The Mystery of Glenn Seaborg's Missing Plutonium: Solved 85
KentuckyFC writes: In the early 1940s, Glenn Seaborg made the first lump of plutonium by bombarding uranium-238 with neutrons in two different cyclotrons for over a year, The resulting plutonium, chemically separated and allowed to react with oxygen, weighed 2.77 micrograms. It was the first macroscopic sample ever created and helped win Seaborg a Nobel prize ten years later. The sample was displayed at the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley until the early naughties, when it somehow disappeared. Now nuclear detectives say they've found Seaborg's plutonium and have been able to distinguish it from almost all other plutonium on the planet using a special set of non-destructive tests. The team says the sample is now expected to go back on display at Seaborg's old office at Berkeley.
Special non destructive test? (Score:4, Funny)
They weighed it?
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They read the envelope it was in - it was labeled "Glenn Seaborg's Plutonium".
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From the OP it said it disappeared in "the early naughties".
Re:Special non destructive test? (Score:5, Informative)
They looked at the radiation coming out of the sample to find evidence of Am-241, an impurity that would be formed if the sample were created in a cyclotron but not if it were created in a reactor. This test doesn't require the sample even to be touched.
Re:Special non destructive test? (Score:5, Informative)
It's the other way around. Extra neutron captures in plutonium created in a nuclear power reactor produces Pu-241 and by decay, Am-241. The bombardment of U-238 with deuterons doesn't produce Pu-241. No Am-241 in the sample hence it was not produced in a reactor. That's the theory.
It's more complicated than that, there are ways of producing very pure Pu-239 in a reactor but the extreme purity of the sample in question seems to mitigate against it being produced by the capture of fission neutrons in a reactor.
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What I want to know is which will work best in my space modulator? It was only design for 36.
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Well, back to the old drawing board!
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What I want to know is which will work best in my flux capacitor? It was only design for 36.
FTFY
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you could try to rtfa
the weight does match
and also it isn't emitting any radiation characteristic of isotopes produced from plutonium created in a nuclear reactor
almost all extant plutonium was created in a reactor
so correct weight + not from a reactor = high probability of sample match
higher than weight alone, especially considering the measured weight is necessarily approximate, as the case the sample is in can't be opened
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They weighed it?
So, they did not use a particle accelerator?
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It's pure Pu-239, so that's rather unlikely.
Re:Pu 241 has 14 year half life (Score:5, Informative)
And Pu-239 has a half life of 24,100 years.
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Pu 241 has 14 year half life [while] Pu-239 has a half life of 24,100 years.
So? Just add 2 and you're all done within 14 years -- problem solved.
If it's good enough for finance, it's certainly good enough for science.
They found it all right.... (Score:1)
But who's going to pay for my operation? Lesson learned: don't swallow plutonium, no matter how appealing!
P.S. The side benefit was, if I had to go to the bathroom at night, I didn't need nightlights...once I started to go, it all glowed in the dark, providing sufficient light to see!
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But who's going to pay for my operation? Lesson learned: don't swallow plutonium, no matter how appealing!
P.S. The side benefit was, if I had to go to the bathroom at night, I didn't need nightlights...once I started to go, it all glowed in the dark, providing sufficient light to see!
Yes, but why did you piss on the floor in the hallway?
I recall.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: I recall.... (Score:1)
If you remember the naughties, you weren't there.
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It's a perfectly cromulent way to spell noughties.
2000s (Score:1)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000s_%28decade%29
On January 1, 2000, the BBC listed the noughties (derived from "nought" a word used for zero in many English-speaking countries), as a potential moniker for the new decade.
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But of course the 21st century didn't start until Jan 1, 2001
(there was no year zero)
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It ought to be the Noughties, which is the proper pun for that decade.
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Naughties arguably fits in some regions, as one of the characteristic aspects of that decade was a relaxation of sexual taboos.
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It ought to be the Noughties
Except that's pronounced "Nawftees." Just doesn't work.
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Please don't tell us how you pronounce "thought". Thanks.
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It ought to be the Noughties
Except that's pronounced "Nawftees." Just doesn't work.
Is that a joke about the vagaries of English spelling/pronounciation (rough, through, bough, etc)or do you really not know that it derives from "nought" which rhymes with "ought"?
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Is that a joke about the vagaries of English spelling/pronounciation (rough, through, bough, etc)
Fank you for having more of a clue than a few other folks, apparently!
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the noughties were dominated by dreadnoughts on the high seas
call them the dreadnoughties?
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the brits built the first dreadnought, yes. everyone was so impressed everyone built one
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Reminds me when i wanted to text "Sweta" (Short calling name for "Swetlana") on my phone to a colleague of mine and my phone corrected it to "Sweetie".....
