4 ms·

Several milligrams or kilograms?

by jfim 7y ago

01100011 7y ago
According to Wikipedia(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_in_the_environment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_in_the_environment): "According to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation the normal concentration of uranium in soil is 300 μg/kg to 11.7 mg/kg." So let's say 5mg/kg. 200kg of soil per gram. How much area do you need to make 200kg of soil if you're going down 1m? I'd guess not much... So I think OP is wrong and it's more like 'several grams'.
- ptero 7y ago
  I first thought that OP estimate was way off, but from your numbers he may be right! If you only need 200 tons of soil for 1kg of Ur, that's not much. A cubic meter of soil is ~2 tons, maybe more, which means you only need a 10m by 10m square to get 1kg of Ur if you go 1m deep. Wow.
  - finnh 7y ago
    I think getting to enriched uranium is the hard bit.
    - perl4ever 7y ago
      Also, now your property is a large hole.
- kosievdmerwe 7y ago
  According to this[1] the weight for 1 cubic meter of dry soil is 1200kg, so 6 grams of uranium per cubic meter. Looking at average suburban lot sizes, they seem to be about 7200 sqft , which is about 668m^2. Which gives 668m^3 which gives about 4kg of uranium shockingly. [1] https://www.reference.com/science/much-cubic-meter-soil-weigh-e48660fa83d913ab https://www.reference.com/science/much-cubic-meter-soil-weig...
  - throw_away 7y ago
    I thought the numbers from wikipedia looked a little shaky, maybe. I couldn't find those specific numbers in the reference UN PDF. Google says soil concentration of Uranium is like 3ppm. But, if you do the math, 668 x 1200 x 1000 x (1/1000000) = 802g for every ppm. 3ppm Uranium would be 2.4kg by this number. Lead is at like 15-40ppm (https://ag.umass.edu/soil-plant-nutrient-testing-laboratory/fact-sheets/soil-lead-fact-sheet https://ag.umass.edu/soil-plant-nutrient-testing-laboratory/... ), so between 12 and 32 kg of lead in everyone's back yard?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

Several milligrams or kilograms?

by jfim 7y ago

Several milligrams or kilograms?

According to Wikipedia(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_in_the_environment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_in_the_environment): "According to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation the normal concentration of uranium in soil is 300 μg/kg to 11.7 mg/kg." So let's say 5mg/kg. 200kg of soil per gram. How much area do you need to make 200kg of soil if you're going down 1m? I'd guess not much... So I think OP is wrong and it's more like 'several grams'.

ptero 7y ago
I first thought that OP estimate was way off, but from your numbers he may be right! If you only need 200 tons of soil for 1kg of Ur, that's not much. A cubic meter of soil is ~2 tons, maybe more, which means you only need a 10m by 10m square to get 1kg of Ur if you go 1m deep. Wow.
- finnh 7y ago
  I think getting to enriched uranium is the hard bit.
  - perl4ever 7y ago
    Also, now your property is a large hole.
kosievdmerwe 7y ago
According to this[1] the weight for 1 cubic meter of dry soil is 1200kg, so 6 grams of uranium per cubic meter. Looking at average suburban lot sizes, they seem to be about 7200 sqft , which is about 668m^2. Which gives 668m^3 which gives about 4kg of uranium shockingly. [1] https://www.reference.com/science/much-cubic-meter-soil-weigh-e48660fa83d913ab https://www.reference.com/science/much-cubic-meter-soil-weig...
- throw_away 7y ago
  I thought the numbers from wikipedia looked a little shaky, maybe. I couldn't find those specific numbers in the reference UN PDF. Google says soil concentration of Uranium is like 3ppm. But, if you do the math, 668 x 1200 x 1000 x (1/1000000) = 802g for every ppm. 3ppm Uranium would be 2.4kg by this number. Lead is at like 15-40ppm (https://ag.umass.edu/soil-plant-nutrient-testing-laboratory/fact-sheets/soil-lead-fact-sheet https://ag.umass.edu/soil-plant-nutrient-testing-laboratory/... ), so between 12 and 32 kg of lead in everyone's back yard?
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]