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The final part of my original plan, covering how plutonium is made for use in weapons, collected and compiled from public sources, this covers the isotopes and how they’re transformed by neutron bombardment and radioactive decay.
Thanks to https://twitter.com/ICBMDeputy for the Sandia Labs Shirt!
Not mentioned here : plutonium production makes lots of nasty byproducts. Being irradiated for so low time, the fuel elements have lots of contaminents in the form of deadly actiniums.
All of this crap is washed in the reprocessing plant, to end in wastes vats of semi-liquid highly radioactive and highly corrosives acids that needs cooling for years, and wich no one really knows how to dispose off. At Hanford, all theses tanks of Manhattan-era production days are still there, slowly leaking in the ground. In Russia, they’ve dumped everything in the infamously know Karatchai lake, the most polluted and deadly place on Earth (radiation exposure there is equivalent to approximately what occurs *inside* a reactor core).
Through the next centuries, environmental contamination from nuclear weapons production will probably ends in more death than the two puny bombs that were dropped on Japan…
Was it Richard Feynman who’s desk got liquid Plutonium spilt on it, so to recover it, he burnt the desk… as the only thing to survive after, was the plutonium.
Wasn’t plutonium fire one of the biggest hazards when they were trying to mitigate the situation at Tsjernobyl?
I have been in that room in X10. I live in Oak Ridge. X10 gets openned to the public about once a year.
Well, Scott. Hope to see you in The Verse sometime. But here on Planet Earth we may not make it.
Great video again, Scott. I don’t know if you are taking suggestions but, as a future video can you talk about NERVA nuclear rocket engines and their feasibility in future interplanetary projects? They sound insanely cool and effective.
Anytime something happens “on both sides of the Atlantic independently”…..it’s friggen scary!!!!
>government restarted pit production
DAMMIT U.S Government! I’m a machinist! I want to play with and make nuclear weapon parts!
Honestly, I don’t understand the appeal of plutonium.
For reactors, it’s far TOO unstable and its by-products are horrifically messy, with obscenely long half-lives. You have much smaller margins of error in handling before truly disastrous things can happen.
For weapons, it is admittedly easier to set off and more powerful (fission-wise, doesn’t boost fusion weapons by that much), but it decays quickly, is more dangerous to handle, and of course – is messier and leaves behind worse fallout when actually used. Oh, and you have to expend so much energy and resources just to MAKE it, so there’s that.
Honestly, I don’t see why anyone would choose plutonium for a reactor OR for a weapon. Uranium is just so much more convenient.
when that door stop part came up I was actually worried for brief second you were going to say Uranium.
When Scott Manley and Curious Droid each drop a nuclear video on the same day.
Going Nuclear Episode 8 – How to Get your hands on a chunk of plutonium to create your nuclear IED
What happened to your apollo escape tower? I saw another video like that I’m sure.
Was a bit worried this would never come out. Thanks for this series Scott, very interesting stuff
But I want to know about going FFSC RAPTOR!
Hey, That’s an SNL shirt!
That Sandia Labs logo looks a lot like the Thunderbird School of Global Management logo.
One question about plutonium production, is a future need for it, when we start using “Project Orion” style nuclear pulse propulsion in rockets.
Nothing else even close to coming off the drawing boards has nearly the potential for opening the Solar system, and it’s 1960s technology.
You have become Death, the destroyer of worlds…
Nice but please drop any future creepy background music it’s distracting at times
We must name the next element we discover “Scottimium”
You do find naturally occurring Plutonium but it is extremely rare
Ahhh. My favorite Scott manley series returns.
Thanks for the memories, since time at Hanford in the 80s
Excellent series Scott. Good to see a science based explanation rather than the hysterics you see in the media.
Loved the ominous/slightly threatening version of your “Fly safe” ending phrase.
The next stage in nuclear production: the TLC bomb. Peace, out.
I’m really hoping you make a video about FOGBANK. *crosses fingers*
Plutonium is certainly not a dwarf-element
I’m on so many lists now, thanks to you and Cody 😂😂
And I thought regular doorstops were too expensive.
Thank you Scott for sharing all your knowledge with us, you really have the best videos.
As someone just said: Just watched nuclear space explosions on curios droids channel, perfect”
I have that vid queued as my next vid to watch
i’m curious to know how much energy was required to mine, create, process etc to the amount of energy potential from the plutonium?
Fly safe aboard your nuclear explosion propulsed spacecraft
So, Scott, you’re only telling us all this because you want us to build nuclear reactors to power the spaceships that will colonize the Solar System. Right? Right? Right? 😅
This series is super cool. I’ve always had an interest but people going insane over Chernobyl lately has reignited my interest. So cool! Thanks for putting this together!
Great show – Very informative – Thanks for making
3:29 – Air-cooled nuclear reactor: REALLY BAD IDEA.
