been analyzed by professional institutes) as well as this very form of mineral, which has to be autunite or uranocircite by the looks of it. however, it's quite hard to know if it's e.g. black uraninite or black thorianite if you dont know where it came from (geological region) OR can analyze it as mentioned above.
Kraftwerk Radioactivity - the song in the end is matching in so many many ways.
@zillionz
nope, no acute symptoms to be expected if small amounts are ingested. however, may or may not increase the risk for cancer later in life. impossible to tell, as it'd be a stochastic damage with minor amounts of radioactive material, not possible to tell if it was REALLY the uranium ore, or if my cancer came from that one visit to a smoker's bar.
yes, i do indeed have a UV LED flashlight for mobile use. at home - for my showcase - i use two UV energy saving bulbs from conrad, 15 watts each if i remember right.
also, it was used in colors for tiles, dishes, marbles etc., though this use has been discontinued by now. uranium also has useful daughter nuclides, such as radium, which was used to paint watch hands in the middle of last century.
That lever on your instrument, is it for blocking alfa and beta? I recently purchased a DIY module from sparkfun with an LND 712 tube (registers down to alfa) and gonna put together a complete unit, and been thinking about filter options.
@surplusdriller
the "alert" version of the "gamma scout" cost me 350 euros.
i am just storing the uranium i found, i am a mineral collector - i keep the nicest ones at home, but i stored the majority of rocks at a friend's cellar as to not increase background radiation in my flat too much.
i have a question, the amount rocks that contain uranium you collected in the video - were they dangerous ?
Hi! That was 9years ago. What hardware would you recommend to look for natural U minerals in the Alps? Just detection, not measuring.
@aoeiyu
of course it does, yeah. with the "gamma" setting, only hard betas and gammas are measured. with the "alpha" setting, even alpha radiation is measured, which of course produces higher pulses. it's not practical to leave the sensitive window exposed in the field, though, but sorry for any confusion... please see e.g. watch?v=MvzqBs3KHAg for more info.
there's info on the internet about that. the mines were run by the WISMUT and one can find the locations they are 'refurbishing' or that are just abandoned by now on the internet.
@hardleecure
cannot get a noticable health effect / radiation poisoning from this minor amount of radiation, so nope, i am not afraid of it.
really fascinating blows my mind. mostly the lighting lol
depends on the amount. if you just have one tiny piece, you could in theory just put it on your desk, i suppose; if you have a box full of the stuff, you should make sure to seal it (because of radon) and store it away from people, e.g. in your basement.
yeah, that's a UV lamp.
good point about the sunlight, i havent tried that out yet - maybe it does look different in the mornings / evenings compared to daytime sunlight.
@cassiavc
yes you can, no problem at all. they luminescence occurs in colors that are visible to the human eye (green). :)
hmmm... if anything, i would likely make a video about lung cancer; leukemia is rather unlikely, as this is U-NAT, not Sr-90 or whatever.
besides that, my collection is marked with obvious signs - i have a chemical storage with vials that read "mercury", "nitric acid", etc. - my radiation storage has the source disks reading "RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL - 0.25 uCi Cs-137" etc. - if the "decon team" fails to see this when visiting my home after i died, well, then that's really not my fault.
What an awesome video! Props on talking. You're very knowledgeable. Next time you head to the mines, let me know so I can fly over to Germany!
the uranium mine is just north of a small village called BAD SCHLEMA. it's called the MARKUS SEMMLER mine.
this is one of the greatest videos i've seen in a while...
Just a question, how do you not get into trouble from the government? I'm sure they don't like people extracting uranium from their mines.
also what did you do with the uranium you found?
it involves acids and a lot of steps to chemically process the ore, which isnt easy to do and also leaves you with extremely poisonous - as they're water soluble - compounds.
@justinhhhfan
no, it reads uSv/h (microsievert/hour). also, the ore is a point source (though not exactly as small as one would imagine a "point", it's still a point source from a sufficient distance). the dose directly AT the source is large, but it quickly diminishes with distance as of the inverse square law. thus, only the hands get the whole dose, but not the whole body. in chernobyl (or now, fukushima), you get the dose reading as a WHOLE BODY DOSE, which makes all the difference.
nope, uraninite is the black stuff, so called "pitchblende", or primary uranium ore. what i found is a secondary ore called uranocircite in english (and uranocircit in german). :-)
As you switched on the UV light, The sight was sci-fi looking.
