jdurg

Yup. Sounds like a classic case of migraines to me. I work in an industry where I come across many cases of migraine headaches and the symptoms you described all sound like those of migraine sufferers. Definitely talk to your doctor about that as there are treatments that can help, but if you do have a really bad case of migraines it won't fully cure it.

Well, I wouldn't call it highly radioactive as uranium and thorium metal are, initially to me at least, not "highly radioactive". Some simple lead storage containers (Their lead pigs are AWESOME containers) stop the radiation. The half life for those metals is so long that you're not likely to get remotely injured from the stuff unless you sleep with it, attach it to your nards, or ingest it.

It could also be migraines that kick in when you are in the lab, for some reason. Migraine headaches can be HORRIFICALLY painful and debillitating.

Due to the short half-life, you'll never be able to isolate it. If you did try to, or if you made a lot of it, the activity level of the radionuclide would far exceed the allowable limits set forth by the NRC. As a result, you'd be prosecuted. So no, it is not illegal to make it. It's just illegal to make any substantial quantity of it.

Yes and no. "Fissile", as definied by the NRC, is: So in that sense Am-241 is not considered a fissile material by their definition. I've actually found a part in CFR 10 that answers some of my questions, some of which to my surprise. There are exemptions which allow an individual to own "fissile material"! 10 CFR 71.15 states: So I guess if you have less than 2 grams of the fissile material, it's legal to posses it. (Though if the activity of said material is above a certain amount then you would be in violation of other parts of CFR 10). In addition, because the Am-241 is AmO2, that makes it "non-fissile". So when one of those listed nuclides is present in the form of a compound and not the pure metal, it's not considered a fissile material. Agan, it doesn't mean that it can't go critical, but it basically can't go critical in an explosion as it is too diluted. Also, having a large amount would put you in violation of other parts of the CFR. Section 71.12 also states that the government can, upon a request from an interested person and determination that the individual will not pose any health, property, or security harm, grant them an exemption to own any fissile material they want. So if you were to submit an application asking if you could possess a fissile material, as long as they deem that you are not endangering anything or anyone, they'll let you own it. It's really pretty interesting reading through the CFR 10. The gist of it is that you can own radioactive material as long as it is not above a certain level of activity, and that you don't try to concentrate the material. (Though I think if you concentrate a radioactive material and it is still kept below the allowable activity level, you're okay. It's just that the allowed activity levels are pretty low so if you did concentrate something it would put your sample above that activity). There aren't any laws out there stating "You can't make an atom bomb". But there are so many other laws and regulations that you'd be severely breaking if you even tried. There's more punishment potential for the thousands of other laws and they're pretty easy to convict people on. Finally, many of these laws and regulations don't stop you from owning the material, but they do stop you from selling it or shipping it. Therefore, if you bought some plutonium or pure neptunium/americium, the person who sold it to you and shipped it to you would be in SERIOUS trouble!

Not really. Cl2 in water will form a mixture of hypochlorous acid and hydrochloric acid. Very far from "pure".

I know that the NRC indicates that small quantities of certain radioactive material are legal to possess, but I'm not sure what the exact amounts are. I'm pretty certain that ANY amount of a fissile material is illegal to own, but I haven't been able to find any specifics. I'm pretty sure that the processing of any ore, or any other chemical purification of nuclear material is illegal. (E.G. if you have your Uranyl Nitrate and try to make pure Uranium out of it, you'd be breaking the law).

Hmm. The coloring on that video seems to be a bit off. The flame looked more like a Sr color than the regular yellowish color you typically expect.

LMAO. Unexpected, funniest quote of the day.

The Am-241 in smoke detectors is in the form of AmO2 and not the pure element. In addition, each detector contains about 0.2 micrograms or LESS of the Americium oxide. Basically, there isn't enough of the Am in there for you to even see. (The tiny button inside is a metal substrate that the mixture of filler and AmO2 is adhered to).

Also, be smart and don't try and eat the NaCl that is made. From my own experience, it's a bit difficult to get the reaction going. Typically, you need to put a tiny drop of water in there to get everything running. So if you do that, you'll have a little bit of NaOH (Not a lot, but some) in there as well as various other compounds thanks to the oxide layer on top of the sodium. While we usually don't have to tell people not to eat the end result of their reactions, it never hurts to do it.

In reality, however, what you wind up with is a mixture of NaCl and KI when the "reaction" is done. As the water evaporates, whatever is closest to the Na+ ion will bond with it whether it's Cl- or I-. Granted, there is some small preferences due to ion size and other "stuff", but it's not like when AgNO3 and NaCl are mixed.

Okay. Just making sure. I've seen lots of people attempt this and then not understand why they didn't get anything out of it. But to answer your question, yes, it is a solution of iodide and iodine in water. The I- helps the I2 dissolve forming the I3- ion.

To be safest, I wouldn't just say "an atom" because NH4+ is an ion and NH4 is not an atom. A better definition is any "species" (Where "species" is either an atom, or a molecule) in which the number of electrons do not equal the number of protons in that species, resulting in a charge of some type existing. Therefore, NaCl is not an ion because the number of electrons is equal to the number of protons. Na+ and Cl- are both ions since the electrons =/= the protons. A lone ion is inherently unstable. Any charged partcle is inherently unstable and will do what it can to balance out that charge. Hence why Na+ and Cl- "bind" together to form NaCl. When in water, the ions are able to separate from each other due to the properties of water, but overall the charge is still balanced.

