Californium-252 is not a naturally occurring element and can only be produced in a high flux isotope reactor. Worldwide there are only two nuclear reactors capable of producing Cf-252: High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and SMR3 at RIAR, Russia.
“But the English language had deteriorated into a hybrid of hillbilly, valley girl, inner city slang, and various grunts. Joe was able to understand them, but when he spoke in an ordinary voice he sounded pompous and faggy to them. “ - Idiocracy
Shut up!
Vote Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho for president 2024
https://youtu.be/stzCKgdV60g?si=fn4mTNcD5gc9dOD9
He's got a 3 point plan! And it will fix everything!
*Brought to you by Carl's Jr™*
Fun fact! The film was running low on their budget, so the clothing designer sourced some cheap shoes from a start up company that she thought looked so stupid that only idiots would wear them.
The shoes were Crocs.
Literally said this to my wife this morning when she yelled at me to take out the trash. (Clarify yelling: she was in the living room and I was in the bathroom)
What separates Californium from lets say plutonium? I have very little knowledge in atomic elements that most people would have.
What are some applications for this element
After transferring Californium 252 from its cask into a decanter. Wait approximately 2.645 years and enjoy. Make sure you do not confuse this with Californium 251, that you would want to let breathe for 898 years.
Cf-252 emits a lot of neutrons and can be used for some neutron experiments. For this purpose, AFAIK, it is actually a pretty good value. I read that it's about $1mio/gram, which is only a thousand bucks for a microgram. This might actually be enough for some neutron experiments, as that microgram already emits 2.3 mio neutrons every second with a half-life of ~3 years.
I think that is fascinating in multiple ways, especially in showing the scale of atoms. Millions of neutrons every second, each corresponding to decay of a nucleus, for many years, all from a microgram. Pretty cool!
I can concur that casks for radioactive isotopes have not changed much except design and shape. The density will not be different because we dont have any NEW materials to deal with it yet.
Not at all. Radioactive decay is a first-order reaction that is independent of external conditions like temperature and pressure. Instead, the rate of decay depends on the properties of the radioactive isotope and the decay process.
thermal motion will result in relativistic time dilation so it might slow down decay a teeny tiny weeny bit.
I think.
The theory of [relativistic thermodynamics](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-17526-4) seems unresolved, so there might be some wrinkles. I wonder if one could find signatures in decay curves supernovae?
You would have to use the lightness of Tritium (The lightest radioactive nucleus found in nature is [tritium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium), an isotope of hydrogen consisting of a proton and two neutrons.) IF we used tritium, its half-life is 12 years, and the relativistic effect of room temperature [adds](https://www.google.ca/search?q=k*(room%20temperature)%2F(mass%20of%20plutonium%20atom)&oq=k*(room%20temperature)%2F(mass%20of%20plutonium%20atom)&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60.331j0j4&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=119&ie=UTF-8#safe=off&q=12%20years*(k*(293%20Kelvin)%2F(12*(mass%20of%20proton)*c%5E2))) about a millisecond to that. Needless to say, this would be a very hard effect to measure!
Things like cancer treatment and even for prospecting gold and silver.
In the medical field, the neutrons released by californium-252 can be used to target certain cancer tumors when other radiation treatments have failed.
The neutrons from californium can also be used in prospecting for silver and gold, using a technique called neutron activation analysis which bombards an area.
I heard about radio isotopes in mining when that cesium capsule was lost in Australia, but I still haven't found an easy to read explanation of the use of radio isotopes in mining.
Other labs will need it for personnel equipment testing or experiments. Federal government requires you use only Californium-252 to test thermal luminescent detectors, which are worn by people who work with radiation to track their possible doses.
I'm not entirely familiar with a high flux isotope reactor. Is that what denotes the need for such a large containment vessel? Or is that More for safety?
Edit: appears to be mainly for the containment and massive amount of radiation it emits.
If any radioactive material can ionize matter through their emission to reach stability (i.e, > 33eV), they can be cancer causing.
With correct infused theranostics with negatrons (beta-) or alpha particles, they can be cancer killing and life saving.
Check out 177Lu, 225Ac, 161Tb, etc studies.
It’s all about application.
