finding uranium in nature

[@bionerd23]

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. =)

[@TheOriginalEviltech]

Well why don't you look for uranium at night with a UV lamp?

[@papimacaroni7769]

it's dangerous to touch uranium without knowing it's radioactivity. it's hard to detect radioactivity using the UV lights.

[@TheOriginalEviltech]

Josiah Dave Cool, than use the uv light with the geiger counter... It's that simple...

[@papimacaroni7769]

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.

[@TheOriginalEviltech]

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.

[@TheOriginalEviltech]

Jeffery Peters Maybe there is some kind of ban for night search.

[@bionerd23]

@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?

[@bionerd23]

@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. :)

[@bionerd23]

@RebornAc3 i already mentioned that in the description, but anyway: the song is called "radioactivity" and was made by "kraftwerk".

[@bionerd23]

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.

[@MasterRestart]

This Explains The +0,62 msv The U-235 have very Isotops, REALLY! Thanks Friend for share a didatic information

[@SurvivalLilly]

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?

[@ratedasmr7811]

You watch bionerd too? Small world

[@flarion00]

Like your videos

[@astrox9097]

He lost his yt acc so he cant reply you

[@Schule04]

@@astrox9097 She didn't lose her youtube account, she disappeared completely from the internet. Probably died from the radioactive shit she took home

[@lennihaapala8169]

No shes Active on other accounts

[@Yanciharpci]

*URANIUMM FEVERRR HAS GOT AND GOT ME DOOWN*

[@bionerd23]

@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

[@LazoeJSCREI]

That's so pretty under the UV light

[@jimawhitaker]

With the cost of uranium ore on Ebay in the USA you are rich ;-)

[@arcrurusarcturus6725]

still love her early videos and those about saxony and minerals. nowadays mother nature has reclaimed these places.

[@bionerd23]

that mine was an official visitor's mine that has monitoring and ventilation systems.

[@bionerd23]

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.

[@bionerd23]

@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. =)

[@bionerd23]

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.

[@bionerd23]

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...

[@ahimsainternational]

Your videos certainly reflect your passion for radioactivity. You excite, entertain, and educate, marvelous combination. Many thanks for your dedication and sharing.

[@bionerd23]

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.

[@SurvivalLilly]

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?

[@bionerd23]

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.

[@bionerd23]

(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.

[@bionerd23]

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.

[@bionerd23]

sorry, i dont know if australia has a large uranium content within the earth's surface or if its even being mined. i guess google knows. uranium is used for a lot of stuff. it can be used in different types of reactors to create electricity, it can be used in breeder reactors to create plutonium for nuclear bombs, or it can itself be used in a nuclear bomb. it can also be used as a very dense material for ammunition, or for shielding more radioactive substances.

[@bionerd23]

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.

[@bionerd23]

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.

[@bionerd23]

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.

[@bionerd23]

the uranium mine is just north of a small village called BAD SCHLEMA. it's called the MARKUS SEMMLER mine.

[@trulyinfamous]

As you switched on the UV light, The sight was sci-fi looking.

[@bionerd23]

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.

[@bionerd23]

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.

[@sunnysaini2332]

Thanks for sharing this video. I always wondered how people extract these radioactive items and now, got a glimpse of it. Keep it up!!

[@bionerd23]

@guitargod909 ebay, etc. etc. - just google it. dosimeter, geiger counter, something like that. the device used here is a gamma scout.

[@bionerd23]

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...

[@bionerd23]

@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.

[@bionerd23]

uh, yes it can. it depends on the type of radiation as well as the energy of the radiation, but it can penetrate lead. there are rules for that, e.g. X keV of gamma radiation will penetrate Y mm of lead to 80%. i dont know the exact numbers off hand, but yeah.

[@innocentlll]

Hi! That was 9years ago. What hardware would you recommend to look for natural U minerals in the Alps? Just detection, not measuring.

[@bionerd23]

uranium 238 and its daughter nuclides release alpha, beta and gamma (both hard and soft) radiation. uranium 238 itself is an alpha emitter. also, there's a radioactive gas in the decay chain - radon - which is dangerous because it can be inhaled and do harm inside the body.

[@bionerd23]

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.

[@bionerd23]

well that's bullshit. CPM, or counts per minute, depend on the detector. e.g. a 50x50 cm detector will detect much more CPM than a 5x5 cm detector, but both readings will equal to the SAME LEVELS OF RADIATION. thus, dose rate is measured in Gy/(time unit, e.g. h, min) or equivalent dose (Sv/h), but a calibration factor has to be applied to a CPM reading in order to get that, which is dependent on geometry, size etc. of a detector.

[@WilliamJCroft]

re: calibration factor. And what check source was used to calibrate it in uSv/hr. "Energy compensated" GM tubes are more accurate in this regard because they have special coatings that tend to normalize the CPMs across various radiation source spectra.

[@idubbz250]

If Shakespeare was a scientist, that would be you

[@denji3716]

dont show this... north korea might find out

[@Amen-Magi]

bionerd23 .how find thorium

[@gammondog]

Thanks. This explains the different readings in the scanners I use at work.

