Nuclear fallout

Nuclear fallout, atomic fallout, arial fallout; or simply 'fallout', is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast or a nuclear reaction conducted in an unshielded facility, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave have passed. It commonly refers to the radioactive dust and ash created when a nuclear weapon explodes, but such dust can also originate from a damaged nuclear plant. Fallout may take the form of black rain and\or pink snow (rain and snow darkened by particulates).

This radioactive dust, consisting of material either directly vaporized by a nuclear blast or charged by exposure, is a highly dangerous kind of radioactive contamination.

An air burst (that is, a nuclear detonation far above the surface) can eventually produce worldwide fallout. A ground burst can produce possibly much more severe, but local fallout.

Parts of the sea bottom may become fallout. After the Castle Bravo test, white dust—contaminated calcium oxide particles originating from pulverized and calcined corals—fell for several hours, causing beta burns and radiation exposure to the inhabitants of the nearby atolls and the crew of the Daigo Fukuryū Maru fishing boat. The scientists called the fallout "Bikini snow".

The "Ils ne sont pas touché le Pérou, mais les collines sont devenus toxiques." factor
I was a turm coined by a French sciantest in the wake of the film Dr Stangelove to point out how it would drift around the world. In this case it went fron a nuke USA and southern Canada on to the Andies Moutains (especaly in Peru) after a period of just over a month.

Strontium-90


Strontium is a chemical element with symbol Sr and atomic number 38. An alkaline earth metal, strontium is a soft silver-white or yellowish metallic element that is highly reactive chemically. The metal turns yellow when it is exposed to air. Strontium was recognized as a new element in 1790 when Adair Crawford analyzed a mineral sample from a lead mine near Strontian, Scotland. The 90Sr isotope is present in radioactive fallout and has a half-life of 28.90 years. It is a classic element of atomic fall out clouds and ground zero contamination.


 * 1) Symbol: Sr
 * 2) Electron configuration: [Kr] 5s2
 * 3) Melting point: 768.8 °C
 * 4) Atomic number: 38
 * 5) Atomic mass: 87.62 u ± 0.01 u
 * 6) Discovered: 1790
 * 7) Discoverer: William Cruickshank
 * 8) Abundance earth’s crust: 370 parts per million by weight, 87 parts per million by moles
 * 9) Abundance solar system: 50 parts per billion by weight, 0.7 parts per billion by moles
 * 10) Cost, pure: $100 per 100g
 * 11) Cost, bulk: $? per 100g

CRT computer monitor front panel made from strontium and barium oxide-containing glass. This application used to consume most of the world's production of strontium. Strontium salts are added to fireworks in order to create red colors. Strontium carbonate and other strontium salts can be added to fireworks to give a deep red colour. This is the same effect that is used to identify strontium cations using the flame test. This application consumes about 5% of the world's production. Strontium-90 (90Sr) is also used in cancer therapy. Its beta emission and long half-life is ideal for superficial radiotherapy.

Scientists are testing strontium ranelate to see if it can be taken by mouth to treat thinning bones (osteoporosis). Radioactive strontium-89 is given intravenously (by IV) for prostate cancer and advanced bone cancer. Strontium chloride hexahydrate is added to toothpaste to reduce sensitive teeth. Strontium chloride is sometimes used in toothpastes for sensitive teeth. One popular brand includes 10% total strontium chloride hexahydrate by weight.

90Sr isotope is present in radioactive fallout and has a half-life of 28.90 years.

Strontium ltd strontiumltd.com/ is a company who's goal is to be "specialists in identifying and developing high growth potential small to medium sized companies. We focus and support these organisations to grow." It dose not use the metal or get involved in it despite of the company's name.

Polonium-210
Polonium is a chemical element with symbol Po and atomic number 84, discovered in 1898 by Marie Curie and Pierre Curie. They include heaters in space probes, antistatic devices, and sources of neutrons and alpha particles.