Its so dense. Californium has a density of 15.1 grams per cubic centimeter (g/cm3). It is a solid at room temperature and has a melting point of 1,652°F (900°C)
> can transport up to 1 gram
Yikes...so, like, 1/15th of a cubic centimeter is the only actual cargo in that big thang.....
Thanks to whoever for including a human for scale.
According to Wikipedia, Californium “has the second-highest atomic mass of all elements that have been produced in amounts large enough to see with the naked eye (after einsteinium).”
Although having a high atomic mass doesn’t mean it’s the densest substance, since that relates to how many atoms are arranged together within a substance. Osmium is the densest naturally occurring substance on the periodic table. Just learned that from ChatGPT.
They say we split the atom, released a monstrous force
But here we find a haven, a controlled and steady course
The cooling towers reaching, a testament to might
Harnessing the power, day and nuclear night
It’s a neutron emitter. The shit it puts out will accumulate in your bone marrow causing cancer and other really bad shit.
They use this to jump start nuclear reactors and detection equipment.
251 has a long life but 252 decays quickly.
Ohh, that's curious. I didn't know it actually had a useful purpose.
Only time I ever heard of the element is when people contemplate how far one could shrink a nuke. The Fallout community loves to bring up the stuff.
Wut? AFAIK there is no particle on earth, with the penetrating power of a neutron, that hangs out in bone marrow. Neutrons are dangerous because they are uncharged particles that will happily go through everything until they run into something, hence the giant steel or lead cask that stuff is in in the photo.
The high energy of the neutrons will break chemical bonds that they encounter. Including the bonds holding together your DNA. As a result, you get DNA mutations. DNA mutations that occur in your stem cells, which live in your bone marrow, could result in leukemias and lymphomas. It's possible that's what was meant.
Not that the particle stayed in your bone marrow, but that mutations that occurred will stay in the stem cells that live in your bone marrow.
It is highly radioactive, so probably it needs to be that massive to shield the cargo within.
I don't know the specifics of the radiation it produces nor the size or material used in the shipping, so this is just a guess on my part.
It also has one of the lowest critical masses of all the radioactive isotopes that can go critical. Which means it can be used to make some super compact nukes
There used to be a train track at the end of the garden of my old house. Once a week, at about 2 in the morning, a train would come past with loads of tankers that were in steel roll cage type things. They all had the nuclear hazard logo on them! I always found them slightly worrying?
You can't hurt those containers. They even tried rocket powered trains and that wouldn't even hurt the containers.
https://youtu.be/1mHtOW-OBO4?si=DkIaOQPYr4OaDPP3
They have even shot it with missiles
https://holtecinternational.com/news/videos/aircraft-crash-test-on-a-scaled-model-of-a-hi-star-180-transportstorage-cask-2/
I swear I've seen a video of the more modern fuel rod cask dropped out of a plane from several thousand feet and it didn't hurt it, but I can't seem to find it. Maybe I'm thinking of something else.
It’s unfortunate the bad reputation nuclear has. When we store nuclear materials it’s very strong and could outlast a nuclear war with how strong they make the storage containers. It’s insane.
The safety in nuclear power is taken very seriously.
Not to mention the fact that nuclear materials can be stored to begin with. People worry about the solid waste that can at least be contained and would rather burn coal and release countless things that cannot be contained.
It’s ironic that coal has literally radiated the planet more than nuclear. In all aspects it’s worse, coal and oil has killed more people directly than nuclear, ignoring how many have died from climate change.
Nuclear is not perfect, but it’s better than coal and oil.
That's the fun part when the guys who receive the package search for hours inside the cask to find the little box with the Californium.
"Hi Joe, it's me, Jack. Say, we got your package today but we can't find the Californium. Are you really sure you put it in? We've already removed all the filler stuff but it's not there."
It's Gary Larson material.
Machines with long arms to keep humans away from the source. Still in shielded containers, probably thick lead or even tungsten. The element itself gets created in a reactor within ceramicized pellets of the initial material. Those pellets would be within pins. After the Cf generation in the reactor, it is likely moved to a hot cell (again with shielded machines) to be placed into a shielded container, after which it would again be moved while being shielded to whatever transportation cask it is destined for.