[@bionerd23]

exactly, thats what i meant. even though collecting radioactive minerals in both germany and the US is not illegal, the airport securities wont like it AT ALL - and they use scanners for radioactivity as well there. i know i once had to take my shoes off and they were being scanned for radioactive material and explosives because i was suspected of something evil, lol... well, london airport, what do you expect.

[@bionerd23]

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.

[@bionerd23]

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). :-)

[@bionerd23]

@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...

[@bionerd23]

@ddoleiden yep, it's a gamma scout w/alert. i did a thorough review on this device, which is amongst my most recent videos.

[@bionerd23]

eh? i dont really understand what you're trying to say in your various comments, but that is a gamma scout dosimeter and it costs around $300.

[@umarbustamam4052]

i have a question, the amount rocks that contain uranium you collected in the video - were they dangerous ?

[@bionerd23]

it doesnt necessarily cause cancer, though it is an additional risk factor, of course. i'd say: play with fire safely, and you may get a nice hot meal - play with fire in an unsafe way, get burnt - dont play with fire at all, get freezing cold and uncomfortable. ;) but hey, i dont smoke. at all. i hope you dont, either.

[@bionerd23]

@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.

[@bionerd23]

@hardleecure cannot get a noticable health effect / radiation poisoning from this minor amount of radiation, so nope, i am not afraid of it.

[@bionerd23]

@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.

[@bionerd23]

200 mSv as an acute, full-body dose causes mild radiation poisoning (only noticable due to reduced blood cell count). 1000 mSv as an acute dose will give you noticable radiation poisoning.

[@bionerd23]

the government doesnt care. there's even security patrolling around the area, but they didnt care about us... they're just there to prevent people from entering the actual mines as well as the security zones (where toxic waste is processed). collecting these minerals is thus legal (if you have the allowance / are tolerated by the legal owner of the grounds)... same as my other radioactive stuff - such as caesium 137 - is legal to own without licensing as of the law.

[@bionerd23]

@Pdariean well, it'd quickly turn illegal to refine uranium, yes. the minerals fall under laws for "minerals for collection purposes", so you can basically stack buckets full of them at home (but should have a LOT of lead then, lol). once you start to actually PROCESS the ore, you have to follow the laws of radiological protection, which only allow certain small quantities (which are clearly defined in the law) to be handled without license. so if you'd process a bucket full, it'd be a crime.

[@bionerd23]

this one costs about 400 euros. if you want a simple geiger mueller counter, you can get it for e.g. 75 euros / $100 or so, though... look on ebay etc.!

[@bionerd23]

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.

[@bionerd23]

because it contains phosphorous... the stuff that makes glow-in-the-dark stickers glow, too.

[@bionerd23]

what? koenigsstein is somewhere in west-germany, not in sachsen, i think... this is erzgebirge e.g. near hartenstein.

[@bionerd23]

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. -_-

[@bionerd23]

it's a type of dosimeter that calculates the equivalent dose. we have a proper term, "dosisleistungsmessgeraet", for that... english seems to call two seperate things a "dosimeter". :P ...or did you just want to know the brand name? it's a GAMMA SCOUT.

[@bionerd23]

@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. :)

[@bionerd23]

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.

[@bionerd23]

it doesnt matter if bare hands or with gloves, as the radiation would penetrate these, too. :P besides that, the dose is way too low to do any noticeable damage. it's just important to wash your hands thoroughly before eating or anything.

[@sclhzrd06]

That is so cool. When you turned on that UV light it sent chills down my spine

[@bionerd23]

@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.

[@bionerd23]

wow, that's really high. it may be a diffuse source / radon if it's the same throughout all of your apartment, yeah - maybe it is a fixed source though (such as a large contaminated granite kitchen counter top - granite loves uranium, geologically speaking), so be sure to check that out first. if you cannot find a fixed source, i'd try finding a government office (only know german ones, not within the USA, sorry) where you can lend a radon-monitor or do a radon film dosimeter evaluation.

[@bionerd23]

@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.

[@bionerd23]

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). :-)

[@bionerd23]

@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.

[@bionerd23]

uh, i dont think thats practicable due to the low radioactivity, either. usually, plutonium pellets are used in such batteries.

[@ICANHASGREATMUSIC]

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.

[@bionerd23]

hey, but as a positive side note regarding cancer and all that, i do NOT smoke, and i also eat fairly healthy. ;)

[@ReubenLL28]

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.

[@bionerd23]

not in this state and not with this minor amount. but yeah, you can in theory refine and enrich the contained uranium and make a bomb (or just run a nuclear reactor), but as i said, not with this tiny amount.

[@bionerd23]

@Ricky32908 1. the dose rate is MUCH too low to induce radiation poisoning 2. no, as these rocks cannot be found in berlin in abundance, you'd need to go to middle-east or southern germany.

[@bionerd23]

dort werden schnellwachsense zellen (z.b. krebszellen) besonders stark zerstoert. aber: da er jeden tag (5x pro woche, 2 tage pause) nur 2 Gy / 2 Sv abbekommt, hat das restliche gewebe wie knochen, haut, etc. genug zeit, sich zu regenerieren, und stirbt NICHT ab. lediglich auf der schleimhaut (auch schnell teilende zellen) kommt es zu entzuendungen / schwellungen; auch die speicheldruesen und haarfollikel sind in mitleidenschaft gezogen, und die haut wird rot wie bei'm sonnenbrand.