I just glanced at the title and for just a moment I thought that Scott Manley was declaring that he’s now a superpower.
There’s a buzz in your audio!
Fascinating stuff. Worth the watchlist worries!
OT:
During testing of the Raptor engine, the colour of the flame suddenly switches to green on the upper side of the exhaust.
Why does it change colour, and why only on one side?
Psst, would be lovely with links to the other parts in the series or at least the first one in the description 😉 greetings from a new subscriber! And whoa, so information dense, I could keep up for most of it but eyes glazed over at least once 😅
You have no idea how much I love these large-scale simulations.
Thank you Scott for taking the time for making this series,
ime fascinated by all things scientific but have struggled a little to fully digest Nuclear physics, its quite a fascinating subject with its material curiosity’s & transitions ect, & wish i had studied it when i was much younger.
Excellent well explained video’s, keep up the cracking productions, ive managed to much more knowledge absorbed since you begun your series,
from Luke in the UK
Hey, Vader is back again! Is there some kind of weird behavior to be expected from Scott, or us, when Vader is standing on the printer?
I felt this should’ve ended more like “I’m Scott Manley, React Safe!”
I still hope that you will cover fusion and get to visit NIF or maybe have a holiday in europe and get to see JET or even ITER. But NIF seems more like an option. so I hope they let you in
“The final part of my original plan” oh dear.
Thank you for this long awaited vid in the series.
I’ve honestly found these to be the most informative videos you’ve done about a subject I otherwise wouldn’t know. Right up there with the orbital mechanics vids.
So what happens to the 1% Gallium during the Plutonium fission reaction?
Loved the evil supergenius manner in which you signed off after mentioning the WMDs today Scott.
Oh god it’s been a while
I live in Washington and one of my neighbors used to work at Hanford. He has some really cool stories it’s very interesting stuff
Can’t wait for an episode about Thorium and LFTR’s.
I don’t have time to watch right now, but I’m really excited to watch later today!
It was so good, worth the wait.
I’m a nuclear engineer; your YouTube videos are spot on!
I once punched a sample of Uranium-235 *so hard*
that it turned into…
a sharp pain in my hand.
I can’t shake the thought of how it must have felt, if you were in a position of knowledge and responsibility within the nuclear bomb project in WWII. A science so far ahead, so unknown, and moving so quickly. I imagined it must have been a terrifying, dreadful feeling of “What on earth are we doing?”, every time you had a chance to contemplate it. That’s not even considering it as a weapon, just the nuclear science in general. Just the concept of these reactors and the atomic reactions happening inside of them must have felt incredibly intimidating.
I’m so glad, that I was able to sneak some technical bits about nuclear physics into my seminar work for a theatre seminar… I still wonder, how I even got into it 😂
Nice Video! I really like this series 👍
This series is fantastic. Like always, Thank you.
Hooray! Now I can finish that project I’ve been working on in my shed…
Hey Scott, where’d you get that Sandia Thunderbird shirt?
I just watched the whole series in a single row. One of the best and most informative I ever had. Can’t wait to start my own production! Seems easier than brewing beer.
Always looking forward to another Going Nuclear. Fascinating every time.
I hope this series goes on to “Episode 20”!
“A plutonium fire, which is something you do not want to happen” …understatement much?
This has been a fascinating series, Scott. Thanks for doing all the amazing research! Great presentation, as always. Fly Safe!
Finally, the next part of the You’re On A List Now series is out!
YAY! {[(THX)]} for [ *finally* ] concluding this series.
Awesome choice of background ambience too
Plutonium is just so phenomenally toxic and volatile… lovely stuff.
Wrong: (1) plutonium DOES occur naturally (though in very minute quantities), (2) is does NOT have a very short half-life (like transuranics).
Kim Jong Un had to sue for peace with the US to take time waiting for Scott Manley to upload this episode.
The “tender loving care” for the production of civilization ending weapons is a bit of an oxymoron.
At 12:25 the NNSA logo looks a bit like the word NASA at first glance (though completely different when compared).
OMG! I’m a chemist and I’ve never realized the U, Np, Pu nomenclature originated from the last three planets, and in order. Wait a minute, so if Pluto is no longer a regular planet, then Plutonium will have to be a dwarf element. 😂
you needed to mention the Windscale fire..
to show how stupidly dangerous those breeder piles were….
oxygen cooled piles of hot uranium and flammable graphite… what could go wrong?
Should have signed off this one….
“I’m Scott Manley. Die safe.”
Better than being on a watchlist for paedophilia.
Cherenkov radiation is a beautiful thing, beautiful but deadly…
Is Plutonium now a dwarf element?