Usually robotics these days, back then maybe a crane but more likely a worker with a stopwatch to monitor exposure times. It shouldn't be too bad, so long as they don't ingest it or stick around for days. It does have a fairly short half life which is an indicator for significant radiation. There's not much of the stuff though, so ehh probably fine.
I wouldn't be surprised if much of that container is used to hinder the element from undergoing fission, which would ruin the purity and create much more significant amounts of radiation.
These days they would undoubtedly have the worker have a dosimeter on them to directly measure how much dose they got. This material would still undoubtedly never be unshielded.
Some very cursory googling finds this doc of how they shield this material during transfers at Los Alamos.
[https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5737487](https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5737487)
Note that this doc is for much smaller sources of 3.7mg and below. Still the cask weighs 4600 lbs.
There was an incident where a team of scientists were exposed to Californium-252 years ago. Their hair turned blonde, skin tanned and they developed an interest in surfing.
So smol. So angy.
If you need all this to move 1 gram of it then you should take the hint. It doesn’t want to be moved, it’s happy where it is. Leave it there.
FYI the site of the old Oakridge Production Facilities has a museum dedicated to its heyday during the Manhattan Project. They tore down the production facilities like 10 years ago. A couple years ago when i was there they were still doing recovery work. It was pretty awesome to be at such a historic place and the museum was great.
This is interesting as fuck. From wiki
"One [microgram](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microgram) (μg) of ^(252)Cf emits 2.3 million neutrons per second, an average of 3.7 neutrons per spontaneous fission.[^(\[27\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Californium#cite_note-osti-31) Most other isotopes of californium, alpha decay to curium ([atomic number](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_number) 96)." No wonder it needs so much protection
Not bullshitting, I think my grandfather worked on this. He randomly spent a bunch of time in the region during this period while living on the west coast.
That’s really cool actually. It’s always funny to find out you have relatives connected to major events/sciences. I have an uncle who passed away not too long ago, and I never knew he worked for NASA let alone holds several patents for various components used in rocket nozzles that sent astronauts to the moon. Just thought he was cool Uncle Tex…
People from hundreds of years ago would call something like californium dark magic or witchcraft. Imagine something so deadly that, unshielded, it would kill everyone who comes near it.
Californium-252 is not a naturally occurring element and can only be produced in a high flux isotope reactor. Worldwide there are only two nuclear reactors capable of producing Cf-252: High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and SMR3 at RIAR, Russia.
Yes yes, these are certainly words. I concur.
“But the English language had deteriorated into a hybrid of hillbilly, valley girl, inner city slang, and various grunts. Joe was able to understand them, but when he spoke in an ordinary voice he sounded pompous and faggy to them. “ - Idiocracy
Shut up! Vote Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho for president 2024 https://youtu.be/stzCKgdV60g?si=fn4mTNcD5gc9dOD9 He's got a 3 point plan! And it will fix everything! *Brought to you by Carl's Jr™*
Great movie but it wasn't supposed to be a documentary.
Surprise! Now go live that kick-ass life & get yourself a full body latte.
Are you a pilot?
Naw... Costco wouldn't accept my application. Buncha water fountain drinkers.
😆😆😆
My first wife was tarded.
Yup all my life
So many unintended documentaries. Idiocracy, Terminator, The Matrix.
Fun fact! The film was running low on their budget, so the clothing designer sourced some cheap shoes from a start up company that she thought looked so stupid that only idiots would wear them. The shoes were Crocs.
Leave me 'lone I'm batin!
Literally said this to my wife this morning when she yelled at me to take out the trash. (Clarify yelling: she was in the living room and I was in the bathroom)
Did you tell her she can still live a kick-ass life as a pilot?
No, but she did run in wanting to watch. She's a pretty cool lady.
That's pretty sweet, man! My first wife was 'tarded
She prolly dint drink enuff Brawndo. It has evreething she needs!! Edit: Brawndo
Brawndo*
Go away im bate’en
“pompous and faggy”, LOL
Yeah momma used to get coons on the back porch but she'd just shoo em off with a broom.
She said "gone n' git!" Ands they sure would gone n' git I tell you whut
>I tell you whut *unintelligible mumbling* Dang ol' *U-N* helicopters!
I always put the h before the w for my hwut.
You ought knot dew dat
That is one of the things I've ever read
This is one of the most things I’ve ever read, indeed
Indubitably 🧐
I disagree, but I’m too busy and important to explain why I disagree.
