This was definitely one of the most fun videos to make! Hope you liked it! Let me know what else you’d like to see from the lab or from my work in more detail!☢️👩🏽🔬
This was the most FASCINATING video yet. I am AMAZED that you are even allowed to teach us these things! Mahalo nui loa (Thank you very much) from your friends out here in Hawai’i!
Informative as always. You would make an excellent teacher should you decide to go in that direction. Getting a look at the production process for the fuel pellets would be interesting.
Saw you pull a homer simpson with the uranium. But at least you went looking for it 😅 Reminds me when people from ORNL came to my school years ago with a bunch of mildly radioactive stuff and a few geiger counters explaining the fuel cycle followed by a paas around and hands on testing of stuff with their counters. Among the things passed around was a small glass vial of uranium beads for a pebble bed reactor. At some point somebody dropped the vial and it broke releasing hundreds of little uranium beads all over the place. The beads were very small about the size of a seseme seed. Needless to say they put the class to work retrieving them using the geiger counters to hunt for ones that rolled away. The good old days. Now they would probably badly overreact and evacuate the school.
What ? It's not glowing fluo green ? Seriously, thank you for educating people. Hopefully, it will reduce the fear among the general public. Fear is mainly based on misconceptions.
Between 100 km and 150 km away from my hometown near the german-czech border I have two surface exposures with uranium ore where I collected some nice Autunite crystals, a uranium mica, and they have a very nice shiny green colour. When I illuminate the Autunite with uv-light it fluorescent in a bright green-yellow light. They are beautyfull. But yeah, they are not the pure metall, they are uranium mica... And for all people who are afraid of radioactive dust and alpha rays: I cast the stones with the crystals in resin to avoid contamination of radioactiv dust in my living room... 🤷🏻♂️ Funny coincidence: on the day where I collected the ores, on my way home I got sick and I feeled very ill. My first thought: "did I something wrong during collecting?".😱 But it was only covid what catches me on that evening. Four days later I was healed but for two weeks in quarantine and so I had a lot time to work on my samples and cast them in resin... 😆👍
@@MisterIvyMike I was quarantined for 10 days for COVID, passed out on day 12, still testing positive for the virus. That, despite vaccine and boosters, resulted in damage to my mitral valve and a sensitivity to caffeine that's finally calming down. Maybe I should've snuck out and played with some uranium ore! ;) Seriously though, the risk of exposure to dust and alpha is extremely low. I'd have done the same though, mostly to protect the specimens. I do wish I could manage to get a kilogram or just under of depleted uranium for a modest conversation piece, it'd also be encased in resin to protect it.
In Australia, our aboriginals had areas they called Sickness Country and people did not live there. It turned out that this is where the mining companies found Uranium. Hence living here, drinking the water and growing foods in these areas for prolonged time was obviously not good.
4:15 You should have said "500 microSieverts per hour. Not great. Not terrible." (referencing HBO miniseries on Chernobyl). 🙂 Very interesting video; thanks for making it! I'm a radiologist and nuclear medicine physician. The isotopes we use are either reactor produced (e.g. I-131) or cyclotron produced (e.g. F-18). Was nice to see where some of the materials we use come from. Almost every week, a patient will ask if they are going to glow after the procedure they've had. I used to say "Only if you can see gamma rays!" but some people didn't appreciate the humor so now I just say "No."
Funny enough 500 uSv looks big, but in the show the 3.6 roentgen were equal to 36 mSv or 36000 uSv. And that was the maximum they could detect. So back there you would actually need to worry
Damn, I would have appreciated your humor when I was irradiated up the hoo-ha with iridium wire. But then I majored in Physics and Mathematics (before I walked away to become a punk rock bassist, many decades ago. YOLO). Radiation jokes are both very physics and very punk. (If anyone is wondering about my music career and if any of you ever heard of me, I had a mediocre career so perhaps, but unlikely. One might say I was musically not great, not terrible 😂)
@@birchtree2274 Lone Wanderer: "I am about as irradiated as I can without burning a hole into the ground." Moira Brown: "Oh I am so sorry I twisted your DNA like a kitten with a ball of yarn!"
While working at a nuclear facility, I had to get a nuclear stress test to figure out what was going on with chest pains (ended up being sleep apnea not a heart problem) and the health physics department wouldn't let me return to my normal workplace for two weeks because I was a walking radiation source and you have to wear a personal dosimeter in the radiation areas I normally work in. Being a "source" I would have screwed up the counts on my dosimeter (which they took from me before I got my procedure). So in a sense, you do "glow" for a while after a nuclear medicine procedure. It was a great two weeks of "work" sitting at a desk surfing the internet and getting paid because I wasn't allowed to go into the actual work areas.
As someone who works in Nuclear reprocessing at Sellafield, I can't tell you how many times I've tried to explain this whole thing to people. Love this explanation and will be using it myself.
@@dariojurisic I mean, liquid nitrogen isn't a joke, and props to you for doing the job as it's not without its risks. The main thing that twists my nuts is that people don't want to know about the process and precautions that are in place, or educate themselves on how it actually works. Simple minded folk like to take the "cry wolf" route, and start exaggerating things because they don't truly understand them. We used liquid nitrogen to cool some of our monitoring hardware and were sent on "nitrogen handling" courses to be sure we understood the dangers and how to handle them. Yes it can be a dangerous element like uranium, but as long as you understand how things work and respect the elements hazards, it can be a safe process.
@@dariojurisic yeah, that makes me laugh sometimes. We have to wear air monitors as well to make sure the nitrogen doesn't become too concentrated, but that's just simply because we are working in an enclosed space, and can't have ventilation in the area due to radioactive airborne contamination reasons. I try to explain to people that everything has a risk, it's just a case of how you mitigate against them. Taking a sh!t can pose a risk if you aren't careful enough, especially in a public toilet 🤣. The world has become a fear mongering place against the mundane, and it's getting annoying because there are bigger things to be worried about.
I used to work on THORP, now a Physics Teacher. Did you ever visit the magnox fuel facility at Springfields and see stacks of uranium metal fuel rods? I seem to recall that our host on the day (this was UKAEA Course 2, back in the day, before I moved to BNF) wore cotton gloves to handle and show us the rods. To protect the rods from finger print contamination, obvs.
