Plutonium Metal Preparation

[@watkj7]

I love yt recommendations

[@christopherleubner6633]

Fun fact about plutonium, chemically it acts like cerium, the stuff that makes ferrocerium cigarette lighter flint spark good. In fact you could make a ferroplutonium alloy and it would be a bit heavier, and spark a bit better, would also turn the smoke into a literal cancer stick.😲🤓

[@gammadelray1225]

It’s got a lot more colors and oxidation states though I believe.

[@patmcbride9853]

Another fun fact is that tobacco emits low levels of radiation. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30060241/

[@cornellkirk8946]

Where is the ‘fun fact’ part? How incredibly arrogant of you to start your post with those words 🤦‍♂️

[@suprememasteroftheuniverse]

Literally no fun neither facts. Welcome to yt where 13 years old lectures on nuclear chemistry.

[@scottprather5645]

Thank you so much I'll have to try that next time I get a hold of some plutonium.

[@BonesyTucson]

This is incredible footage. I have always wondered about the exact minutae of how plutonium was made.. and this has answered most of it. Thank you!

[@huh4233]

Great video. I live near the Former Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant. That process was brought here from LASL.

[@johntrottier1162]

Some time after this video was made, the entire process was moved to Hanford and reassembled at the Plutonium Finishing Plant. The Finishing Plant was the last part of the Hanford Plutonium Production Facility to be shut down. It was also one of the most contaminated areas and took years to disassemble and decontaminate. With the exception of B reactor, all the reactor fuel preparation buildings, reactor areas, plutonium separation facilities and the finishing plant have all been torn down or sealed. The completion of the Waste Processing Facility and the removal of all materials in the underground tanks is the last step in cleaning up after thew Manhattan Project.

[@Bloated_Tony_Danza]

The need to do this remotely and at a distance really shows in the complexity of the machinery. All these chambers and viewing windows, how unusual! These engineers were absolutely genius in their designs. Also, I’ve read about two separate nuclear accidents involving a plutonium nitrate solution that went critical upon stirring in one of those precipitation vessels. (4:17) Apparently that “tornado-like shape” that forms when a liquid is being stirred vigorously is pretty efficient at lowering the critical mass of the plutonium solution. In both of the accidents, a blue flash of light was seen. One guy named Cecil Kelly started shouting “I’m burning up, I’m burning up!” And the energy released from the blue flash was enough to kill him...this stuff is the closest thing we have to magic!

[@wolu9456]

there is no telling how many f'ups they had designing that thing. FYI thanks for the "Cecil Kelly" mention; learn something new every day

[@MadScientist267]

It's like anything with an edge... Gotta screw with it and have it go wrong a few times before a plan that "just works" comes of it all 🤷‍♂️

[@channelview8854]

Ok, I learned some stuff I want to share after first watching this video. When stirring a suspension with fissile material settled at the bottom, it's not the vortex causing criticality. Water or oil acts as a moderator, slowing prompt neutrons. A small amount of powdered plutonium at the bottom of a beaker of water may be perfectly stable. But if it is stirred, the fissile material is evenly distributed within the water or oil moderator, making the moderator far more effective. The effectiveness of the moderator makes the mass needed for criticality much lower. So one doesn't need the vortex, just the act of stirring and distributing the plutonium can result in criticality.

[@Skunkhunt_42]

​@MadScientist267 my golden rule of R&D is "gotta fuk it up 2 or 3 diff ways first, then we can start finding out

[@movax20h]

Really cool. I saw videos about this facility, but never the metallurgy operations. Cool.

[@mikefromwa]

I worked at Hanford Westinghouse in the '80s and '90s, and I saw bits and pieces of similar processes going on. I was mostly in the 200 and 300 areas, but went to other portions of the Hanford site as well.

[@apl175]

I keep expecting to see Feynman to be running around in the background....

[@leonmumford179]

I feel like a refreshing glass of nuka cola

[@astebbin]

For a second I thought this was Colin Furze’s DIY channel, and that he’d really stepped up his game!