Yay! So glad to see you continuing the series. The suspense was super critical to this excitement.😉
Toured Oak Ridge during my undergraduate, saw that exact breeder reactor from a few feet away, one of the coolest places I have ever been to and the only place I have ever been to with armed guards to welcome you at the main gate. Love the series.
People who have gotten to this point in the series deserve to hear this; nobody is going to end up on any government ‘watch list’ for watching it. Those people who are inclined to be so paranoid must never have been to the library and read any actual book on the topic; and there are plenty. An interesting fact is that some details about nuclear weapons and their development has been retroactively classified in the internet age. Back when I first became interested in the topic as a kid (in the 1990s), there seemed to be more of a casual attitude about nukes, the Cold War was over and practically everyone seemed to forgot about them, as if the risk disappeared. My teachers who for the most part were children during the height of the Cold War, were derisive of my interest in nuclear weapons. The entire concept to them seemed to be an intellectual dead end, an anachronism which stood in stark contrast to what seemed to be a brighter future in the ‘me generation’ 1990s.
Scot and Curious Droid both going nuclear this week.
With this knowledge, the west will be forced to respect the independence and sovereignty of glorious Sealand.
The Chigaco Pile is what I called the aftermath of my first deep dish pizza with extra anchovies and jalapenos
So in trying to explain beta decay to someone, I recognized that the normal way it is described a lie we tell to children about beta decay.
Basically, the idea that individual nucleons in the atom decay is just wrong. For instance, it makes sense with our lie to children version of beta decay that the more massive neutron emits something and becomes a lighter proton. However, this doesn’t explain beta + decay, where a proton will turn into an neutron! This is because atoms decay, not individual nucleons! Basically, atoms are really just emergent “stuff” of the quark/gluon interaction. The resulting stability or instability of this field will result in decays of the entire atom rather than individual parts. This resulting decay manifests in atomic parts seemingly changing from one thing to another, but this is just the result of a lower level process playing out. So this is how a light proton can decay into a heavier neutron.
More complexly is the idea that protons and neutrons don’t actually have a real mass. Their apparent mass is just the result of the strong interaction of this quark field. The mass of a proton and neutron are ever changing in response to many conditions in the atom. If you have an even amount of protons, the atom is more stable and each part “weighs” less. Same to for an even amount of neutrons. Also, there are these things call magical numbers, which are the atomic version of electron orbitals resulting in extra stable elements when the proper amount of nuclions exist in the atom…resulting in seemingly lighter constituent parts! Basically, the entire idea of mass, decay and such of the atom is really confusing and the way we have to explain it at first really betrays some of the more fundamental processes at work!
“Fly Safe”, he says as he teaches me how to make nukes… I mean, was I maybe NOT supposed to duct tape it under my lawn chair and use it for propulsion?
This is just about the best weapons-grade nerd porn I’ve seen in a couple of years. Keep it going, Scott!
Just wanted to add in. Anti-proliferation efforts include REQUIRING the ‘toasting’ of fuel in light-water reactors for a minimum amount of time to ensure the plutonium get sufficiently poisoned with Pu240 and Pu241. This works fairly well, as it’s kind of hard for a country to take a 1GWe reactor offline without anyone noticing.
As for being able to use it for a bomb, technically you can get plutonium like this to fission despite the Pu241 poisoning, but the Pu240 makes it very likley to pre-detonate or hamstring the yield with a pre-detonation, as you alluded to a year ago in this series. As for separating out the different isotopes, you technically could do it, but no one really has on an industrial level. It’s ridiculously inefficient, because instead of separating out essentially inert U238 from U235, with a 1.3% mass difference, you’re trying to separate out radioactive Pu239 from Pu240 with a mass difference of 0.4%
Which gaseous compound you make from the material to separated it can alter how different these mass-differences end up being, but you’re still stuck with having contaminated centrigues that require shielding and become very difficult to service and potentially need to be operating remotely. And this is ignoring all the chemistry-based shenanigans plutonium gets up to which you covered nicely in this video. The extra cost and difficulty and risk just isn’t worth it. It’s possible, but enriching Uranium secretly is much easier, which is why no one goes this route.
Anti-proliferation doesn’t mean making stuff impossible. It just means not making things any easier than natural alternatives. In the case of reactor fuel, as long as proper toasting is enforced, plutonium’s proliferation potential is essentially done away with because no one will bother.
The Sandia National Labs shirt is a nice touch. Haha
Just watched nuclear space explosions on curios droids channel, perfect 😂
Going Nuclear are by far my fav videos of yours! Nuclear physics is so fun!
“don’t try this at home” 9:25 Cody’sLab;”hold my beer”
So not only must one love the bomb, one must care for the bomb?
Pretty sure I’m on the FBI watchlist now
That was the most ominous sounding “fly safe” I have ever heard.
Just wish the government wouldn’t get so butt hurt when I make even a few atoms of the stuff.