Good video. I have a feeling that most people don't fully appreciate how meticulous, deliberate, and time consuming lab work can be in order to obtain good data from an experiment or just to maintain a safe lab environment.
Big thanks to the company for allowing you to do this. Education is the key to correcting the lies people have been told. This is a great addition to that effort.
I would be interested in seeing both the manufacturing process of pellets, and also what the potential benefits of uranium nitride fuel as opposed to oxide fuel would be. Also some of the images from an electron microscope of the structure, and/or some of the things you test for in the pellets might be interesting. I love your effort to educate and reduce misconceptions of nuclear topics!
@@welchroberts4038 if the uranium pellets aren't going to be used in a CANDU reactor, they need to be enriched. Although if you're talking about the experimental ones, it is possible they would use non-enriched uranium while testing the manufacturing process, as that would make the pellets less dangerous to handle. It was a relatively short video and it's not really possible to explain all the details of composition in it.
"Let me know what else you would like to know about." *Everything* :] Great video, thanks for the informative, grounded, safe and yet not panic provoking content! Keep it up, always looking forward to new vids :)
I used to work with biological isotope markers such as I, Co, Sr, Sc and some others that I can't remember. This was in the late 70s - early 80s. By today's standards, our casual safety measures would probably be "criminal". Your channel is very interesting. Thanks!
I remember going to the local tip, asking the foreman for the place to bury low activity waste. Off with a shovel to the part due to be covered before further tipping took place! I assumed that the training included where drain off would occur long term
@@francoisperrin7397 Sorry, but I think I'll go with the person who actually works with this stuff as a career and has put the work in to get to their position instead of some random dude on the internet.
Uranium metal looked about as I expected. A geologist came to my high school once years ago. I recall that among the rock and mineral specimens he brought was a small piece of uranium ore which was fascinating to me.
Excellent Teaching. The Conservation of Energy explanation might take longer, but the reasons why the Laboratory Work is relatively straightforward compared with something as genuinely worrying as a lethal virus, say, is reassuring. The clean up of Energy production with technology like this is going to save many lives and probably global Civilization. Thank you.
Thank you for showing us what this mythical deadly doomsday element actually looks like. And we learned that it’s not instant death upon contact. I loved the stare when you almost dropped the pellet 😂 Didn’t you feel like it was a Homer Simpson moment? 😁 By the way, I had no idea that the glove box is there to protect the fuel, rather than to protect the operator: very illuminating, indeed.
I used to work in a food testing lab and we had some photographers coming to take some pics for some marketing brochures and what not (this is back in the 90s). They were very upset when they saw that most of the solutions we were working with were colourless, not the stereotypical fuming flasks of bubbling liquids in rainbow colours! SO we had to mock up a couple of flasks to put here and there of water and some indicator dyes and iodine. They loved one of the tests I was doing where I would take a clear liquid, add a reagent to it, turning it a pink/purple, then titrating it with a colourless liquid until it juuuuuuust went green. Problem was that it was a time critical test, you only had a certain amount of time from removing it from the heating mantle to adding the reagent and back titrating, meaning I could hold the flask at the pretty purple colour while they stuffed around with lights and backgrounds. Most of us ended up working a couple of hours overtime that night to finish of our normal work because they got so badly in the way....
40 years ago I worked on nuclear weapons. Part of the job entailed storing and handling enriched (weapons grade) uranium. Your explanation is well done and may help reduce the unreasonable fear of radioactive elements that is common today.
Hello Elina this is the first time I have seen a scientist demonstrate radioactive elements in lab. It was highly informative and engrossing.Love from India.
This was so interesting! I don't hear radioactivity talked about much outside of dangers and weapons and political drama; it's refreshing to see how benign this element generally is.
Uranium metal is not in equilibrium with its decay products ("progeny"), so is not as radioactive as the same mass of uranium ore which would be approx 7 times more radioactive, However, Queen Elizabeth II handled a kilo of plutonium 239 in the Harwell atomic weapons research lab back in the 1950s and she lived to a good age of 96 years. Thank you very much for this excellent video!
Elina, Thank you for a great video, nice educational content. I especially like the "oops" nuclear accident scene, you are so funny, such a great communicator. I hope you love your job and are well compensated.
I loved the bow on your jacket… and the ribbon/lanyard? on your backpack. Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦 Fascinating to see inside the lab. It would be interesting to see the whole process from natural to it’s various man-made (female-made?) forms. While some may have panicked 🫣when you nearly dropped the pellet, I’ve seen Homer Simpson drop countless glowing green pellets and he’s never caused an explosion…🤣
Recent subscriber, I just found your content a few days ago and I'm already hooked! I don't work in the field, but I'm really passionate and excited about nuclear energy. I enjoy these videos with higher levels of technical detail since a lot of stuff out there is generally pretty vague. I'm definitely interested in hearing more about your work, count me in
Ex safeguards here. Have you any internal MBAs? Basically do you track the whereabouts of “stuff” from storage location to work station and back again? Why do you have UFl4? And where was your personal dosimeter?
I know it's not quite a science question, but the collection of pins on your lab coat reminds me of various groups that make pins to trade with other people when they meet at conferences/competitions - I'm curious if that's true for nuclear physicists and if there's any particular interesting ones in the collection?
Have just started following your UA-cam videos and am so glad that there are actual experts, such as yourself, that take the time to try and allay peoples fear of this incredibly useful resource. As an Engineer, I deal in facts, not emotions and this is what I love about your presentations -Facts, Not emotions. Keep doing what you are doing.
Nice video, thanks! It will be interesting to see the uranium nitrate video to understand why you are working in this. Did you still had oxygen in the Ziploc bag? Were you pumping the air and then injecting argon or only injecting argon in that tube?
The ziplock bag must be half open when entering the glove box (to remove all oxygen in it). Once inside the glove box it can be sealed all the way. To flush the tube you remove oxygen by using a vacuum pump and fill with Ar
You are even more relatable now, you start your day with a coffee. However, you finish it by speaking into a Geiger counter. Thanks for explaining those things that made us think "I've wondered about that." Now we know.