[@slovokia]

I wonder how that machinery was serviced? Suppose a motor burned out - how would someone replace it without getting contaminated?

[@Dawntana]

They cant. So they convince an unknowing worker to service the machine. Then kill them and act like nothing happened

[@kasel1979krettnach]

most likely transferring the failed part to a plastic bag in a "clean" area of the glove boxes and then to waste or cleaning

[@rtqii]

Believe it or not, plutonium is not very radioactive, and a rubber suit and filter mask is all the PPE you need really. The reason they have everything sealed up is because they are working with powders which are dusty, and some parts of this process must be performed under nitrogen gas, not exposed to oxygen, because it will react with the material. All of the equipment operated with a vacuum pump pulling nitrogen gas through, and the dust and particles were removed with HEPA filters. You could remove all the material from the product stream, open a cabinet with the vacuum pump running, and go in with a rubber suit and a filter mask. The danger is ingesting a particle or getting one stuck to your skin. The alpha radiation is completely blocked with a rubber suit.

[@sanalkmohanan]

Amazing video

[@steinrich56]

I agree......I guess it is all more sophisticated these days, but to see how it was originally done is amazing. Thanks for posting -- a real snapshot in to nuclear history.

[@tsbrownie]

Just the words "plutonium tetrafloride" are frightening in all that they imply.

[@JosephLust]

Seems they glaze over what happens to all the plutonium contaminated waste streams coming out of this (the Ca / F powder, the hydrogenperoxide fluid, the mg allow crucible, the gasket and lid). That's the stuff they just chucked in an open pit in the 1950s.

[@allangibson8494]

Calcium Fluoride is actually rather inert. It is used for making high refractive index optical glass. Hydrogen Fluoride is seriously nasty however - it is usually scrubbed by adding limestone. Anyone who has caught a whiff of it will recognise the smell caused by the corrosion of their nose lining.

[@scottprather5645]

Probably mixed it in breakfast cereal

[@crabcrab2024]

You forgot the iodine and HF (or rather misplaced them with F for some reason).

[@ИмяФамилия-е7р6и]

+15 rubles

[@mr.duckplucker5353]

They should've just dumped it in the ocean. The solution to pollution is dilution. 😂 (just kidding)

[@emtee40]

The videos of hand lathe turning of uranium out there are nuts

[@whatisnuclear]

This is awesome, thanks! Just found this in a 1966 catalog and was happy to find it already digitized. Did you get it scanned from the National Archives?

[@A3Kr0n]

That looks like a fun project. Where can you get that plutonium nitrate solution?

[@r.b.ratieta6111]

I ask every time I go to Home Depot. And every time they tell me they're fresh out, and that I barely missed it once again.

[@rtqii]

The started with natural metal uranium in reactor B at Hanford, moderated with nuclear grade graphite. The giant pile they built there had a push through system for uranium fuel rods/slugs. They loaded the reactor with uranium fuel, and after a few weeks to a few months depending on where the fuel was located in the reactor it was removed. The neutron exposed fuel was pushed out the back of the reactor, dropping into a cooling pond, and a few weeks later they fished out the fuel slugs, chopped them into pieces, and dissolved them in boiling nitric acid. There is a classified organic process, actually a couple of them at least, that selectively pulls out uranium and plutonium from the acid solution, leaving all the radioactive nuclide fission products.

[@whiteknightcat]

THIS is why I always wanted an erector set for Christmas.

[@MrJoloh]

And … voila’, now you can have your home made plutonium ready. 😂

[@dalegribble1945]

Awww, cute as a button!😂🎉 ❤USA❤

[@Perchpole]

How many tons of "ore" did they start with to make that one button of Plutonium metal?!

[@wyliesdiesels4169]

ore? plutonium is not mined out of the earth... it is not a naturally occurring element

[@Perchpole]

@@wyliesdiesels4169 I thought plutonium was created from uranium. Ergo you will need uranium ore to make it? Almost all plutonium is effectively man-made.

