[ RadSafe ] LAT Article: Florida pawnshop's radioactive surprise("Yellow cake")

[Jeff Terry]

Reminds me of an experiment that I did in a class that I taught a few  
years ago.

We ashed 100 pounds (45 kg) of bananas to isolate the potassium. Did  
the store clerk every give us a dirty look when we were checking out.  
I think that she thought we were a bit disjointed.

Anyway, we isolated 200 g of potassium from the 45 kg of bananas so  
about 24 mg was K-40.

We counted it with a low energy Ge detector, low efficiency but could  
observe a peak.

The students really liked that experiment. You need to be careful  
with those "hot" bananas.

Jeff



On Mar 12, 2007, at 11:44 AM, Conklin, Al (DOH) wrote:

> It's a good thing they don't know what I've got buried around my  
> office;
> "deadly" red fiesta ware, several "nuclear" autonite crystals, about
> three dozen "dangerous" lantern mantles, a "life threatening" radium
> dial clock and a compass, a can of "horrifying" salt substitute.  
> When I
> go out to do training, and take along my props, I'm a walking nuclear
> nightmare. I might even take a "hot" banana for my lunch.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
> Behalf Of John Jacobus
> Sent: Monday, March 12, 2007 9:15 AM
> To: radsafe; know_nukes at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [ RadSafe ] LAT Article: Florida pawnshop's radioactive
> surprise("Yellow cake")
>
>
> http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na- 
> uranium12mar12,1
> ,2145801.story?coll=la-news-a_section
>
> Florida pawnshop's radioactive surprise
>
> A small amount of yellowcake uranium is discovered among rocks from an
> estate sale.
>
> By Stephen Hudak
> Orlando Sentinel
>
> March 12, 2007
>
> BELLEVIEW, FLA. - Every blue moon or so, collectibles dealer and
> pawnshop owner Frank Cafaro stumbles upon a buried gem among an  
> estate's
> junk and tchotchkes.
>
> His latest find was so alarming he called firefighters.
>
> "We were in the warehouse and we pulled out this box of rocks from an
> estate sale," Cafaro said.
> "Everything was individually labeled. Amethyst. Topaz.
> Uranium. The guy I'm working with says, 'What's that last one?  
> Uranium?
> I think that's illegal.' "
>
> Within an hour, Gold Mine Pawn was swarming last week with about three
> dozen emergency workers, including Geiger-counter-waving members of a
> hazardous materials team and the Marion County Sheriff's Office  
> domestic
> security task force.
>
> They focused on a container the size of a soup can.
> Labeled with radioactive markings, the container protected a vial that
> held about an ounce of yellowcake uranium, a processed mineral  
> that, in
> larger quantities, could be used to make fuel for nuclear reactors or
> enriched for weapons.
>
> In 2003, President Bush justified the decision to invade Iraq, in  
> part,
> on a now-discredited intelligence report that claimed former Iraqi
> President Saddam Hussein had tried to buy tons of yellowcake,  
> presumably
> to manufacture weapons of mass destruction.
>
> "It was kind of scary when I heard how terrible this stuff was,"  
> Cafaro
> said.
>
> The mineral, which Cafaro traced to an estate sale in Miami about 10
> years ago, was turned over to the Florida Department of Health for
> disposal.
>
> Yellowcake, also known as uranium oxide, is far from being a
> weapons-grade material, said Talat Rahman, chairman of the physics
> department at the University of Central Florida. She said it did not
> pose a serious threat in small quantities.
>
> "Yellowcake by itself is not dangerous," Rahman said.
> "It has to be processed to be converted into something dangerous."
>
> Sharon Gogerty, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law
> Enforcement, said small amounts of yellowcake were reported to the
> agency "on a regular basis" and were not considered especially
> dangerous.
>
>
> +++++++++++++++++++
> "We must face the fact that the United States is neither omnipotent or
> omniscient - that we are only 6 percent of the world's population;  
> that
> we cannot impose our will upon the other 94 percent of mankind;  
> that we
> cannot right every wrong or reverse each adversity; and therefore  
> there
> cannot be an American solution to every world problem."
> -- John F. Kennedy 
>
> -- John
> John Jacobus, MS
> Certified Health Physicist
> e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com
>
>
>
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