Thank you for the lab video. Two questions: 1) You showed natural uranium, we know it contains 0.7% U235. What is the level of enrichment of the Uranium dioxide and Uranium nitrate? 2) The glove box you kindly showed is meant to protect the samples mostly; the samples are few mm from the fingers of the operator. Do you have the other type of box with manipulator arms, meant to protect the operator from the radiation of the samples? Thank you again for showing the practical side of particle physics, it is very appreciated. Greetings, Anthony
Hey hi! loved the video! i wish you could've compared the weight of the different metals against steel for example. It always amazed me how much lead weights compared to other metals of the same size, i assume it would be kind of the same for your samples
@@ronmaximilian6953 yeah, it weights so much more than it seems unreal for the size. When i've been dealing with tugnsten its just weird.... same with lead and gold, people dont realize how much gold actually weights. Seeing those small pellets made me wonder how much they actually weight in contrast to their steel conterparts
@@dickb2128 The mole (mol) is a standard unit of weight measurement for particles, atoms, and molecules. It's basically a way of quickly converting the molecular weight to grams. I haven't taken chemistry since sophomore year of high school, 30 years ago. (I suddenly feel old.) Nonetheless come I tell you that finding the actual weight of a molecule or element can be quite important. For instance, let's say you want to know how much sodium you're taking in a tablespoon of salt. It weighs 17.1 g. While it's true that salt is made of 50% sodium, it you're not getting 8.55 g of sodium. You're actually getting 6.635 g of sodium, because sodium weighs much less than chlorine. And the way you measure this is by using moles.
You should feel what a jar of mercury is like. It kind of short circuits your brain, because it's so dense that lead will actually float on it, but your brain can't reconcile a liquid that heavy at first.
Lovely video, Elina ! :-) ...very informative ! I always believed that such information , critical to human wellbeing should not be kept secret, but widely propagated for the benefit of the common man ! Thanks a zillion ! 🙂 THIS INFORMATION ON URANIUM IS PROVIDED BY NUCLEAR PHYSICIST DR.ELINA CHARATSIDOU !
I thank you for a very informative video. I am from South Africa and I am an electrical engineer and are a self taught mechanical engineer who loves science a lot. Keep up the good work, we admire you and your work
@@anonyfamous42 got a bit overzealous playing with radioactive stuff in the zone, so got banned from it, afaik. Guess decided not to film her adventures anymore
I've always been very interested in chemistry and the like and your channel is amazing. There is so much misconception out there regrading Uranium and nuclear subjects that it's great to see you sharing your in-depth knowledge with everyone. Thanks so much for creating the video.
Wowww what an amazing different idea of a video. Makes me feel closer to what you are actually doing in a lab. So much new and interesting information. Amazing can't wait for your next video ❤️❤️
Hi Elina , I really enjoyed watching your video. I am a physics student studying third year of BSC. I live in India. To you, I have a few questions, about any topic in physics when a student writes a thesis for Ph.D , Does the student then have to do any laboratory experiments for that particular thesis paper before writing his/her own thesis? My second question is, when a student does his/her own experiment in the lab, are other students present in that lab? And when a student does an experiment for his/her own PhD, can another student help that student or does that student have to complete his/her own experiment for his own PhD ?
OMFG THIS IS SOMETHING THAT I'VE WANTED TO DO FOR YEARS. I want to get a chance to hold uranium in my (gloved) hands just so I can feel how crazy dense the metal is. I won't handle it without gloves because of the heavy metal toxicity, but it has been on my nerdy bucket list for many years now.
Σε άκουγα τόση ώρα στο βίντεο, χωρίς να προσέξω το όνομα σου και έλεγα "Ελληνική προφορά έχουν αυτα τα αγγλικά, λες να είναι ελληνίδα?" Μπράβο σου για όσα έχεις πετύχει, πραγματικά θα ήθελα να είμαι στη θέση σου, αν και ξέρω ότι δεν έχω ούτε το μυαλό σου, ούτε την προσήλωση που είχες για να φτάσεις ως εδω. Σου εύχομαι ό,τι καλύτερο! Αν και δεν σε γνωρίζω, σαν Έλληνας είμαι υπερήφανος για σένα!
It is because I almost touch the detector window on the uranium piece, and it is the alpha radiation (since U is primarily alpha emitter) that is detected. However, a particles travel only a few mm and even at the distance where my hand is they aren’t reaching anymore. If you notice when I do not approach the U but am still very close to it the detector barely makes a noise. Thank you for the comment though, I hope I cleared our your question. Let me know if sth is unclear.☢️👩🏽🔬
@@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist Hey, i want to pursue in medical field but I want learn about nuclear physics too.. it's a very interesting subject. Can I be able to learn the subject? I dont care about experiments and all
This was great! Your commute to work looks different but feels the same. Your work is definitely different from mine, but you are very good at explaining it 😀
"the day after" was my source for nuclear fact in the 80's lmao😄 imagine the shock when i find out the people that invented bigfoot also invented radioactive myth 😂
Looks like the glovebox is a positive pressure system to keep Oxygen out rather than a negative one to keep contaminates in. Would be interesting to see both the manufacturing process and what you do with them as well as anticipated benefits over existing systems.
I'll admit, I wasn't expecting Linus Drop tips halfway through when I started up this vid! Also, I didn't know they made uranium parma violets /s Back to being serious, an excellet dive into the process and design of fuel. An exellent watch for those who want more info on nuclear energy fuels. Wonderful explanation. Please keep up the epic work. :3
Loved it and would love to hear more about your research with Uranium Nitride pellets. What advantages does it have compared to normal oxide fuels. PS: to camera-person: would love to see more close ups, especially of the smaller samples. Thanks 👍
A very welcome recommendation from the algorithm. Thank you for this. The whole subject of nuclear technology in general is really cool, bringing it more to the public is a wonderful gift.
Hi from Canada 🇨🇦 I’m very interested in your videos - thank you for your explanations and experiences. Wondered if you could do a video where you explain how and why you decided to get into nuclear physics. Thanks in advance! Ps I have a second cousin that worked at a Nuclear facility here in Canada.
I've only recently discovered your channel and after watching the thorium video, subscribed straight away. I would love to say I hadn't been influenced by movies and tv shows, but I was kind of expecting uranium to be glowing green and giving everything around it an extra eye. Great video.
