I actually enjoy the sound of the Geiger counter lol. Seeing this video really makes me wanna start collecting fluorescent rocks now ☺️ great filming Dan thanks for taking us along. Also that lazer beam seam you highlighted was probably my favorite part of the video, it looked so cool.
Along the obvious applications Uranium also has a bit of forgotten use to colour glass and ceramics. I found a piece of Vaseline glass on and old dump which contains SodiumdiUranate, it glows bright yellow/green unther UV light. The romans already used Uranium as a brown/orange glaze and from the late 19th century up to 1940 Vaseline glass was produced. Nile Red made a youtube on making Uranium glass.
My mother's cousin was a geologist in Moab circa 1952. Called my dad in Northern CA to come out and go uranium mining. At six years old I would camp out in an army tent at the mines my dad worked. My dad and Marlowe Smith struck the claim to what became the Rio Algum Lisbon Valley Mine. My dad gave his share away in 1962..so close yet so far..mine operated 17 years 24/7..LOL...
Tres cool! All the hallmarks of a lost episode of Star Trek. Weird vegetation, Martian landscape, high tech scanners, caves of glowing rocks, weird elements we've never heard of, even some tritanium. Just warning, don't step in any Gorn poop.
Reminds of of when you could buy rockhounding sample boards as a kid in the 60's. Piece of cardboard with various bits of crystals and such glued to it. Including a chunk of radioactive ore.
A new wrinkle , Vanadium , associated with a granite pegmatite . I wonder what the beryllium content is ? Beryl plus Vanadium ( and / or Chromium ) = the possibility of Emerald . Vanadium is fairly commonly associated with Uranium and Thorium , although it might have been picked up as an interaction between the Granite body and any Mafic / Ultramafic country rocks . I am also curious to know how much of that brilliant green fluorescence is actually Autunite , and , how much ( if any ) , might be Hyalite from weathering of feldspars ? This is a common feature of many granite pegmatites. Yes , white granites are typically rich in Uranium , and , Radon is a product of Uranium's natural decay chain . Black shales are often also rich in Uranium , and therefore , also Radon . If you ever feel the need to get banned from a home improvement store , bring in a detector and check their granite countertop samples , lol . They should give discernable counts above background , and might start a panic , given the typical ignorance of the public about such things .
Dan, the secret of white light LED's is that the actual LED is a high efficiency ultraviolet LED and it is surrounded with phosphorescent elements that glow and produce the actual white light you see. Turn it off and you will see the phosphorescent material continue to glow for a short time.
Great video Dan I really enjoyed the information on the vanadium which I have some experience with while working in a steel mill, we used the vanadium for alloying the steel mostly when making tool steels.
Wished I knew you were in my state!! I'm in the north central area in Chico, north of Sacramento, but south of Redding. 😅 A gold community of it's own.. and then some. Beautiful area, lots of agriculture and history. 🤠 Happy Holidays... 🎄☃️🌟🎁❄️
6:18 I'm not a scientist so I can't explain the reason, but for fluorescence to take place, a certain balance of mineral levels must be there. For example, willemite (troostite) requires a few percent manganese in order to fluoresce. If there is too little or too much, it will have weak fl or none at all.
I've heard of an instance of a natural nuclear reaction occurring but the circumstances behind its occurrence were supposedly astronomical. Not sure where or when it happened but they say it happened...somehow. I'm gonna go look it up now. Edit: It's a natural nuclear reactor in Gabon, Africa.
My Dad, had worked in a uranium mine, in Elliot lake ,Ontario ,Canada. he was told that they used aluminum powder to keep the dust down! No masks were used in the fifties and early sixties.