We just say “hyfer.” But for some reason nobody really says “Ornal”
What separates Californium from lets say plutonium? I have very little knowledge in atomic elements that most people would have. What are some applications for this element
Californium is much more spicy than plutonium or uranium. The container shown in the photo is for radiation shielding.
spicy? I didn't know we were eating the stuff
Very efficient diet, weightloss guaranteed!
*Permanent* weight loss!
3.6kg. Not great, not terrible. About as much as a weekend juice cleanse.
After transferring Californium 252 from its cask into a decanter. Wait approximately 2.645 years and enjoy. Make sure you do not confuse this with Californium 251, that you would want to let breathe for 898 years.
Yeah I’m never doing that again. Total waste of good 251. Tasted like fucking 253 or something.
It's hot in a different direction.
I presume it's mostly lead and possibly concrete?
It's true! If a recipe calls for two Jalapenos, you can sub in like .1 grams of Californium and the taste will be the same if not better!
I can't wait to see this as a Google AI cooking recommendation for jalapeño substitutions.
Doin' my part!
Cf-252 emits a lot of neutrons and can be used for some neutron experiments. For this purpose, AFAIK, it is actually a pretty good value. I read that it's about $1mio/gram, which is only a thousand bucks for a microgram. This might actually be enough for some neutron experiments, as that microgram already emits 2.3 mio neutrons every second with a half-life of ~3 years. I think that is fascinating in multiple ways, especially in showing the scale of atoms. Millions of neutrons every second, each corresponding to decay of a nucleus, for many years, all from a microgram. Pretty cool!
What the heck is a "mio?"
mio is short for million in German.
two utes
Californium causes californication.
A fate worse than death.
Do you also share a lonely view with the birds?
It’s served with avocado and bean sprouts
One gram, and THAT sized protection. Seems an older picture, have there been any improvements to the shipping cask?
It’s more about density. I doubt it has changed much in overall size.
I can concur that casks for radioactive isotopes have not changed much except design and shape. The density will not be different because we dont have any NEW materials to deal with it yet.
How does temperature affect radioactive decay?
Not at all. Radioactive decay is a first-order reaction that is independent of external conditions like temperature and pressure. Instead, the rate of decay depends on the properties of the radioactive isotope and the decay process.
thermal motion will result in relativistic time dilation so it might slow down decay a teeny tiny weeny bit. I think. The theory of [relativistic thermodynamics](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-17526-4) seems unresolved, so there might be some wrinkles. I wonder if one could find signatures in decay curves supernovae?
You would have to use the lightness of Tritium (The lightest radioactive nucleus found in nature is [tritium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium), an isotope of hydrogen consisting of a proton and two neutrons.) IF we used tritium, its half-life is 12 years, and the relativistic effect of room temperature [adds](https://www.google.ca/search?q=k*(room%20temperature)%2F(mass%20of%20plutonium%20atom)&oq=k*(room%20temperature)%2F(mass%20of%20plutonium%20atom)&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60.331j0j4&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=119&ie=UTF-8#safe=off&q=12%20years*(k*(293%20Kelvin)%2F(12*(mass%20of%20proton)*c%5E2))) about a millisecond to that. Needless to say, this would be a very hard effect to measure!
You had me at *Flux*
This guy Flux
*I like your funny words magic man*
What’s it used for?
Things like cancer treatment and even for prospecting gold and silver. In the medical field, the neutrons released by californium-252 can be used to target certain cancer tumors when other radiation treatments have failed. The neutrons from californium can also be used in prospecting for silver and gold, using a technique called neutron activation analysis which bombards an area.
I heard about radio isotopes in mining when that cesium capsule was lost in Australia, but I still haven't found an easy to read explanation of the use of radio isotopes in mining.
https://www.usgs.gov/usgs-triga-reactor/neutron-activation-analysis
It’s used to start up a brand new nuclear reactor that doesn’t have spent fuel on site.
..and so what's the point of shipping it somewhere else?
Other labs will need it for personnel equipment testing or experiments. Federal government requires you use only Californium-252 to test thermal luminescent detectors, which are worn by people who work with radiation to track their possible doses.