Thank you Elina. This is very interesting. I would very much like to know more about the uranium nitrate fuel. Is it potentially used for SMR reactors? I'm also curious what the U-235 concentration is between the 2 fuels. (if you can't say I understand, lol nuclear fuel) Thank you!
The green stuff (UF4) is what I've personally handled the most in the past, even though it was a byproduct from working with UF6 gas (Hex). It would actually start as a rather blue color that would turn green from exposure to moisture in air and release HF gas (very nasty stuff). I do remember it being one of our radiation safety rules to always wear safety glasses when handling it in the lab even in containers for protection from beta, so was a bit surprised you weren't wearing glasses. Although I do remember measuring beta from samples in containers and not getting that much (but a much higher count when outside of a container), so it's probably just a difference in safety measures between Europe and the US. I know the US nuclear industry goes to some pretty extreme lengths when it comes to nuclear safety. Very much liked the talking into a pancake probe like a microphone at the end lol. Great video!
Well done you speak fantastic English and your work is extraordinary. You're so fascinating and knowledgeable to watch !! Keep up the good work! You will go far.
I enjoy how you show radioactive things and nuclear energy in the way that they really are. Thank you for showing the facts in a rational and scientific way instead of the traditional sensationalism/fear mongering we see in mainstream media.
Thank You very much, for showing us how to handle high-energy-density material. I am glad you don't have a demon core in your lab, that you keep apart with some coins and a screwdriver to keep it apart from reaching critical mass. Most accidents appear from scientists, who that never experienced how to handle dangerous material. It doesn't matter if biological, chemical, or nuclear. I think only lab procedures exist, but it is hard to find literature about it. That makes it very difficult to handle highly radioactive matter or leftovers from any reactor.
Thank you, Elina! This is fascinating! Thus is the first video watching of yours. Wow! Great job! Keep up this amazing work. So much information is great for us to all know.
When I worked in aviation I would handle the wingtip end weight bars made of depleted uranium with normal gloves and no special protective gear. All I recall is that was way heaver than lead.
Great video! Loved the "microphone" at the end. One extra wish for future video production on site: please, run the footage through software image stabilization because the video felt like a bit too shakey. The image quality seemed ok so software stabilization should work just fine. There was also audio/video sync problem at the start but it might have been voice-over to workaround poor quality audio.
When I was in High School in one of the labs were two aluminium cans with screw-lids of uranium oxide. One day, curiousity got the better of me and a friend and we unscrewed one of the cans exposing the contents to a Geiger counter. The count went from background to about 20,000 per minute. Maybe not the best idea but 57 years later I am still here! Interesting info!
Over 30 years ago my brother in law was a foreman at a solution ground water mine. They used 8000 gal of ammonia per day to make the uranium oxide soluble then a polymer column was used to extract the Uranium from the water. Then the yellow cake was worth $6 / lb in 55 gal drums. He was not concerned about radiation.
This was definitely one of the most fun videos to make! Hope you liked it! Let me know what else you’d like to see from the lab or from my work in more detail!☢️👩🏽🔬
This was the most FASCINATING video yet. I am AMAZED that you are even allowed to teach us these things! Mahalo nui loa (Thank you very much) from your friends out here in Hawai’i!
🗺️
everyone probably wondering if that Uranium has 500 Micro City why isn't it hurting you?
Informative as always. You would make an excellent teacher should you decide to go in that direction. Getting a look at the production process for the fuel pellets would be interesting.
Saw you pull a homer simpson with the uranium. But at least you went looking for it 😅 Reminds me when people from ORNL came to my school years ago with a bunch of mildly radioactive stuff and a few geiger counters explaining the fuel cycle followed by a paas around and hands on testing of stuff with their counters. Among the things passed around was a small glass vial of uranium beads for a pebble bed reactor. At some point somebody dropped the vial and it broke releasing hundreds of little uranium beads all over the place. The beads were very small about the size of a seseme seed. Needless to say they put the class to work retrieving them using the geiger counters to hunt for ones that rolled away. The good old days. Now they would probably badly overreact and evacuate the school.
What ?
It's not glowing fluo green ?
Seriously, thank you for educating people.
Hopefully, it will reduce the fear among the general public. Fear is mainly based on misconceptions.
Thank you for the comment ! I appreciate the support ☢️👩🏽🔬
Between 100 km and 150 km away from my hometown near the german-czech border I have two surface exposures with uranium ore where I collected some nice Autunite crystals, a uranium mica, and they have a very nice shiny green colour. When I illuminate the Autunite with uv-light it fluorescent in a bright green-yellow light. They are beautyfull. But yeah, they are not the pure metall, they are uranium mica...
And for all people who are afraid of radioactive dust and alpha rays: I cast the stones with the crystals in resin to avoid contamination of radioactiv dust in my living room... 🤷🏻♂️
Funny coincidence: on the day where I collected the ores, on my way home I got sick and I feeled very ill. My first thought: "did I something wrong during collecting?".😱
But it was only covid what catches me on that evening.
Four days later I was healed but for two weeks in quarantine and so I had a lot time to work on my samples and cast them in resin... 😆👍
@@MisterIvyMike
COVID could also have been bad.
Glad to know that you are ok now and that your collection helped keep you busy during your quarantine.
@@MisterIvyMike I was quarantined for 10 days for COVID, passed out on day 12, still testing positive for the virus. That, despite vaccine and boosters, resulted in damage to my mitral valve and a sensitivity to caffeine that's finally calming down.
Maybe I should've snuck out and played with some uranium ore! ;)
Seriously though, the risk of exposure to dust and alpha is extremely low. I'd have done the same though, mostly to protect the specimens.
I do wish I could manage to get a kilogram or just under of depleted uranium for a modest conversation piece, it'd also be encased in resin to protect it.
Uranium glass glows green, that's where this green idea comes from.
Very interesting video :)
Holding that geiger counter at the end like a microphone was pretty classic :D
Haha ikr?! Glad you enjoyed it!☢️👩🏽🔬
Looks like a wink to Martina from @Nerdforge. She uses a shovel as a microphone.
I expected clicky voice, don't know why :) Anyway, thanks for interesting video.
In Australia, our aboriginals had areas they called Sickness Country and people did not live there.
It turned out that this is where the mining companies found Uranium.