I work in the pharmaceutical industry and animal testing is simply a necessary evil to ensure that newly found drugs won't kill those they intend to treat. Still, before a chemical even gets remotely close to an animal, it goes through extensive (and I mean EXTENSIVE) modeling in a computer system more powerful than any of us here could even imagine. This testing will see any compound that is potentially harmful and/or deadly and stop the progress right there. Only after the computers state that the compound is "safe" does it go on to the animals.

If by "large quantities" you mean a few metric tons worth of scrap computer parts, then yeah, it's feasible. The amount of old electronics that are required to account for the loss of gold in the recovery process is stunning. There is so very little gold in computer parts, especially now a days, that just having a few hundred used PCs around will net you MAYBE a gram of gold if you're lucky. It's just too finely dispersed to reclaim without a significant portion of the small batch being lost.

Heh. Even if you sealed the room off, unless you found a way to stop breathing you'd just be producing more and more CO2 and thus make the concentration higher.

Either that, or the gold exposed to the air attracted something to it that "stuck" onto the gold and the lye attacked whatever got physically, not chemically, attached to the gold

DID THEY DO IT IN A CONTAINER WHICH HOLDS ON TO THE VAPOR ABOVE THE SURFACE OF THE LIQUID IODINE?!!!!!!!!! Good Christ, that is what I am trying to explain. Yes, Liquid I2 does exist. I've seen it, I've made it. I just have NEVER seen a substantial quantity of it liquify unless it was in a test tube or container with the lid on. I think there is a communication failure going on here.

But even if heated it will sublime and not melt as the vapor moves away far too quickly. Again, if I were to see a video of a puddle of liquid I2 I will quickly change my views, but I have yet to see that happen.

Please prove my error. I said that in an open container (and by open I mean a flat surface, a cereal bowl, anything that doesn't have exposure to the atmosphere of a mere 1 cm) I2 will sublime. It will. You will NEVER have liquid iodine unless it is in a confined space where the high vapor pressure of gaseous I2 will allow it to liquify before it turns into a gas. Again, by confined space I mean a space where the gaseous I2 is forced to remain in place. If we go by your nitpicking, then there is NOTHING that sublimes. NOTHING. And sublimation is hence an incorrect term. I'm sorry if you thought my truthful, factual statement about you being a pompous ass was an ad hom attack.

None of those would be suitable. Br2 would escape out of both of them pretty quickly as they don't provide a tight enough seal for long term storage. If you look at most containers for liquid chemicals, they have screw tops to them to provide a tight seal. If you were forced to pick a container, the first link would work better but you would still lose your bromine pretty quickly. If the rest of the thread hasn't explained it enough yet, bromine is not able to be kept fully contained in a container for lengthy periods of time. It just vaporizes too readily and attacks too many things. If you've ever been in a chemistry supply closet, you'll noticed that the area the Br2 (and less so I2) is stored is typically pretty corroded and "rusty". For a chem lab, it's not too big of a deal since they can always order, or make, more bromine quite easily. For a home chemist, it's not so easy and the time and effort spent making the bromine is pretty extensive. For storage of bromine that you will use in reactions (E.G. not a sample that you want to keep for display), you need an amber glass bottle with a Teflon screw cap. You then need to put the Br2 bottle into a large tin can filled with diatomaceous earth and/or a sodium thiosulfate powder (to soak up a spill if something went wrong). The top of the can should be like that of a paint can where you hammer it shut, then use a screwdriver to pry it open. Store this is a cool area away from things that you don't want getting corroded. The corrosion will be minimized by this storage, but over a period of a few years it will still eat its way out. I actually bought a bottle of bromine a few years ago (probably 50 mL or so) and while the Br2 shipped just fine, within a week it had completely dissolved the Teflon "lined" cap and corroded everything in the area. I was fortunate to have an amber glass bottle left over and quickly transferred it with minimal damage/loss to my stuff and my flesh.

How about you get off your high horse and contribute something positive to this forum. I'd like to see some posts from you where you're not giving a holier-than-thou attitude and actually contribute something to this forum. You seem to get high off of nit-picking every single thing that someone posts here. The point of a public forum is to help people, not sit there and make people not want to come back. Seriously. Have you EVER posted something that was helpful and at the same time cordial? I think not.

I've seen it in a test tube many times. I've never seen it on a wide open surface before like I've seen ice and every other solid that melts. (E.G. on the bottom of a carboard box, or a wooden plank). Again, show me a video of it melting without being confined. Put it in a test tube and the vapor will sit on top and create a higher pressure at the surface of the I2 making the liquification much easier because there is a greater localized pressure.

Take some ice and put it on a piece of paper and heat it up. You'll see the ice melt into a liquid. Take some iodine and put it on a piece of paper and heat it up. You will NOT see liquid iodine form. It will go right from a solid to a gas. If you heat up I2,the standard vapor pressure of I2 over the solid will cause a liquid to form. If you put the I2 into a wide open area, that "standard pressure" never exists and the iodine never melts. If you can show me a video of I2 out in an open container melting, then I'll admit I'm wrong. I'll just be stunned if you can give me that proof.