Those barrel cactus with the red spines you filmed are amazing, they get really HUGE beautiful flowers that are typically ultra dark red or insanely bright yellow and often upwards of 7 inches across when fully opened. I need to get a new cactus sometime. It'd be funny to grow some San Pedro cactus but I'd be too tempted to use it as more than a plant.. and I think I'll stick to weed for that thank you. (I don't need a 4 hour dose!) Something that fluoresces that same blue is scheelite.. tungsten ore which is commonly found around rare Earth minerals and uranium. (I did research since the last video.. I'm autistic, I can't help it.. I research anything that interests me)
I don’t know much about vanadium or geology but on the nuclear engineering side, I can say that one of the two common oxidation states of uranium in ore (and is the oxidation state used in nuclear fuel) is +4 which has a dark green color. +3 is a very pure black. Possible those black deposits are concentrated uranium (concentrated being relative to an engineer with no geology background). Again, no idea about vanadium. Just as likely color is associated with vanadium and not uranium or something else entirely. The other common oxidation state of uranium is +6 and has a yellow color. That’s what gives yellow cake it’s name (a product generated during uranium refining to make fuel or weapons). When an electron jumps from an excited state to its normal position in an orbital, that would be called going from a metastable state to its ground state. During which, it would emit a photon. In the case of the autunite ore, a visible spectrum photon. It might be worth getting an ion chamber or seeing if any local universities that have a nuclear physics department would come out. That’ll tell you exactly what the radiation dose rate is in the mine. Geiger counter just says the radiation present but an ion chamber can quantify the damage the radiation is doing. Although it sounds like someone already has brought an ion chamber out since you had the 24 hours ~ a chest X-ray Not of much interest with the mine being in a desert but rain can make the radiation worse around uranium deposits. The moisture forces radon out of rocks. Radon can also dissolve in water, especially ground water, so it can accumulate in puddles instead of blowing away in the wind or be emitted from wells / springs. Lastly, the pancake probe will be picking up every form of radiation. If you want to get a very rough estimate of the surface concentrations of uranium in a rock, very slowly pan the probe over your rock of interest. Not touching the rock but within an inch (alpha particles have a short mean free path in air [the average distance they’ll travel before disappearing. Probably turning into helium]) of the surface. Take a note of the readings the Geiger counter is reporting. Then cover the probe with a piece of paper, that would probably be sufficient to fully block even the highest energy alpha particles you’d see from uranium ore maybe a couple sheets of paper to be safe. Pan the probe at the exact same distance from the rock and along roughly the same route and note the change in numbers the Geiger is reading. Whatever the difference is how many alpha particles (which loosely translate to uranium decaying per second. It’s probably a factor of 7 high so divide the number by 7 to get a more accurate guess) the rock is giving off. Take that number and divide by 12,444. Whatever number you get at the end is the number of grams of uranium (roughly) at the surface of the rock. If you crush the rock and then spread it into a thin layer and repeat the previous process, you could calculate g/ton from the rock. Disclaimer, this has been mental math so the numbers could be off slightly but it should still give a pretty accurate guesstimate without paying for an assay. Could run an assay and the compare the guesstimate to actual numbers and then be able to adjust the guesstimate accordingly to be more accurate. That also only holds true for uranium ore. If there’s a thorium ore body as well, the number won’t be accurate. Knowing roughly what the ratio of thorium ore to uranium ore would let you adjust the guesstimate to then have it accuracy predict the total concentration of both. The rate the probe was being moved in the video would be way to fast to do this, especially with uranium ore, the Geiger counter will have a high dead time from all the gamma and X rays being emitted. Going slow as a snail gives the most accurate numbers
Careful taking souvenirs from the desert in some places there are laws against removing natural environments because cholla skeletons and the like are so popular amongst the pet trade for a while ppl were over harvesting not leaving enough for natural wildlife
I got to tour a uranium mill in Wyoming when I was about 12 years old. The man, that took my Dad, and I was the head chemist at the mill. He said the raw uranium was much more dangerous to your body than the processed uranium. The raw uranium will kill you.
The Franklin and Sterling Hill Mine in Northern New Jersey is the Fluorescent mineral capitol of the world. I visited years ago and it was amazing, some minerals are unique to that area. I'm not sure about uranium or rare earths, but it was beautiful nonetheless. Cheers, Rik Spector
Those minerals are fluorescent but not radioactive, their UV activity comes from complex predominantly zinc content in specific places of the crystal lattice.
Hey Dan. We have plants and mushrooms that glow with a black light. Check out Oregon grape roots. Rub the root on skin and you will glow like body paint. And sulphur tuft shrooms glow green.
Dan, I couldn't believe the price of those XRF guns!!!!! Upward of 28K...wow I hope he can find enough good stuff to pay for it, never mind the cost of maintenance...yikes! You couldn't pay me enough to go anywhere near a Uranium mine! Happy New Year, Rik Spector
So, that's where you get the energy (inspiration and radiation) to make your videos. What do you suppose is the half-life of your glowing personality? You have captured a major geological and mining thrill to share. Amazing!
Very cool video. The dark material with the fluorescing blue spots resembles some cleiophane I have seen. I would be curious to know what the assay said.
I live in boulder Colorado, a friend of mine found a rock he liked so he kept it in his pocket. Months later someone told him. It was uranium 😮 he has no kids!😢
I'm surprised you didnt find any scorpions while flashing the uv light around in the cave or in the desert Dan. Another great productions, seasons Greetings to you and the Family from the YVR.
I think that you and your buddy Jason should collect some of that uranium ore and run it over his shaker table. Then smelt it down to a prill, and then cappell it to get a bead of rare earth.