Hence living here, drinking the water and growing foods in these areas for prolonged time was obviously not good.
4:15 You should have said "500 microSieverts per hour. Not great. Not terrible." (referencing HBO miniseries on Chernobyl). 🙂
Very interesting video; thanks for making it!
I'm a radiologist and nuclear medicine physician. The isotopes we use are either reactor produced (e.g. I-131) or cyclotron produced (e.g. F-18). Was nice to see where some of the materials we use come from.
Almost every week, a patient will ask if they are going to glow after the procedure they've had. I used to say "Only if you can see gamma rays!" but some people didn't appreciate the humor so now I just say "No."
Funny enough 500 uSv looks big, but in the show the 3.6 roentgen were equal to 36 mSv or 36000 uSv. And that was the maximum they could detect. So back there you would actually need to worry
I think most of us added "Not great. Not terrible."
Damn, I would have appreciated your humor when I was irradiated up the hoo-ha with iridium wire.
But then I majored in Physics and Mathematics (before I walked away to become a punk rock bassist, many decades ago. YOLO). Radiation jokes are both very physics and very punk.
(If anyone is wondering about my music career and if any of you ever heard of me, I had a mediocre career so perhaps, but unlikely. One might say I was musically not great, not terrible 😂)
@@birchtree2274 Lone Wanderer: "I am about as irradiated as I can without burning a hole into the ground."
Moira Brown: "Oh I am so sorry I twisted your DNA like a kitten with a ball of yarn!"
While working at a nuclear facility, I had to get a nuclear stress test to figure out what was going on with chest pains (ended up being sleep apnea not a heart problem) and the health physics department wouldn't let me return to my normal workplace for two weeks because I was a walking radiation source and you have to wear a personal dosimeter in the radiation areas I normally work in. Being a "source" I would have screwed up the counts on my dosimeter (which they took from me before I got my procedure). So in a sense, you do "glow" for a while after a nuclear medicine procedure. It was a great two weeks of "work" sitting at a desk surfing the internet and getting paid because I wasn't allowed to go into the actual work areas.
As someone who works in Nuclear reprocessing at Sellafield, I can't tell you how many times I've tried to explain this whole thing to people.
Love this explanation and will be using it myself.
bad at teaching then
@@danielbroomhall8882 can't be bad at teaching if I'm not a teacher to begin with. Try again kid.
@@dariojurisic I mean, liquid nitrogen isn't a joke, and props to you for doing the job as it's not without its risks.
The main thing that twists my nuts is that people don't want to know about the process and precautions that are in place, or educate themselves on how it actually works. Simple minded folk like to take the "cry wolf" route, and start exaggerating things because they don't truly understand them.
We used liquid nitrogen to cool some of our monitoring hardware and were sent on "nitrogen handling" courses to be sure we understood the dangers and how to handle them. Yes it can be a dangerous element like uranium, but as long as you understand how things work and respect the elements hazards, it can be a safe process.
@@dariojurisic yeah, that makes me laugh sometimes. We have to wear air monitors as well to make sure the nitrogen doesn't become too concentrated, but that's just simply because we are working in an enclosed space, and can't have ventilation in the area due to radioactive airborne contamination reasons.
I try to explain to people that everything has a risk, it's just a case of how you mitigate against them.
Taking a sh!t can pose a risk if you aren't careful enough, especially in a public toilet 🤣. The world has become a fear mongering place against the mundane, and it's getting annoying because there are bigger things to be worried about.
I used to work on THORP, now a Physics Teacher. Did you ever visit the magnox fuel facility at Springfields and see stacks of uranium metal fuel rods? I seem to recall that our host on the day (this was UKAEA Course 2, back in the day, before I moved to BNF) wore cotton gloves to handle and show us the rods. To protect the rods from finger print contamination, obvs.
Good video. I have a feeling that most people don't fully appreciate how meticulous, deliberate, and time consuming lab work can be in order to obtain good data from an experiment or just to maintain a safe lab environment.
Big thanks to the company for allowing you to do this. Education is the key to correcting the lies people have been told. This is a great addition to that effort.
I would be interested in seeing both the manufacturing process of pellets, and also what the potential benefits of uranium nitride fuel as opposed to oxide fuel would be. Also some of the images from an electron microscope of the structure, and/or some of the things you test for in the pellets might be interesting. I love your effort to educate and reduce misconceptions of nuclear topics!
I agree!! All of that would be most interesting!!!
I believe there’s a “how it’s made” on fuel rods for reactors. Might be interesting to watch.
My guess is some parts of the process are not allowed to show, because with enough research countries can use it to create atom bombs.
She does not even state if this uranium is enriched and if so how much. Sorry pal but she is lame.
@@welchroberts4038 if the uranium pellets aren't going to be used in a CANDU reactor, they need to be enriched. Although if you're talking about the experimental ones, it is possible they would use non-enriched uranium while testing the manufacturing process, as that would make the pellets less dangerous to handle.
It was a relatively short video and it's not really possible to explain all the details of composition in it.
"Let me know what else you would like to know about."
*Everything* :]
Great video, thanks for the informative, grounded, safe and yet not panic provoking content! Keep it up, always looking forward to new vids :)
I used to work with biological isotope markers such as I, Co, Sr, Sc and some others that I can't remember. This was in the late 70s - early 80s. By today's standards, our casual safety measures would probably be "criminal". Your channel is very interesting. Thanks!
I remember going to the local tip, asking the foreman for the place to bury low activity waste. Off with a shovel to the part due to be covered before further tipping took place! I assumed that the training included where drain off would occur long term
I am sorry but this video does not promote good radiation safety standards. See my replies on her pinned comment.
@@francoisperrin7397 Sorry, but I think I'll go with the person who actually works with this stuff as a career and has put the work in to get to their position instead of some random dude on the internet.
@@francoisperrin7397 you are mis guided, no need panic about radiation when you know what you are doing
Elina wakes up every morning ready to go because she is powered by her pure love for the atom.
Up and atom!
fully dressed
Powered by atoms.
🤣🤣🤣
That's one nuclear woman.
Uranium metal looked about as I expected. A geologist came to my high school once years ago. I recall that among the rock and mineral specimens he brought was a small piece of uranium ore which was fascinating to me.
Did everyone overreact when they heard that? just curious lol.
