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Small uranium samples are very often used to test geiger counters and is pretty common and not dangerous unless it becomes dust. Even then a far cry from anythi
by puppycodes 2y ago
Small uranium samples are very often used to test geiger counters and is pretty common and not dangerous unless it becomes dust. Even then a far cry from anything massively concerning.
in terms of spicy rocks doesnt the specific plutonium(number) make a massive difference?
- kragen 2y agoNot really.
- CrossVR 2y agoGiven that this guy was charged under a non-proliferation act it makes a massive difference whether it's Pu-238 or Pu-239.
- kragen 2y agoWhy, because one has a critical mass of 9-10 kg and the other has a critical mass of 11 kg? You'd think it would matter a great deal more that the amount he obtained was apparently 35 nanograms, so he was about a hundred million samples short of a working reactor.
- perihelions 2y agoPu-238 isn't usably fissile for weapons purposes (and apparently[0] isn't regulated as such (?)). Just look at the hero image on its Wikipedia entry[1]. A critical mass would have >5 kW of decay heat. [0] https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part071/part071-0004.html https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part071/p... ("Fissile material means the radionuclides uranium-233, uranium-235, plutonium-239, and plutonium-241") [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium-238 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium-238 ("Plutonium-238 oxide pellet glowing from its decay heat") https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General-purpose_heat_source#Stages_of_assembly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General-purpose_heat_source#St...
- kragen 2y agoHmm, interesting! I stand corrected. Thank you!