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Well, if the terrorists were also able to obtain an equal amount of antimatter, they could liberate about the same amount of energy as you would get from burning 4 gallons of gasoline. [wolframalpha.com] You'd also have to worry about 6360 decays per second [wolframalpha.com], which is about as much radiation as you emit [world-nuclear.org]. Pu-239 emits quite a bit of radiation per decay, a total of 207.1 MeV of various neutrons, gamma rays, and fission fragments, which is about .2 microwatts [wolframalpha.com].
The big question though would be, if you made a miniature fission bomb
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So, in order to avoid the biggest health risks associated with this sample, I recommend that you not eat it.
A few micrograms? Harmless to eat. Famously compared to caffeine.
You'd need to inhale it to begin worrying.
In fact there is some evidence that ingesting plutonium extends life. http://atomicinsights.com/how-... [atomicinsights.com]
(no mutant powers though)
Found in Van with Stinger Missile (Score:2)
It's distinguishable from other plutonium, because it got here from 1985.
Plural of cyclotron (Score:1)
= cyclotron's ?
I simply stop reading when an author makes obvious grammar mistakes.
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I simply stop reading when an author makes obvious grammar mistakes.
They haven't taught grammar in schools since the early naughties
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Well, that's one way to wean yourself off the Internet...I usually grit my teeth and press on.
Though I still lose it when somebody writes "ex-patriot".
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Errr, why? It would seem a perfectly sensible construct for someone who used to be a patriot but for whatever reason (money, loathing for their home-country's debased political establishment) has ceased to be a patriot.
There's the other homophone "expatriate", for someone who lives in another country to that of their allegiance, but that's a completely different concept. For example, I mostly earn my income as an expatriate, but it would be impossibl
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It's not really a grammatical error, more a sign that the writer doesn't read much, and hence indicative of illiteracy. It's like using "to all intensive purposes" instead of "to all intents and purposes", or "should of" instead of "should've": it shows that you've only ever heard it said, not written down
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What tehcyder said...sorry I wasn't clearer. A lot of people (at least, in online fora) would indeed call you an ex-patriot out of semiliteracy. And it's misleading as to what the motivations of an expat are.
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Misleading title and summary (Score:2)
The method described did not help them find the plutonium. The method helped them identify it as being the right piece once it was found.
The bigger loss.. (Score:3)
Plutonium in Berkeley?? (Score:3, Interesting)
Aren't such things illegal in Berkeley because of the Nuclear Free Berkeley Act (Chapter 12.90):
http://codepublishing.com/CA/Berkeley/cgi/NewSmartCompile.pl?path=Berkeley12/Berkeley1290/Berkeley1290.html
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No, since none of the sections apply.
Top Right Desk Drawer (Score:2)
>the sample is now expected to go back on display at Seaborg's old office at Berkeley.
Because every self-respecting academic has the odd bit of plutonium lying about. It really helps with the mad scientist cred.
speck (Score:1)
What? (Score:2)
We went to check on Seaborg's plutonium, only to discover it had been replaced with a piece of uranium-235!!
Glenn Seaborg - a great man (Score:5, Informative)
I was honored to know Glenn Seaborg while working at Lawrence Berkeley Labs in the 1980's. By then, Manhattan Project was long behind him, as was his Nobel prize, the Atomic Energy Commission work, and his chancellorship of the University of California. Yet he was still a kind and supportive scientist who was deeply interested in any research - whether in physics, astronomy, chemistry, or biology. He recognized the need to teach music and art alongside science and math, and would visit local high schools to encourage students.
I once met him at the Lawrence Hall of Science, walking around the old cyclotron. When I asked him about it, he said that he'd been wondering how the field magnets had been mounted (it was perhaps 40 years after the Manhattan Project). After a short chat he invited a few 12 year old kids over, and told stories about using the beast to create new elements. Amazing guy.
Safety? (Score:2)
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Alpha emissions are easily shielded too. On the other hand, if the sample is broken and dispersed they can't avoid closing the whole place down. Small amounts of plutonium function great in dirty bombs.
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Could be, I don't know. Dissolve and spray? But you really need very little to close the place because the actual extent of the danger doesn't matter much. Perception runs its own course.
Perfectionists (Score:2)
It was correctly labelled, at the correct institution, in the place you would expect it to be stored, and it weighed the correct amount.
But that wasn't good enough. They had to wait and see if it wouldn't decay in a particular way.
I am never going to let these guys tidy up my lab or do the filing.
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Somebody could have substituted anothe dust speck, and nobody would be the wiser.
The coments for this article (Score:1)
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You new here? Stick around, you'll find plenty of both.