@@kentreed2011 It's been almost 25 years since then, but not that I can recall.
Yep. Uranium looks so cute
Excellent Teaching.
The Conservation of Energy explanation might take longer, but the reasons why the Laboratory Work is relatively straightforward compared with something as genuinely worrying as a lethal virus, say, is reassuring. The clean up of Energy production with technology like this is going to save many lives and probably global Civilization. Thank you.
Definitely interested in a video about your fabrication process. This was a really great insight into your work within the lab.
Thank you for showing us what this mythical deadly doomsday element actually looks like. And we learned that it’s not instant death upon contact. I loved the stare when you almost dropped the pellet 😂 Didn’t you feel like it was a Homer Simpson moment? 😁
By the way, I had no idea that the glove box is there to protect the fuel, rather than to protect the operator: very illuminating, indeed.
Lol illuminating
I used to work in a food testing lab and we had some photographers coming to take some pics for some marketing brochures and what not (this is back in the 90s). They were very upset when they saw that most of the solutions we were working with were colourless, not the stereotypical fuming flasks of bubbling liquids in rainbow colours! SO we had to mock up a couple of flasks to put here and there of water and some indicator dyes and iodine. They loved one of the tests I was doing where I would take a clear liquid, add a reagent to it, turning it a pink/purple, then titrating it with a colourless liquid until it juuuuuuust went green. Problem was that it was a time critical test, you only had a certain amount of time from removing it from the heating mantle to adding the reagent and back titrating, meaning I could hold the flask at the pretty purple colour while they stuffed around with lights and backgrounds.
Most of us ended up working a couple of hours overtime that night to finish of our normal work because they got so badly in the way....
40 years ago I worked on nuclear weapons. Part of the job entailed storing and handling enriched (weapons grade) uranium. Your explanation is well done and may help reduce the unreasonable fear of radioactive elements that is common today.
Hello Elina this is the first time I have seen a scientist demonstrate radioactive elements in lab. It was highly informative and engrossing.Love from India.
Save it. She's not in to brown-nosing mystery meat.
This was so interesting! I don't hear radioactivity talked about much outside of dangers and weapons and political drama; it's refreshing to see how benign this element generally is.
Omg this feels like a movie and the train going scene was amazing sooo beautifully shot ❤❤❤❤
Thank youuuuuuuuu👩🏽🔬👩🏽🔬☢️☢️ I am so glad you enjoyed the video
Uranium metal is not in equilibrium with its decay products ("progeny"), so is not as radioactive as the same mass of uranium ore which would be approx 7 times more radioactive, However, Queen Elizabeth II handled a kilo of plutonium 239 in the Harwell atomic weapons research lab back in the 1950s and she lived to a good age of 96 years. Thank you very much for this excellent video!
That was neat. More such visits would be welcome. The city scenes were quite fascinating, too, and gave colour and background to you and your work.
Elina, Thank you for a great video, nice educational content. I especially like the "oops" nuclear accident scene, you are so funny, such a great communicator. I hope you love your job and are well compensated.
It's a beautiful sample. I love these lab videos, and you look so natural in your lab coat.
Oh thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed them! So do I !☢️👩🏽🔬
I loved the bow on your jacket… and the ribbon/lanyard? on your backpack. Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦
Fascinating to see inside the lab. It would be interesting to see the whole process from natural to it’s various man-made (female-made?) forms.
While some may have panicked 🫣when you nearly dropped the pellet, I’ve seen Homer Simpson drop countless glowing green pellets and he’s never caused an explosion…🤣
I like the lab tours! Also, love how you're using a Geiger counter as a microphone in the end
Recent subscriber, I just found your content a few days ago and I'm already hooked! I don't work in the field, but I'm really passionate and excited about nuclear energy. I enjoy these videos with higher levels of technical detail since a lot of stuff out there is generally pretty vague.
I'm definitely interested in hearing more about your work, count me in
Ex safeguards here. Have you any internal MBAs? Basically do you track the whereabouts of “stuff” from storage location to work station and back again? Why do you have UFl4? And where was your personal dosimeter?
I know it's not quite a science question, but the collection of pins on your lab coat reminds me of various groups that make pins to trade with other people when they meet at conferences/competitions - I'm curious if that's true for nuclear physicists and if there's any particular interesting ones in the collection?
Have just started following your UA-cam videos and am so glad that there are actual experts, such as yourself, that take the time to try and allay peoples fear of this incredibly useful resource. As an Engineer, I deal in facts, not emotions and this is what I love about your presentations -Facts, Not emotions. Keep doing what you are doing.
Nice video, thanks! It will be interesting to see the uranium nitrate video to understand why you are working in this. Did you still had oxygen in the Ziploc bag? Were you pumping the air and then injecting argon or only injecting argon in that tube?
The ziplock bag must be half open when entering the glove box (to remove all oxygen in it). Once inside the glove box it can be sealed all the way.
To flush the tube you remove oxygen by using a vacuum pump and fill with Ar
As a chemist, that was pretty refreshing to watch. Cheers from Montreal!
You are even more relatable now, you start your day with a coffee. However, you finish it by speaking into a Geiger counter. Thanks for explaining those things that made us think "I've wondered about that." Now we know.
Thank you for the lab video.
Two questions:
1) You showed natural uranium, we know it contains 0.7% U235.
What is the level of enrichment of the Uranium dioxide and Uranium nitrate?
2) The glove box you kindly showed is meant to protect the samples mostly; the samples are few mm from the fingers of the operator.
Do you have the other type of box with manipulator arms, meant to protect the operator from the radiation of the samples?
Thank you again for showing the practical side of particle physics, it is very appreciated.
Greetings,
Anthony
Hey hi! loved the video! i wish you could've compared the weight of the different metals against steel for example. It always amazed me how much lead weights compared to other metals of the same size, i assume it would be kind of the same for your samples
One mole of iron weighs 55.847 g. One mole of uranium hexafluoride weighs 352.02g . A mole of uranium weighs roughly 238 g.