[@sarowie]

Kraftwerk Radioactivity - the song in the end is matching in so many many ways.

[@bionerd23]

why? i am a mineral collector. what i could convert it into? into a sample of every element that is included in the mineral, even though they'd be very tiny samples. you'd need a certain amount of fissible material to run a nuclear reactor, even if small, and the amount of ore here is by far not enough to extract enough of that. running a nuclear reactor at home is a really damn stupid idea, anyway. :P ...but the ore, in minor quantities, is not really dangerous.

[@bionerd23]

well, being an alcoholic because of overwhelming boredom would be very unhealthy, too, dont you think? so i prefer doing science, even though a lot of people consider that "mad". it gives my brain something to do, it prevents me from being bored, and it pleases me. i NEED this stuff in my life. i have no interest in visiting cinemas or sitting around in a cafe or park.

[@bionerd23]

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).

[@bionerd23]

@MCDEVVOMAN in theory, there's no "safe" level. any level can cause mutations and cancer. but e.g. a CT scan (8 mSv acute dose) is said to increase your cancer risk by 0.15% - but it does not cause any direct symptoms of radiation sickness, it's only so-called "stochastic" damage. true radiation sickness starts from 200 mSv as an ACUTE dose.

[@byront37]

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.

[@bionerd23]

@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.

[@josephastier7421]

That was a spectacular reaction to the UV light. I would want to return at night with a UV flashlight.

[@bionerd23]

that's why i ordered my source disks from the USA. but, as it's not legal to sell plutonium in the USA, i cant get it from there... and i dont know a german company that would sell me an extremely small amount of plutonium.

[@bionerd23]

aw, that's a shame - must've sucked to see all the nice stuff and then not being able to take it back home... like holding a steak in front of a starving person (at least, it would've been like that for me). hope you can find another mine or stockpile - one where you can actually grab some stuff and take it home!

[@bionerd23]

@cassiavc yes you can, no problem at all. they luminescence occurs in colors that are visible to the human eye (green). :)

[@Onslaughts420]

you see the green stuff in here, omg SNIFFF OMG SNIFFF SOME MORE, OMG SO PRETTY

[@bionerd23]

ganz genau. das sind bei normalen strahlungsverhaeltnissen so 30 ionisationen pro minute, d.h. 43.000 ionisationen pro tag und 15 mio. ionisationen pro jahr.

[@bionerd23]

@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.

[@bionerd23]

@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.

[@bionerd23]

count? you mean cost? $450, at a german electronics store called CONRAD. its a GAMMA SCOUT.

[@bionerd23]

well, it gets pretty dangerous from 2 Sv as an acute dose (gamma radiation full body dose). in this video, you can see MIKROsieverts per hour... 1000 microsieverts is a milisievert, and 1000 milisievert again are a sievert (Sv).

[@bionerd23]

depends on the country. i only know that in my country as well as the USA, it's definitely legal... dunno about other places in the world. a large amount of it just on your desk etc. would probably be unhealthy, but it also depends on the amount. uranium is in drinking water, too, and that's natural - but it's a tiny amount that doesnt harm anybody. if you drink uranyl nitrate on the other hand, you die from uranium poisoning. its important to know the amount.

[@bionerd23]

pierre curie was killed by a horse-powered transportation vehicle - and marie curie only died at the age of 66... and she handled INSANE amounts of radioactive material, TONS of uranium ore tailings - not just a bucket full, like me... so i should easily be able to become 80, if i'm not killed by a horse-powered vehicle by then!

[@bionerd23]

erhoeht das risiko auch, halt nur extrem gering bis nicht nachweisbar. wenn du nur eine zigarette im monat oder gar im jahr rauchst, erhoeht das auch dein risiko, an lungenkrebs zu erkranken - aber niemals so, wie wenn du 20 kippen am tag qualmen wuerdest.

[@bionerd23]

eh, depends how much you have, how pure it is, if it's uranium ore or purified metal, etc. - hard to say.

[@bionerd23]

yeah, depleted uranium frizzen on old guns, uranium glassware, uranium plates and cups, uranium tiles (the very old and ugly tiles from the 50ies and 60ies often contain uranium paint)... yeah, that'd be the most appliances for uranium in a household, i suppose.

[@bionerd23]

gloves would shield alpha radiation. then again, so does the dead outter layer of your skin... so wearing gloves does not any better "protection" from the radiation. it only makes it easier to keep your hands clean so you do not incorporate the radioactive material. if you do not wear gloves, you'd need to wash your hands very thoroughly. :)

[@bionerd23]

did you know what causes most DNS-DSBs in your body every day? free radicals, NOT ionizing radiation. and yet, your body can mostly manage to repair the damage, even of THOUSANDS of DNS DSBs occuring every day. of course, the more DNS DSBs there are, the more likely you are to get cancer, so eating very unhealthy does increase your risk, too.