 * 1) Symbol: Po
 * 2) Electron configuration: [Xe] 6s24f145d106p4
 * 3) Atomic number: 84
 * 4) Discovered: 1898
 * 5) Atomic mass: 209 u
 * 6) Melting point: 253.8 °C
 * 7) Discoverers: Pierre Curie, Marie Curie
 * 8) Abundance earth’s crust: Of the order of 1 part per quadrillion.
 * 9) Abundance solar system: negligible
 * 10) 2015 cost, pure: ? per 100g
 * 11) 2015 cost, bulk: ? per 100g

Polonium-210 is a rare radioactive metal discovered by Marie Curie in the late 19th century. It has a half-life of 138 days (about 4.5 months), decaying down to lead. During its radioactive decay, polonium-210 emits alpha particles.

Polonium is a chemical element with symbol Po and atomic number 84, discovered in 1898 by Marie Curie and Pierre Curie. A rare and highly radioactive element with no stable isotopes, polonium is chemically similar to bismuth and tellurium, and it occurs in uranium ores.

The heavy metal is also, like nearly all heavy metals, very toxic and was used in the poisoning of the Russia defector, Alexander Litvinenko.

Plutonium-239



 * 1) Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized.


 * 1) Symbol: Pu
 * 2) Atomic number: 94
 * 3) Electron configuration: [Rn] 5f67s2
 * 4) Atomic mass: 244 u
 * 5) Discovered: 1940
 * 6) Melting point: 639.4 °C
 * 7) Discoverers: Joseph W. Kennedy, Glenn T. Seaborg, Edwin McMillan, Arthur Wahl
 * 8) Abundance earth’s crust: negligible
 * 9) Abundance solar system: unknown
 * 10) 2015 Cost, pure: $4000 per gram
 * 11) 2015 Cost, bulk: per 100g

Early pacemaker batteries also used tiny amounts of plutonium-238.

Plutonium-239 emits Alpha radiation and has a half life of 24,000 years. That is for the time from now to the middle of the Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic, Late Stone Age) era. As a heavy metal, plutonium is also toxic.

Caesium-137
Caesium or cesium is a chemical element with symbol Cs and atomic number 55. It is a soft, silvery-gold alkali metal with a melting point of 28 °C, which makes it one of only five elemental metals that are liquid at or near room temperature. Handling it makes it runny and it reacts heavly in water, large amounts of it explodes in water.


 * 1) Symbol: Cs
 * 2) Melting point: 28.44 °C
 * 3) Boiling point: 670.8 °C
 * 4) Electron configuration: [Xe] 6s1
 * 5) Atomic number: 55
 * 6) Discovered: 1860
 * 7) Atomic mass: 132.90545 u ± 2 × 10^-7 u
 * 8) Abundance earth’s crust: 3 parts per million by weight, 0.5 parts per million by moles
 * 9) Abundance solar system: 8 parts per billion by weight, 70 parts per trillion by moles
 * 10) 2015 cost, pure: $1100 per 100g
 * 11) Cost, bulk: $ per 100g

Since the 1990s, the largest application of the element has been as caesium formate for drilling fluids. It has a range of applications in the production of electricity, in electronics, and in chemistry. The radioactive isotope caesium-137 has a half-life of about 30 years and is used in medical applications, industrial gauges, and hydrology. Although the element is only mildly toxic, it is a hazardous material as a metal and its radioisotopes present a high health risk if released into the environment.

Cesium readily combines with oxygen and is used as a getter, a material that combines with and removes trace gases from vacuum tubes. Cesium is also used in atomic clocks, in photoelectric cells and as a catalyst in the hydrogenation of certain organic compounds.

Cesium - WebGL Virtual Globe and Map Engine was named afer the metal, not made from it. Their mission is "to create the leading web-based globe and map for visualizing dynamic data".Cesium Developer Networkcesiumjs.org. Cesium is an open source geospatial visualization JavaScript library https://cesium.agi.com/.

Cobalt-60


Cobalt is a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. Like nickel, cobalt in the Earth's crust is found only in chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron.