@@ronmaximilian6953 yeah, it weights so much more than it seems unreal for the size. When i've been dealing with tugnsten its just weird.... same with lead and gold, people dont realize how much gold actually weights. Seeing those small pellets made me wonder how much they actually weight in contrast to their steel conterparts
@@ronmaximilian6953 I am not a chemist or scientist and I do not know what a mole is other than those that crawl underground. Please explain. Thanks
@@dickb2128 The mole (mol) is a standard unit of weight measurement for particles, atoms, and molecules. It's basically a way of quickly converting the molecular weight to grams.
I haven't taken chemistry since sophomore year of high school, 30 years ago. (I suddenly feel old.) Nonetheless come I tell you that finding the actual weight of a molecule or element can be quite important. For instance, let's say you want to know how much sodium you're taking in a tablespoon of salt. It weighs 17.1 g. While it's true that salt is made of 50% sodium, it you're not getting 8.55 g of sodium. You're actually getting 6.635 g of sodium, because sodium weighs much less than chlorine. And the way you measure this is by using moles.
You should feel what a jar of mercury is like. It kind of short circuits your brain, because it's so dense that lead will actually float on it, but your brain can't reconcile a liquid that heavy at first.
I appreciate that Elina expresses herself and doesn't wear the bare minimum of flair
Lovely video, Elina ! :-) ...very informative ! I always believed that such information , critical to human wellbeing should not be kept secret, but widely propagated for the benefit of the common man ! Thanks a zillion ! 🙂 THIS INFORMATION ON URANIUM IS PROVIDED BY NUCLEAR PHYSICIST DR.ELINA CHARATSIDOU !
I thank you for a very informative video. I am from South Africa and I am an electrical engineer and are a self taught mechanical engineer who loves science a lot. Keep up the good work, we admire you and your work
I was getting a Bionerd23 vibe from this video. I miss Bionerd so much, she was awesome with nuke stuff
What happened to Bionerd23?
@@WhiskeySharpShooterradiation sickness ?
no she was visiting pripyat illegally and got threatened to be kicked out of ukraine never to be able to step on it again@@anonyfamous42
@@anonyfamous42 got a bit overzealous playing with radioactive stuff in the zone, so got banned from it, afaik. Guess decided not to film her adventures anymore
@@WhiskeySharpShooter She got leukemia sadly but not surprisingly
I've always been very interested in chemistry and the like and your channel is amazing. There is so much misconception out there regrading Uranium and nuclear subjects that it's great to see you sharing your in-depth knowledge with everyone. Thanks so much for creating the video.
Wowww what an amazing different idea of a video. Makes me feel closer to what you are actually doing in a lab. So much new and interesting information. Amazing can't wait for your next video ❤️❤️
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank youuuuu👩🏽🔬☢️
Elina, I'm a physicist. You are doing a great GREAT job. Keep up the good and brave work.
Hi Elina , I really enjoyed watching your video. I am a physics student studying third year of BSC. I live in India. To you, I have a few questions, about any topic in physics when a student writes a thesis for Ph.D , Does the student then have to do any laboratory experiments for that particular thesis paper before writing his/her own thesis? My second question is, when a student does his/her own experiment in the lab, are other students present in that lab? And when a student does an experiment for his/her own PhD, can another student help that student or does that student have to complete his/her own experiment for his own PhD ?
Great video! I had never considered that you could just stick your left hand into the "right" arm hole to get better access. Very smart.
Ahahaha indeed!☢️👩🏽🔬
OMFG THIS IS SOMETHING THAT I'VE WANTED TO DO FOR YEARS. I want to get a chance to hold uranium in my (gloved) hands just so I can feel how crazy dense the metal is. I won't handle it without gloves because of the heavy metal toxicity, but it has been on my nerdy bucket list for many years now.
I want to hold some plutonium in one hand, and some antimatter in the other. 🙂 no gloves for me thanks.
It's as dense as gold or tungsten. If you've held a nice big gold coin or bar or if you've held a tungsten counterweight it's the same thing.
Σε άκουγα τόση ώρα στο βίντεο, χωρίς να προσέξω το όνομα σου και έλεγα "Ελληνική προφορά έχουν αυτα τα αγγλικά, λες να είναι ελληνίδα?" Μπράβο σου για όσα έχεις πετύχει, πραγματικά θα ήθελα να είμαι στη θέση σου, αν και ξέρω ότι δεν έχω ούτε το μυαλό σου, ούτε την προσήλωση που είχες για να φτάσεις ως εδω. Σου εύχομαι ό,τι καλύτερο! Αν και δεν σε γνωρίζω, σαν Έλληνας είμαι υπερήφανος για σένα!
When the Geiger counter spiked for just natural uranium 😳
It is because I almost touch the detector window on the uranium piece, and it is the alpha radiation (since U is primarily alpha emitter) that is detected. However, a particles travel only a few mm and even at the distance where my hand is they aren’t reaching anymore.
If you notice when I do not approach the U but am still very close to it the detector barely makes a noise. Thank you for the comment though, I hope I cleared our your question. Let me know if sth is unclear.☢️👩🏽🔬
@@YourFriendlyNuclearPhysicist Hey, i want to pursue in medical field but I want learn about nuclear physics too.. it's a very interesting subject. Can I be able to learn the subject? I dont care about experiments and all
It hurt my ears
Thank you so much for this tour! I had no idea a geiger counter could make that sound!
This was great! Your commute to work looks different but feels the same. Your work is definitely different from mine, but you are very good at explaining it 😀
"the day after" was my source for nuclear fact in the 80's lmao😄 imagine the shock when i find out the people that invented bigfoot also invented radioactive myth 😂
Looks like the glovebox is a positive pressure system to keep Oxygen out rather than a negative one to keep contaminates in.
Would be interesting to see both the manufacturing process and what you do with them as well as anticipated benefits over existing systems.
@@dariojurisic Doesn't take much to do the job. Still, the gloves inflated out, not in.
I'll admit, I wasn't expecting Linus Drop tips halfway through when I started up this vid!
Also, I didn't know they made uranium parma violets /s
Back to being serious, an excellet dive into the process and design of fuel. An exellent watch for those who want more info on nuclear energy fuels. Wonderful explanation. Please keep up the epic work. :3
Loved it and would love to hear more about your research with Uranium Nitride pellets. What advantages does it have compared to normal oxide fuels.