...Pitchblende...you can't beat it!
@nikolakralj94
about 0,10 euros (10 cents) per gram now, i suppose.
market prices are about $60 USD per pound.
Oha, ich dachte, dass ich lower saxony gelesen habe.
Kennst du zufällig Steinbrüche, welche sich im Harz oder generell in Niedersachsen befinden, in denen es Uranhaltige Erze gibt?
I love your videos! I have a question. Why do you measure with the GammaScout in u/Sv instead of CPM? Can the GammaScout be programmed to know what isotope you are measuring? I have an Inspector USB which is only calibrated for Cs137 which would give the wrong reading in u/Sv from a Ur 238 sample. Would like to learn your thoughts on this. Thanks again for the best videos on CZcams!
It's close enough
That was a great mine! I went out to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania 3 weeks ago partly go to uranium prospecting. It's a very small deposit on the northern side of Mt. Pisgah, but I couldn't collect any because it's only accessible from alongside the road where there's about 1 meter between the rock face and fast cars, and the other part is further down the cliff where old railroad tracks are, but it's well-guarded "private property". Measured around 15 mrem/hr at one spot, but couldn't take any home.
Olga, when you have a moment will you please give your opinion about thorium reactors?
well, it's commonly sold as blacklight ("schwarzlicht") for disco / decoration stuff. they even have UV active colors, posters and foils and whatnot at conrad (and at other light installation stores). :-)
I would be interested in seeing how much lead dust accumulates inside the display cases from the radon decay. Is there enough to see yet?
yup, just the little specks CONTAIN uranium among the other isotopes in the uranium-radium decay chain as well as phosphorous, barium, hydrogen, and oxygen.
That was a spectacular reaction to the UV light. I would want to return at night with a UV flashlight.
nice man, i gotta tell tibor29 that u got a new vid, can u tell me where the uraium mine in saxony is?
uranium (the metal) itself does not glow under UV light, no. however, certain compounds do have a fluorescence when under UV light, such as uranyl nitrate.
@boxmour1
no, not minor waves as in longwave, but minor as in a minor AMOUNT of ionizing radiation (especially short wavelength electromagnetic energy). this may appear like a lot to the layperson, but it is not much radiation. of course, it does in theory increase the risk for cell damage and mutations including cancer, but only on a stochastic level, as it's just not enough radiation to be certainly dangerous.
nope. i keep the main pieces (uraninite) shielded with lead; the largest amount is stored in a box in a cellar, so it does not irradiate me much.
Nice to see a another rock-hound, and even one that collects glowing minerals. Well i can tell you that going through the airport with minerals is not a problem. But radioactive ones might get you some unwanted attention. Ahh next time when im in Germany i need to collect some rocks well im there.
5:35 - my mouth dropped open. Very very interesting videos! Thanks for making them. Could I politely suggest you invest in a high definition video camera? Would make it even better!
That's very nice n fascinating. thanx for the vids.
@SH0LVA, @JmMcC82
a sievert (Sv) is the energy dose multiplied with the radiation weighting factor of the specific radiation (alpha, beta, photon, neutron radiation). the energy dose is the unit Gray (Gy), which is energy divided by absorbing mass, or Joule/Kilogram.
Becquerel or Curie is the unit for ACTIVITY of a material (as SH0LVA stated).
U-235 mainly undergoes alpha decay, but rarely also Spontaneous Fission, producing neutrons. daughters of U-235 furthermore emit gamma radiation.
@modgemtb
well, it's not possible to create a critical mass from something as impure as the uranium ORE shown here.
however, there's some spontaneous fission going on in natural uranium; most of it alpha-decays, but some fissions, too (that's why enough of the pure metal U-235 in one spot results in a critical mass). the resulting neutrons, when striking U-238 nuclei, will inevitable result in a few plutonium-239 atoms in the ore - but they're too few to measure.
@jimichiller
sure, it's just a geiger counter - that's legal to have! they cost between $50 and $500, basically. depends what version you're getting. but a simple thing that clicks when something radioactive is near is about $50. a kilo of uranium metal as U3O8 costs about $100 i believe. the same amount of uranium minerals can be much more expensive, depending on collector value.