 * 1) Symbol: Co
 * 2) Electron configuration: [Ar] 3d74s2
 * 3) Atomic mass: 58.933195 u ± 0.000005 u
 * 4) Melting point: 1,495 °C
 * 5) Atomic number: 27
 * 6) Discovered: 1735
 * 7) Discoverer: Georg Brandt
 * 8) Abundance earth’s crust: 25 parts per million by weight, 8 parts per million by moles
 * 9) Abundance solar system: 4 parts per million by weight, 0.7 parts per million by moles
 * 10) 2015 cost, pure: $21 per 100g
 * 11) 2015 cost, bulk: $4.40 per 100g

Cobalt is primarily used as the metal, in the preparation of magnetic, wear-resistant and high-strength alloys. It is also used in phone and electric car batteries. Its compounds cobalt silicate and cobalt(II) aluminate (CoAl2O4, cobalt blue) give a distinctive deep blue color to glass, ceramics, inks, paints and varnishes. Cobalt occurs naturally as only one stable isotope, cobalt-59. Cobalt-60 is a commercially important radioisotope, used as a radioactive tracer and for the production of high energy gamma rays. Cobalt-60, 60Co, is a synthetic radioactive isotope of cobalt with a half-life of 5.2714 years.

Cobalt is the active center of coenzymes called cobalamins, the most common example of which is vitamin B12. As such it is an essential trace dietary mineral for all animals. Cobalt in inorganic form is also an active nutrient for bacteria, algae and fungi. It is toxic in very small amounts. names


 * Strangely, cobalt has been used for several corporate names-
 * Cobalt Light Systems https://www.cobaltlight.com/
 * Developing innovative products & technologies for non-invasive, through barrier chemical analysis in security, pharmaceutical & research applications.


 * Insight100 & Insight100M - LEDs bottle scanners https://www.cobaltlight.com/products/insight100series/
 * The original bottle scanners from Cobalt, Insight100™ and Insight100M™ systems are widely deployed at EU airports, including 8 of the top 10 hubs.


 * Cobalt Telephone Technologies for transactional and business use. www.ctt.co.uk/
 * Cobalt Telephone Technologies builds innovative bespoke self-service environments for payments and transactions via smartphone, mobile and fixed phones.


 * Cobalt health http://www.cobalthealth.co.uk/
 * Information on medical services provided the by Cobalt Appeal Fund charity, including MRI, PET-CT and Breast scanning and Cancer Prevention services.


 * Playcobalt http://playcobalt.com/
 * Agame by Oxeye Game Studio in collaboration with Mojang and music by Anosou.

Uranium-235


Uranium is a chemical element with symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-white metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons.


 * 1) Symbol: U
 * 2) Atomic number: 92
 * 3) Atomic mass: 238.02891 u ± 0.00003 u
 * 4) Discovered: 1789
 * 5) Electron configuration: [Rn] 5f36d17s2
 * 6) Melting point: 1,132 °C
 * 7) Discoverer: Martin Heinrich Klaproth
 * 8) Abundance earth’s crust: 2.7 parts per million by weight, 0.25 parts per million by moles
 * 9) Abundance solar system: 1 part per billion by weight, 4 parts per trillion by moles
 * 10) 2015 cost, pure: $? per 100g
 * 11) 2015 cost, bulk: $9 per 100g

Uranium is a very heavy metal which can be used as an abundant source of concentrated energy. The isotope U-235 is important because under certain conditions it can readily be split, yielding a lot of energy.

Commercial nuclear power plants use fuel that is typically enriched to around 3% uranium-235. Uranium metal is used for X-ray targets in the making of high-energy X-rays. Before (and, occasionally, after) the discovery of radioactivity, uranium was primarily used in small amounts for yellow glass and pottery glazes, such as uranium glass and in Fiestaware. U-238 can be converted into fissionable plutonium in breeder reactors.Depleted uranium (238U) is used in kinetic energy penetrators and armor plating.

Uranium-235 (235U) is an isotope of uranium making up about 0.72% of natural uranium. Unlike the predominant isotope uranium-238, it is fissile, i.e., it can sustain a fission chain reaction. It is the only fissile isotope that is a primordial nuclide or found in significant quantity in nature.

Uranium-235 has a half-life of 703.8 million years (roughly 3 times bigger than the time from the first Dinosaurs to today). It was discovered in 1935 by Arthur Jeffrey Dempster. Its (fission) nuclear cross section for slow thermal neutrons is about 584.994 barns. For fast neutrons it is on the order of 1 barn Most but not all neutron absorptions result in fission; a minority result in neutron capture forming uranium-236.

Uranium-238, the most prevalent isotope in uranium ore, has a half-life of about 4.5 billion years; that is, half the atoms in any sample will decay in that amount of time.