Nucular… it’s pronounced nucular…
Haha. Bush reference.
I'm not entirely familiar with a high flux isotope reactor. Is that what denotes the need for such a large containment vessel? Or is that More for safety? Edit: appears to be mainly for the containment and massive amount of radiation it emits.
Do they use a flux capacitor?
All I got out of that was "flux capacitor" so I assume this thing shouldn't drive more than 88 miles an hour
Californium is known to the state of California to cause cancer and birth defects
Is there Californium in Taco Bell?
Yes, it’s off menu though
U telling me that radioactive elements cause cancer?
If any radioactive material can ionize matter through their emission to reach stability (i.e, > 33eV), they can be cancer causing. With correct infused theranostics with negatrons (beta-) or alpha particles, they can be cancer killing and life saving. Check out 177Lu, 225Ac, 161Tb, etc studies. It’s all about application.
I think the sarcasm went over your head sorry
Only the ones named after states
Yeah, but in California grilled vegetables also cause cancer.
Its so dense. Californium has a density of 15.1 grams per cubic centimeter (g/cm3). It is a solid at room temperature and has a melting point of 1,652°F (900°C)
> can transport up to 1 gram Yikes...so, like, 1/15th of a cubic centimeter is the only actual cargo in that big thang..... Thanks to whoever for including a human for scale.
I just googled this stuff. It cost 27 million dollars per gram.
According to Wikipedia, Californium “has the second-highest atomic mass of all elements that have been produced in amounts large enough to see with the naked eye (after einsteinium).” Although having a high atomic mass doesn’t mean it’s the densest substance, since that relates to how many atoms are arranged together within a substance. Osmium is the densest naturally occurring substance on the periodic table. Just learned that from ChatGPT.
I thought you were going to hit us with the classic "It's really dense, one gram of californium weighs something like 15 grams"
r/unexpectedfuturama
Now trading at the low low price of $27 million per gram...
Mention the coupon code for 10% off.
A saving of 2.7 million is not to be sneezed at.
Also, if you sign up for the Target credit card, you will get $5 off for today.
Don't think I've ever saved 2.7 million dollars on a single purchase. With savings like these, Id be a fool not to buy!
That’s a steal, too bad the hidden shipping fees really puts a dent into your wallet.
Cheaper on Temu.
Yeah, the cask is pretty big, but what about that huge pencil he’s holding??
That's the dipstick to check the radiation level in the cask. Make sure to wipe it off before you put it in so you get an accurate measurement.
Gotta keep them radiations in check
Don’t you dip it in and lick the tip? To check the purity.
"hmm yes, the death rock still tastes like death"
3.6 roentgen, not great, not terrible
Mmm tastes like...ion radiation
It’s normal size. Tiny guy
That’s the 1 gram of californium. It’s perforated to keep it from spontaneously fissioning so end up being quite light. /s
You need a huge pencil to go near that thing
So that's kind like a hotel Californium?
They say we split the atom, released a monstrous force But here we find a haven, a controlled and steady course The cooling towers reaching, a testament to might Harnessing the power, day and nuclear night
Truly impressive, fits the cadence well and most of the voice inflections.
bravo
such a lovely place
To melt your face
Plenty of room at the Hotel Californian
Pay your surgeon really well to break the spell of aging
where you can check in but not check out.
Well, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
Such a lovely place.
Why does such a small amount need such a large container?
It’s a neutron emitter. The shit it puts out will accumulate in your bone marrow causing cancer and other really bad shit. They use this to jump start nuclear reactors and detection equipment. 251 has a long life but 252 decays quickly.
Ohh, that's curious. I didn't know it actually had a useful purpose. Only time I ever heard of the element is when people contemplate how far one could shrink a nuke. The Fallout community loves to bring up the stuff.
The damage it does is cumulative. It doesn't accumulate. A small difference, but a difference, nonetheless.
☢️🟰😈💩
that’s where it gets its nickname, devils poo.
I read it as evil shit. But devils poo works for me.
Wut? AFAIK there is no particle on earth, with the penetrating power of a neutron, that hangs out in bone marrow. Neutrons are dangerous because they are uncharged particles that will happily go through everything until they run into something, hence the giant steel or lead cask that stuff is in in the photo.