[@canonicaltom]

It takes about a ton of good quality uranium ore to produce one kilogram of uranium metal. And it takes 1000 kilograms of uranium to produce 1 kilogram of plutonium. Assuming that button is a kilogram, it took 1000 tons of ore.

[@romanchomenko2912]

The longer the uranium is cooking the more plutonium is made U235 has 0.71 percent in uranium but when cooked for 24 months plutonium is produced at 0.8 percent per quantity of uranium. Fast breeder reactors were promising but using Nak as coolant had a habit of catching fire and also diffusing into the pressure vessel making it brittle. Using CO2 gas would be safer but all fast breeder reactors programs closed down due the above .

[@diegorhoenisch62]

US research on breeder programs were discontinued primarily due to proliferation issues. While the technology is not particularly safe, the main issue is political, not scientific.@@romanchomenko2912

[@fazergazer]

The calcic converter feedstock are old teeth, but beware the Helvitica Syndrome if too much is allowed to accumulate ❤

[@Juni_Dingo]

I've witnessed a large-scale Helvetica Scenario unfold at a calcium refinery and it still haunts me... And some people still dismiss the safety concerns because it doesn't happen often. I too used to prank people using calcic image misplacement when I was younger but is the risk really worth it...?

[@tigertiger1699]

🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@pepe6666]

can you imagine a world without zinc

[@joe6167]

How would we even kill ourselves???

[@lylelay]

Plutonium tetrafluoride that doesn't sound at all dangerous

[@scottprather5645]

Where's the disclaimer that says don't try this at home?

[@MyProjectsTV]

I would do some small scale plutonium chemistry😂 But since it's only made in nuclear reactors you have to ask the government, surely they will give it to you with no hesitation🙃

[@scottprather5645]

@@MyProjectsTV yeah you should definitely try that yeah get some plutonium and make something out of it

[@dddddd7315]

Checking the reduction procedure with counting neutrons caused by alpha particles interacting with flurorine atoms is genius.

[@crabcrab2024]

Yeah, loved that part too!

[@movax20h]

I still do not quite understand why the alpha particles readings would be changing during this reaction. Is this because PtH6 forms some bigger particles, and compared to more loose powder, it causes shielding? I do not get it.

[@dddddd7315]

@@movax20h Bro, in the PuF4, produced alpha particles can hit fluorine nuclei nearby, when calcium metal reduces PuF4 into metallic Pu, fluoride ions are transported away from plutonium, and thus produced alpha particles do not get to strike fluorine nuclei, thus neutron flux decrease.

[@movax20h]

@@dddddd7315 Ah. Now I understand. Thank you!

[@slovokia]

I wonder how many plutonium buttons are used to fabricate a warhead pit?

[@christopherleubner6633]

Each button is 100 to 120 grams, a wrapon core is about 4.5kg, so about 45 buttons worth. 🤓

[@slovokia]

I found some pictures of some buttons next to a ruler - it looked like they were approximately 1.5 inches in diameter and I guessed 1/4 inch in thickness. Using 19.84 grams per cm^3 as the density of plutonium and assuming a perfect cylinder as the shape I get ~ 143.6 grams so your numbers sound right to me.

[@garywatson]

Probably a bad idea to stack too many of them in one photo. @@slovokia

[@ZA-mb5di]

The cia put this in my feed

[@wilson4328]

You should post all videos you have on the spy called Win Ho Lee.

[@whiteknightcat]

You mean the guy who ended up being acquitted of all charges except mishandling of classified data, and was then able to sue multiple organizations for $1.6 million for leaking his name out before any charges had even been filed? THAT Wen Ho Lee?

[@ShainAndrews]

@@whiteknightcat Shhh.... You're ruining their narrative.