PS: to camera-person: would love to see more close ups, especially of the smaller samples. Thanks 👍
I second both of these :)
A very welcome recommendation from the algorithm. Thank you for this. The whole subject of nuclear technology in general is really cool, bringing it more to the public is a wonderful gift.
Hi from Canada 🇨🇦 I’m very interested in your videos - thank you for your explanations and experiences. Wondered if you could do a video where you explain how and why you decided to get into nuclear physics. Thanks in advance!
Ps I have a second cousin that worked at a Nuclear facility here in Canada.
Lol janitor
I've only recently discovered your channel and after watching the thorium video, subscribed straight away. I would love to say I hadn't been influenced by movies and tv shows, but I was kind of expecting uranium to be glowing green and giving everything around it an extra eye. Great video.
Thank you Elina. This is very interesting. I would very much like to know more about the uranium nitrate fuel. Is it potentially used for SMR reactors? I'm also curious what the U-235 concentration is between the 2 fuels. (if you can't say I understand, lol nuclear fuel) Thank you!
What brand of lab coat are you wearing? I work in a wire harness shop and I could use a coat like that. It looks nice and thick.
Must have taken a lot of approval to make this live video
Dear Elina, thanx for great information. Voice is miracle and metbodology of teaching is superb.
Your English is remarkable
Your channel is amazing!!
I love Nuclear stuff and learning from experts!!
Ah, but what does it taste like? Spicy I bet.
Apparently plutonium is sweet. According to a chernobyl clean up worker. I'm not kidding.
@@shredx7169 related to lead, not surprised.
Hi Elina, thank you for this exciting trip to your workspace. Appreciate this cool video! Best wishes
My like button is for the BLUE/YELLOW ribbon and fluffy round thing on the backpack. Slava Ukraini !
The green stuff (UF4) is what I've personally handled the most in the past, even though it was a byproduct from working with UF6 gas (Hex). It would actually start as a rather blue color that would turn green from exposure to moisture in air and release HF gas (very nasty stuff).
I do remember it being one of our radiation safety rules to always wear safety glasses when handling it in the lab even in containers for protection from beta, so was a bit surprised you weren't wearing glasses. Although I do remember measuring beta from samples in containers and not getting that much (but a much higher count when outside of a container), so it's probably just a difference in safety measures between Europe and the US. I know the US nuclear industry goes to some pretty extreme lengths when it comes to nuclear safety.
Very much liked the talking into a pancake probe like a microphone at the end lol. Great video!
Uranium is afraid of sister.
Well done you speak fantastic English and your work is extraordinary. You're so fascinating and knowledgeable to watch !! Keep up the good work! You will go far.
Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦
Героям Слава!🇺🇦
I enjoy how you show radioactive things and nuclear energy in the way that they really are. Thank you for showing the facts in a rational and scientific way instead of the traditional sensationalism/fear mongering we see in mainstream media.
You have one of the coolest jobs in the planet. Thanks for sharing a glimpse of what's going on at your workplace.
Thank You very much, for showing us how to handle high-energy-density material. I am glad you don't have a demon core in your lab, that you keep apart with some coins and a screwdriver to keep it apart from reaching critical mass.
Most accidents appear from scientists, who that never experienced how to handle dangerous
material. It doesn't matter if biological, chemical, or nuclear.
I think only lab procedures exist, but it is hard to find literature about it. That makes it very difficult to handle highly radioactive matter or leftovers from any reactor.
This really needs to be seen by everyone
Great video! Really enjoyed learning about uranium and you speak so elegantly! Keep them coming!
Thanks Elina for another wonderful and informative video.
Glad you enjoyed it!☢️👩🏽🔬
THANK YOU for the interesting video Elina.
I love this video, it included your daily routine from home to work, you rocked up in the videoing as well, cold and look nice weather there!
Lovely demonstration, thanks a lot from EGYPT
excellent video ! At first I was sceptical about the safety of these material but you changed my mind!
Thank you, Elina! This is fascinating! Thus is the first video watching of yours. Wow! Great job! Keep up this amazing work. So much information is great for us to all know.
Great Video Elina, Thank you so much for sharing such a piece of important information. please keep it up.
Do not endanger your body... Radiation is cumulative...No point to add more risk...
We need more people like you explaining things about radio active materials there isnt enough information and demonstrations etc on such materials
that was amazing. very interesting video, would love to see more of that. 👍
Awesome! Very informative and enjoyable learning experience.
Awesome video. The most relatable part of the video is you waking up, just getting coffee and go to work 😅
Brilliant video, thanks for sharing 👍
When I worked in aviation I would handle the wingtip end weight bars made of depleted uranium with normal gloves and no special protective gear. All I recall is that was way heaver than lead.
Often these sorts of weights are nickle-plated, which prevents them from breaking down, and also stops any remaining alpha activity.
Finally I ended up in really interesting content, thanks for sharing that! by the way, I loved the pins on lab coat
Loved this. No music, pure explanation. Subscribed 👍🏻
Just discovered your channel today. Very interesting topic and i really love your greek accent😉
Great video! Loved the "microphone" at the end.
One extra wish for future video production on site: please, run the footage through software image stabilization because the video felt like a bit too shakey. The image quality seemed ok so software stabilization should work just fine. There was also audio/video sync problem at the start but it might have been voice-over to workaround poor quality audio.
Loved this video, the lab and the explanations.
They was crazy that WestingHouse makes Uranium pellets, because i bought my TV from Westinghouse 11 years ago and it still works
Loved this video Elina. Great work.
When I was in High School in one of the labs were two aluminium cans with screw-lids of uranium oxide. One day, curiousity got the better of me and a friend and we unscrewed one of the cans exposing the contents to a Geiger counter. The count went from background to about 20,000 per minute. Maybe not the best idea but 57 years later I am still here!
Interesting info!
11:00 - "Nitrider... A shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a woman... who does not exist."
This was very informative and fun!
Over 30 years ago my brother in law was a foreman at a solution ground water mine. They used 8000 gal of ammonia per day to make the uranium oxide soluble then a polymer column was used to extract the Uranium from the water. Then the yellow cake was worth $6 / lb in 55 gal drums. He was not concerned about radiation.
Using the probe of the Geiger counter as a “microphone” was a nice touch.
It’s great to see you dispelling myths surrounding the nuclear industry. How about a similar video where the uranium being handled is U-232?