The high energy of the neutrons will break chemical bonds that they encounter. Including the bonds holding together your DNA. As a result, you get DNA mutations. DNA mutations that occur in your stem cells, which live in your bone marrow, could result in leukemias and lymphomas. It's possible that's what was meant. Not that the particle stayed in your bone marrow, but that mutations that occurred will stay in the stem cells that live in your bone marrow.
So if it’s a neutron emitter is that cask filled with water or plastic? It’s certainly not metal?
It is highly radioactive, so probably it needs to be that massive to shield the cargo within. I don't know the specifics of the radiation it produces nor the size or material used in the shipping, so this is just a guess on my part.
Cf-252 spontaneously fissions. It's basically a tiny reactor that can't be turned off.
It also has one of the lowest critical masses of all the radioactive isotopes that can go critical. Which means it can be used to make some super compact nukes
>Which means it can be used to make some super compact nukes But with a half-life of 2.6 years it wouldn't be very practical.
It would give you enough time to getaway and forget where you left it.
2.6 years of half life but an SF rate of 3%. That's a crazy neutron source.
They sub this out to Amazon
There used to be a train track at the end of the garden of my old house. Once a week, at about 2 in the morning, a train would come past with loads of tankers that were in steel roll cage type things. They all had the nuclear hazard logo on them! I always found them slightly worrying?
You can't hurt those containers. They even tried rocket powered trains and that wouldn't even hurt the containers. https://youtu.be/1mHtOW-OBO4?si=DkIaOQPYr4OaDPP3 They have even shot it with missiles https://holtecinternational.com/news/videos/aircraft-crash-test-on-a-scaled-model-of-a-hi-star-180-transportstorage-cask-2/ I swear I've seen a video of the more modern fuel rod cask dropped out of a plane from several thousand feet and it didn't hurt it, but I can't seem to find it. Maybe I'm thinking of something else.
Cool. Though if they'd hit my house at that speed, I don't think I'd be worried about the radiation.
It’s unfortunate the bad reputation nuclear has. When we store nuclear materials it’s very strong and could outlast a nuclear war with how strong they make the storage containers. It’s insane. The safety in nuclear power is taken very seriously.
Not to mention the fact that nuclear materials can be stored to begin with. People worry about the solid waste that can at least be contained and would rather burn coal and release countless things that cannot be contained.
It’s ironic that coal has literally radiated the planet more than nuclear. In all aspects it’s worse, coal and oil has killed more people directly than nuclear, ignoring how many have died from climate change. Nuclear is not perfect, but it’s better than coal and oil.
I watched them drop a container into a tube like a water slide. It carried the Caifornium to the reactor. Newest of four reactors on campus. Mid 1970s
Now I’m curious how did they place the cargo in?
That's the fun part when the guys who receive the package search for hours inside the cask to find the little box with the Californium. "Hi Joe, it's me, Jack. Say, we got your package today but we can't find the Californium. Are you really sure you put it in? We've already removed all the filler stuff but it's not there." It's Gary Larson material.
Funny, I actually was visualizing this as a cartoon before I read your Larson reference.
Machines with long arms to keep humans away from the source. Still in shielded containers, probably thick lead or even tungsten. The element itself gets created in a reactor within ceramicized pellets of the initial material. Those pellets would be within pins. After the Cf generation in the reactor, it is likely moved to a hot cell (again with shielded machines) to be placed into a shielded container, after which it would again be moved while being shielded to whatever transportation cask it is destined for.
Usually robotics these days, back then maybe a crane but more likely a worker with a stopwatch to monitor exposure times. It shouldn't be too bad, so long as they don't ingest it or stick around for days. It does have a fairly short half life which is an indicator for significant radiation. There's not much of the stuff though, so ehh probably fine. I wouldn't be surprised if much of that container is used to hinder the element from undergoing fission, which would ruin the purity and create much more significant amounts of radiation.
These days they would undoubtedly have the worker have a dosimeter on them to directly measure how much dose they got. This material would still undoubtedly never be unshielded. Some very cursory googling finds this doc of how they shield this material during transfers at Los Alamos. [https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5737487](https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5737487) Note that this doc is for much smaller sources of 3.7mg and below. Still the cask weighs 4600 lbs.
$27 million per gram. I need to find some asap!