Everyone commenting about her getting sick and getting too much radiation: the most stable isotope of uranium-even in the amount she was currently around, has a half life of over 4.4 BILLION YEARS. She was in virtually no danger of overexposure to high energy radiation or alpha/beta particles.
(source: 'radioactivity, x-rays and health' from the series 'radiation protection' of the bavarian ministry for environment, health and consumer safety). also, the 'damage to the DNA' you're talking about occurs all the time. we're talking about DNS DSBs here.
is that an uv lamp?
mb they look shiny like that in the sunrising or the sunset isn it? (at mid day that green light would go unnoticed i think)
That's the Gamma Scout w/Alert. The rechargeable one says Rechargeable in blue at the bottom below the keypad.
@jointtwo
bergen, steinbruch streuberg + hartenstein, haldengelaende 371.
you see the green stuff in here, omg SNIFFF OMG SNIFFF SOME MORE, OMG SO PRETTY
lol you mentioned having to take off your shoes at the airport, I also had to do this at Nurenburg airport in 2002. Are radioactive rocks the only ones you collect. ??
@hhhh1997
yep, long-wave UV light.
I expected the mine to glow blue, but then again there is no water, so no Cherenkov radiation. Either way, would picking up and physically touching the pitchblende be dangerous? I know it's not that radioactive but isn't uranium toxic?
Hey bionerd23, don't you think holding the uranium rocks bare hand could expose you to radiation exposure? Even wondered if allowing public to enter a uranium mine is actually a good idea. The video was great though. Learned a lot. Thanks.
Do you know if a CDV-700 would be sufficient for detecting uranium or other naturally occurring radioactive materials? I'm probably going to try to find radioactive materials in my town. I doubt I will, but it'll make walking less boring and I could definitely use the exercise.
What is the name and model of the device you use please?
Hahaha you're so funny... 4:42 totally cracked me up lol. Nice find, I'd love to go rock hunting in a place like that!
Awesome! Might take a trip to Sachsen aswell! This is Königstein, yes?
because it contains phosphorous... the stuff that makes glow-in-the-dark stickers glow, too.
@yosupdude556
german electronics store called conrad. that's a store similar to radio shack in the USA.
@bored1980
i did so just recently. couldnt afford a HD camera for a long time. doing science is one thing - but making money, i always failed at that. :P
Nice video. The area I live in is uncommonly rich in uranium, we live on well water and it needs to be regularily tested about once every 2-3 months for its uranium content, since its less worry about the lingering effects of radiation and more of its highly toxic nature. Most people living here are waiting for when all the land is bought up in about 10-15 years for a planned mine.
So what were those green U-bearing rocks? I looked up "green uranium ores germany" but there are apparently *many*. Even pitchblende (UO2) which is nominally black, can be greenish.
because that's the exact problem. :-)
the laws are there to make it easy for researchers (like universities or museums that display e.g. cloud chambers) to possess radioactive material in small amounts without having too much trouble and cost (licensing) with it. it's very hard to find companys who actually SELL radioactive material to a private person, even though that's legal...
that's a bit hard to archive at home. :P
i keep it sealed in a plastic encasing though, that will hopefully prevent too many fluctuations in air humidity (becoming a meta variant == becoming dry, and moisture / water == H2O, so the meta variant's main difference is that it contains a lot less hydrogen and oxygen).
just fluorescence of the uranyl ion (look up the term if you wanna know more)...
well, the "lodes" used to be underground, several hundred meters deep at worst... the miners would dig as deep as possible, they'd only stop when it got too hot (~70 degrees celsius / 158 degrees fahrenheit) and sufficient cooling was no longer possible.
Befindet sich Bergen Streuberg auch in Niedersachsen? Wenn ja, kannst du mir eventuell eine Beschreibung geben, wo dieser Steinbruch liegt?
@bionerd23 U238 needs fast neutrons to capture and become Pu239, no? For thermal neutrons, the cross section for U238 is quite small.
no, further east of that... in saxony, where the famous wismut uranium mines used to be. they're still there, of course, just not in use, and flooded mostly. -_-