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[–] Jashwua ago 

This is cool

[–] [deleted] 1 point 0 points (+1|-1) ago 

[Deleted]

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[–] KyJoCaThe2nd ago 

When you twist the dragon's tail, sometimes you get fire. Honestly, we need to fully divest from the uranium fuel cycle, but too many people are far too interesting in fully killing nuclear power generation for a real attempt at more advanced reactors to be had.

[–] [deleted] 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

[Deleted]

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[–] Nwabudike_Morgan ago 

I was confused for a moment, I thought I was going to see a submarine.

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[–] 01011011101101 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Coolest thing i've seen in 2015 so far.

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[–] bakcha 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

I had no idea anything like a cloud chamber existed.

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[–] aakaakaak 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Note, this is the non-enriched uranium. I don't want to know what U-235 looks like in one of these contraptions.

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[–] KyJoCaThe2nd 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago  (edited ago)

Enrichment refers to the percentage of U-235, the thermal fuel that most reactors (as well as warheads) use. Uranium is radioactive, but as long as it's not irradiated, or exposed to a neutron flux, it's perfectly safe to handle without taking any radiation concerns.

Both U-235 (the isotope that is found naturally as 0.72% of all Uranium) and U-238 (the isotope that is naturally 99.284% of all Uranium) decay by emitting alpha particles, which are really just really energetic Helium nuclei. Alpha emitters are not dangerous when present outside the body. In fact, this website lists several examples of containers that would safely transport the sample in this video. ;)

The real difference between U-235 and U-238 is how easy it is to make it fission. U-235 really loves to fission when it absorbs a neutron, releasing a lot of energy and creating a long chain of radioactive decays (both in number of elements involved and the length of time required to reach stability). U-238 really loves to just eat the neutron and become U-239, which will ultimately become Plutonium, again an alpha emitter, but one that loves to fission.

Both reactors and warheads work on similar principles. You need a certain amount of fuel, in a certain arrangement, in the presence of a certain amount of neutrons to make it hot (and then it becomes incredibly dangerous to be around for quite a while).

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[–] 01011011101101 ago 

Just by description, what would U-235 look like in a cloud chamber?

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[–] Womb_Raider 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

This is so cool.

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[–] scorinth 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago 

Pew pew pew!

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