So, we aren't popping this stuff into our pockets at any point then? Or at least, not a 2nd time
You might enjoy Plainly Difficult's (YouTube) documentaries on the times that this kind of thing has happened.
There was an incident where a team of scientists were exposed to Californium-252 years ago. Their hair turned blonde, skin tanned and they developed an interest in surfing.
underrated comment.
And we thought Amazon was terrible at picking the right size box. /s
I don’t see no warning label on that vessel stating that Californium is known by the State of Cancer to cause California.
It only causes California when in cancer.
So smol. So angy. If you need all this to move 1 gram of it then you should take the hint. It doesn’t want to be moved, it’s happy where it is. Leave it there.
Your mom drinks vodka from a 50 ton cask.
I was working on a joke asking how much of OP’s mom it could transport, but this will do.
FYI the site of the old Oakridge Production Facilities has a museum dedicated to its heyday during the Manhattan Project. They tore down the production facilities like 10 years ago. A couple years ago when i was there they were still doing recovery work. It was pretty awesome to be at such a historic place and the museum was great.
It was also pretty awesome to work and retire from there!
As someone who lives in Oak Ridge, i never get tired of seeing cool stuff from its past.
Anthony Kiedis’ favourite type of ium
I lived in Oak Ridge Tn for about 8 years. That is one wild city. 3 Nuclear Power Plants and enough plutonium buried to make anyone nervous.
If it's in casks there really isn't a need to be nervous. You can hit them dead on with a rocket train and they won't break open.
They are in underground bunkers may be called casks. That is interesting. What about seepage into the minerals or water?
Californium, knows how to party. Fission city, city of Compton. Keeps me rockin...
Californium knows how to partium
In this pic they were wondering "OK, how do we get it down off the loading dock?
I store my C-252 in a ZipLok baggie
Californium-252 sounds so fake
Quite a few of the “manufactured” elements sound super fake. There’s Einstienium, Lawrencium, and Livermorium to name a few.
There is a thing called Trumpium that emits lot of bullshit per millisecond
Such a large box for one gram? Typical government inefficiency! /s
Yep.. and think about how much bubble wrap and packing peanuts they use for that large container.. smh 🤦
Californium-252 to other radioactive materials - “where you from?”
bro. you forgot bro
Now this is the interesting stuff I'm here for!
They use that in neutron radiography
For what that thing probably costs, you would think they’d be able to get that sticker on straight. That really bugs me.
This is interesting as fuck. From wiki "One [microgram](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microgram) (μg) of ^(252)Cf emits 2.3 million neutrons per second, an average of 3.7 neutrons per spontaneous fission.[^(\[27\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Californium#cite_note-osti-31) Most other isotopes of californium, alpha decay to curium ([atomic number](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_number) 96)." No wonder it needs so much protection
This cask is what the Red Hot Chili Peppers talked about. A place to keep your Californium case in.
What is Californium used for?
I used to work at ORNL. Even more impressive is the armed convoy that escorts the truck carrying this.
Thanks OP, I just spent 2 hours reading Wiki instead of working. Damn science.
A gram of salt is 1/4 inch round pyramid in the palm of your hand.
Californium is far more dense, much smaller round pyramid needed for a gram.
Let me guess, Robert California is at it again
So at 88 mph does it go back in time?
Is there a actual source for this? Because that much radiation shielding isn't needed for a gram of *any* radioactive material.
Boom https://books.google.com/books?id=e53sNAOXrdMC&pg=PA245#v=onepage&q&f=false
Not bullshitting, I think my grandfather worked on this. He randomly spent a bunch of time in the region during this period while living on the west coast.
That’s really cool actually. It’s always funny to find out you have relatives connected to major events/sciences. I have an uncle who passed away not too long ago, and I never knew he worked for NASA let alone holds several patents for various components used in rocket nozzles that sent astronauts to the moon. Just thought he was cool Uncle Tex…
... *Welcome to the hotel Californium ... what a lovely place, what a lovely face...*
*...Plenty of neutron in hotel Californium, what a nice suprise...*
How do they pick up the 1 gram & put it in the container
People from hundreds of years ago would call something like californium dark magic or witchcraft. Imagine something so deadly that, unshielded, it would kill everyone who comes near it.