Interesting fact about colour. A green apple is not really green Our eye can only see the reflections When the sunlight hits an apple it reflects a colour that is different than the surface. Green (surface) absorbs green and red absorbs red and so on Black is a mix of all colours that absorbs all and reflects none White is not a colour. Because it is the lack of colour it reflects the full spectrum
Good Morning, Merry Christmas🎄 to you and yours, best wishes toward the New Year🍹 .... Howdy from southwestern Oregon and my fam, .... take care and stay safe !⛏⚒⛏
Getting fissionable material that can be used in a reactor from a uranium mine is a multi step process that is quite involved and takes quite some time. First you mine it out of the ground, then you refine it into U308 (yellow cake or natural uranium) in a mill. Then you must convert it into UF6, uranium hexafluoride, which is a gas. This called conversion. Then you put the UF6 into a gas centrifuge and spin it up at high speed to separate it into its isotopes of U235 and U238 and collect the U235 up to 5% concentration which is called LEU or low enriched uranium. This called enriching. Then you must fashion the LEU into a form that can be used in a reactor, usually some type of pellets. This called fabrication. This whole process is done at completely different facilities and takes about 18 months to two years to complete.
I actually enjoy the sound of the Geiger counter lol. Seeing this video really makes me wanna start collecting fluorescent rocks now ☺️ great filming Dan thanks for taking us along. Also that lazer beam seam you highlighted was probably my favorite part of the video, it looked so cool.
I think the Geiger counter is such a great thing to have to show that it really is radioactive. And to show the hottest spots. Great vid!
What a way to light up Christmas! And it's all natural!
Along the obvious applications Uranium also has a bit of forgotten use to colour glass and ceramics. I found a piece of Vaseline glass on and old dump which contains SodiumdiUranate, it glows bright yellow/green unther UV light. The romans already used Uranium as a brown/orange glaze and from the late 19th century up to 1940 Vaseline glass was produced. Nile Red made a youtube on making Uranium glass.
You Tuber "Radioactive Drew" collects radioactive glass and dinnerware.
My mother's cousin was a geologist in Moab circa 1952.
Called my dad in Northern CA to come out and go uranium mining.
At six years old I would camp out in an army tent at the mines my dad worked.
My dad and Marlowe Smith struck the claim to what became the Rio Algum Lisbon Valley Mine. My dad gave his share away in 1962..so close yet so far..mine operated 17 years 24/7..LOL...
Tres cool! All the hallmarks of a lost episode of Star Trek. Weird vegetation, Martian landscape, high tech scanners, caves of glowing rocks, weird elements we've never heard of, even some tritanium. Just warning, don't step in any Gorn poop.
My day loved this kind of stuff. Must be why he named me ytterbrium Bremsstrahlung
It's very interesting how the different minerals glow a different color
It looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. Really cool!
I love the different colours.. i want some glowy rocks now thanks 😊
glowing caves with Dan Hurd nice
Really cool stuff!!
Reminds of of when you could buy rockhounding sample boards as a kid in the 60's. Piece of cardboard with various bits of crystals and such glued to it. Including a chunk of radioactive ore.
I still remember mine.
@@edrightnow2453which mine? 😂
A new wrinkle , Vanadium , associated with a granite pegmatite . I wonder what the beryllium content is ?
Beryl plus Vanadium ( and / or Chromium ) = the possibility of Emerald .
Vanadium is fairly commonly associated with Uranium and Thorium , although it might have been picked up as an interaction between the Granite body and any Mafic / Ultramafic country rocks .
I am also curious to know how much of that brilliant green fluorescence is actually Autunite , and , how much ( if any ) , might be Hyalite from weathering of feldspars ? This is a common feature of many granite pegmatites.
Yes , white granites are typically rich in Uranium , and , Radon is a product of Uranium's natural decay chain .
Black shales are often also rich in Uranium , and therefore , also Radon .
If you ever feel the need to get banned from a home improvement store , bring in a detector and check their granite countertop samples , lol .
They should give discernable counts above background , and might start a panic , given the typical ignorance of the public about such things .
Hmmm! Now that sounds like a plan for my next trip to Home Depot! 👍😁
Some things you look for I've never heard of. But I enjoy learning about it with you.
Like a dark ride at an amusement park but the real deal. Cool!
Very cool!
The sound of the geiger counter is awesome. People just like to complain 😂
That cave looks so cool when you shine it with that UV light! I've explored a lot of Uranium mines, but I've never seen one glow like THAT!
I collect uranium glass. I would live to have a piece of rock that glows.
dan's web page !
Relax folks, it U238 non fissile and not U235 fissile grade. Dan might glow in the dark now but he won't explode.