[@Tim-Kaa]

Plutonium chemistry is pretty cool. Not sure why this video was declassified, I bet axis countries learned a lot from it, shame.

[@lptf5441]

Because the information contained in this video has been well known by everyone for decades. Nothing they can learn here that they didn't already know.

[@mickobrien3156]

Imagine how many chemists and tinkerers were burned or poisoned or killed... just to figure out this production method that now seems fairly standardized and well trusted. It amazes me to think of all the trailblazer types when it comes to highly dangerous chemistry shit.

[@lajoswinkler]

None. Because it was not "tinkering". This is plutonium, not silly putty.

[@robozstarrr8930]

@@lajoswinkler perhaps not so much in the US but the graveyard around Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Codenamed City 40, has quite a number of gravestones of young workers with RIP dated mid/late 1940s timeframe. Ozersk was the birthplace of the Soviet nuclear weapons program after the Second World War. ( hey! is the Pu ready Comrade? IDK, let me ta s t e...🤢🤮😵 )

[@bretwebber7484]

Wazzup😊!

[@ad_2211]

The critical mass used in the fat man bomb was the size of a small soccer ball around 4.5-5kg but the actual amount of Plutonium that fissioned to flatten Nagasaki was just 1g so a tiny tiny fraction of that button😮🤯

[@NorbertKasko]

In the Fat man there was 6.2 kg Plutonium. Still subcritical without the Implosion technique. The uncompressed critical mass of Pu-239 would be around 10 kilograms.

[@rtqii]

As best I can figure, and you can check my numbers. The Fat Man used a critical mass of 6.19 kilogram, of which about 1 kilogram was consumed by fission producing a 21 kiloton yield. That would be about 16% of the fuel burned.

[@arcanondrum6543]

From the time Uranium is mined until it is useable (and whether or not you convert some to Plutonium), the energy used AND Cost is a net-net loss for the American Taxpayer.

[@charadremur333]

Bombs of megaton capacity are literally millions of tons of tnt. The bombs are so powerfull, there is no other way for them to be created as powerful. They are expensive af, but the cost is the only way to have thise size of bombs.

[@arcanondrum6543]

@@charadremur333 Well, you didn't say where you live but if you believe what is published, only 2 nukes were detonated in anger (and they in the kiloton ranges) so I point out AGAIN : The cost to Taxpayers is too much and no one can explain why Russian Communism "deserved" a Cold War while Chinese Communism got good jobs and technology from the US, UK, etc.

[@mirskym]

I think a similar process is used for uranium.

[@wolu9456]

how do they do projectile?

[@kasel1979krettnach]

i think not - quite different chemistry

[@wyliesdiesels4169]

not even close. uranium goes thru a different process entirely

[@NorbertKasko]

No. Uranium is made into UF6 (Uranium Hexafluoride) and as a gas they put that into a centrifuge the centrifuge rotating very fast so the UF6 with the higher U-235 content will appear near the edge of the centrifuge. After collecting the UF6 gas with the higher U-235 content they repeat this process multiple times to get even higher amounts of U-235. After that they separate the Uranium from the Flouride and it gets back to a solid state. Now you have your enriched uranium. The process is slightly different and more complicated if you want to make fuel rods for reactors, also they don't enrich it as much as for a bomb.

[@ИмяФамилия-е7р6и]

Why are there no such videos from communists?

[@JohnBicknell]

They used this one, with subtitles.

[@ivanpopovic9503]

Comrade, in Soviet Russia, we did it with bare hands. And only KGB had cameras, so no video for you dirty capitalist spy. Американский шпион. 😂

[@TherealMandingo]

There was a interview I watched where the guy was talking about how they cast the plutonium sphere and when they were pouring it they could see a light blue glow and they thought it was going to go critical but they finished the pour and everything was fine

[@wyliesdiesels4169]

Cherenkov radiation

[@chauvinemmons]

The chemistry that these people are explaining is some frightening frightening stuff iodine is not nice

[@WR3ND]

Mouthwash.