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Leaching uranium ore

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Proud Mary

Tue Mar 17 2009, 11:42PM

Registered Member #543 Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992

big5824 wrote ...

As long as you are smart you aren't going to get caught, just make sure you dont do it too obviously and keep it well shielded incase of the rare chance that someone with a geiger counter walks by :)

I couldn't disagree with you more, lad. Cheats never prosper, and an open and honest approach to our hobby is the way to shake off the 'mad Frankenstein' image of the amateur scientist, where people imagine that our interest in science springs from some desire to do harm.

At my elementary level of understanding, amateur science is an unending adventure in learning new ideas and new technical skills, something of which one is proud that should be out in the sunshine, where others can see what a good thing it is an join in with our enthusiasm. Skulduggery behind closed doors is not a forward step!

Bored Chemist

Wed Mar 18 2009, 06:52AM

Registered Member #193 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022

I agree with you about being open but I still think that the regulations nly apply to business or proffessional work. An individual isn't. so far as I can see, covered even if he has stuff that is on the schedules.

Proud Mary

Wed Mar 18 2009, 09:57AM

Registered Member #543 Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992

Bored Chemist wrote ...

I agree with you about being open but I still think that the regulations nly apply to business or proffessional work. An individual isn't. so far as I can see, covered even if he has stuff that is on the schedules.

Perhaps you are right, and I have lost my way in all the clumsy legal backwards and forwards of the Act.

However, if we recall the Great Ricin Plot That Never Was, and set to one side the 1993 Act, and imagine a tabloid 'terror' plot involving 'dirty bombs' made from pitchblende leachates, could we then doubt that a whole array of nuclear-related legislation originally conceived for other purposes would not then be harnessed into a prosecution?

In a world where the youth with Asperger's Sydrome, who recently set fire to himself in a restaurant toilet with a crude pyrotechnic 'bomb' is characterized as a major threat to national security, the lone experimenter who hides or conceals an interest in homebrew radio-chemistry is setting themselves up for either tragic misunderstanding, or -worse - purposive, directed, misrepresentation of the type seen in The Ricin Plot That Never Was.

Perhaps this is just the excessive caution of an old bloke who doesn't want anyone to have any fun. I wonder....

Harry.

You don't need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

Steve Conner

Wed Mar 18 2009, 11:01AM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Sometimes it seems that it's human nature to fear anyone with half a brain. Personally I suspect that it's jealousy: half a brain is half a brain more than the average politician has.

However, 4hv has always had this kind of "extreme chemistry" trend, where our younger members seem to get kicks out of fantasizing dangerous experiments and making forum posts about what they're going to do. If we start going on about terrorism, radioactive substances acts and so on, then that just encourages them, because they think they found something dangerous enough to impress people. I remember one of our members actually got busted by the police and wouldn't stop bragging about it.

Needless to say I don't think this is a good trend. What does the original poster want uranium peroxide for anyway? You don't get an Eagle Scout badge in nuclear engineering any more, since the Cold War ended.

Proud Mary

Wed Mar 18 2009, 02:05PM

Registered Member #543 Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992

What normal lad doesn't want the bangs and flashes of 'extreme chemistry," Steve?

The shame is that history has taken a sinister turn. Half a century ago I could buy conc H2SO4, conc HNO3 and sticks of white phosphorous from a local chemist's shop after a few brief questions from the apothecary, but today the mere desire to possess such things could form a prima facie case good enough for the purposes of the Terror Factory.

My own feeling is that the best defence for the lone experimenter is complete openness and visibility.

A previous generation of older folk might have worried that youngsters would harm themselves in badly executed experiments, but today, as one of those nonogenarians looking on, my fear is that the same youngsters as once I was will end up criminalized by a society which dislikes exceptions.

usaman65

Wed Mar 18 2009, 09:30PM

Registered Member #1364 Joined: Thu Feb 28 2008, 09:09PM
Location:
Posts: 55

Im into geiger counters and that sort of thing. I find it fun. I just wanted to know if there were any regulations i should be abiding by beine located in the USA.

kev

Bored Chemist

Thu Mar 19 2009, 06:52AM

Registered Member #193 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022

I'm not a lawyer but my understanding is that I can extract uranium here in the UK as long as I'm not doing it as part of any business, but in "the land of the free" it's forbidden.

Scott Fusare

Thu Mar 19 2009, 03:49PM

Registered Member #531 Joined: Sat Feb 17 2007, 10:51AM
Location: Burlington, Vermont
Posts: 125

Perhaps "DaJJHman" could provide a reference to the applicable US law? I don't believe that he is correct on this. There may indeed be applicable laws that would apply to enrichment (an all but impossible task anyway) but I doubt there is for extraction of U compounds. Consider that elemental uranium is a greater heavy metal risk than a radiological hazard, I don't know why "THEY" would care.

For the record I am in the states and I have extracted small amounts of of uranium compounds from medium grade ore. It's hardly worth the effort other than for the adventure.

usaman65

Thu Mar 19 2009, 10:29PM

Registered Member #1364 Joined: Thu Feb 28 2008, 09:09PM
Location:
Posts: 55

Q. how many grams did you extract? i want to see if i can get around an ounce. plus how many pounds did you process?

kev

Chris

Thu Mar 19 2009, 10:35PM

Registered Member #8 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:34AM
Location: Harlowton, MT, United States
Posts: 214

If you are just interested in a small radioactive sample for element collection/geiger counter use, I might suggest you look to a commonly available and easily extracted source of thorium. There is one in the TIG welding industry.

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