I found this video extremely informative! I always learn something watching your videos but this was a cornucopia of information. Very cool!
Dan, the secret of white light LED's is that the actual LED is a high efficiency ultraviolet LED and it is surrounded with phosphorescent elements that glow and produce the actual white light you see. Turn it off and you will see the phosphorescent material continue to glow for a short time.
Great video Dan I really enjoyed the information on the vanadium which I have some experience with while working in a steel mill, we used the vanadium for alloying the steel mostly when making tool steels.
Wished I knew you were in my state!! I'm in the north central area in Chico, north of Sacramento, but south of Redding. 😅 A gold community of it's own.. and then some. Beautiful area, lots of agriculture and history. 🤠
Happy Holidays... 🎄☃️🌟🎁❄️
Welcome to Cali guys....good to have you here, this was a super cool segment....keep rockin the minerals, Dan.
Whoa,Whoa,Whoa.What?This is in CALIFORNIA!!!!!!
Vanadium is used in special alloys.
Awesome sir six stars
Merry Christmas from the Netherlands
Very educational
Dan, Pronunciation lesson of the day...its nuc lear!!!!!!!
If I said it wrong, my apologies, and remember people from different areas say things slightly differently,
6:18 I'm not a scientist so I can't explain the reason, but for fluorescence to take place, a certain balance of mineral levels must be there. For example, willemite (troostite) requires a few percent manganese in order to fluoresce. If there is too little or too much, it will have weak fl or none at all.
I've heard of an instance of a natural nuclear reaction occurring but the circumstances behind its occurrence were supposedly astronomical. Not sure where or when it happened but they say it happened...somehow. I'm gonna go look it up now.
Edit: It's a natural nuclear reactor in Gabon, Africa.
There's a conspiracy that it could be a ancient reactor. Which is pretty much debunked but that's how improbable it is.
Good morning from Southeast South Dakota
One would be wise to wear a breathing maske in an environment filled with uranium dust.
Nah, how else is a person going to achieve that "healthy glow"?
My Dad, had worked in a uranium mine, in Elliot lake ,Ontario ,Canada. he was told that they used aluminum powder to keep the dust down! No masks were used in the fifties and early sixties.
Very useful and informative guys...God Bless You Merry Christmas and happy New year..🇮🇩
Those barrel cactus with the red spines you filmed are amazing, they get really HUGE beautiful flowers that are typically ultra dark red or insanely bright yellow and often upwards of 7 inches across when fully opened. I need to get a new cactus sometime. It'd be funny to grow some San Pedro cactus but I'd be too tempted to use it as more than a plant.. and I think I'll stick to weed for that thank you. (I don't need a 4 hour dose!) Something that fluoresces that same blue is scheelite.. tungsten ore which is commonly found around rare Earth minerals and uranium. (I did research since the last video.. I'm autistic, I can't help it.. I research anything that interests me)
Uranium fever has done and got me down
Uranium fever, it's spreadin' all around
With a Geiger counter in my hand
Great video
AWESOME! MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Merry Christmas to you and your family🎄✨🤶🎅
I don’t know much about vanadium or geology but on the nuclear engineering side, I can say that one of the two common oxidation states of uranium in ore (and is the oxidation state used in nuclear fuel) is +4 which has a dark green color. +3 is a very pure black. Possible those black deposits are concentrated uranium (concentrated being relative to an engineer with no geology background). Again, no idea about vanadium. Just as likely color is associated with vanadium and not uranium or something else entirely. The other common oxidation state of uranium is +6 and has a yellow color. That’s what gives yellow cake it’s name (a product generated during uranium refining to make fuel or weapons).
When an electron jumps from an excited state to its normal position in an orbital, that would be called going from a metastable state to its ground state. During which, it would emit a photon. In the case of the autunite ore, a visible spectrum photon.
It might be worth getting an ion chamber or seeing if any local universities that have a nuclear physics department would come out. That’ll tell you exactly what the radiation dose rate is in the mine. Geiger counter just says the radiation present but an ion chamber can quantify the damage the radiation is doing. Although it sounds like someone already has brought an ion chamber out since you had the 24 hours ~ a chest X-ray
Not of much interest with the mine being in a desert but rain can make the radiation worse around uranium deposits. The moisture forces radon out of rocks. Radon can also dissolve in water, especially ground water, so it can accumulate in puddles instead of blowing away in the wind or be emitted from wells / springs.
Lastly, the pancake probe will be picking up every form of radiation. If you want to get a very rough estimate of the surface concentrations of uranium in a rock, very slowly pan the probe over your rock of interest. Not touching the rock but within an inch (alpha particles have a short mean free path in air [the average distance they’ll travel before disappearing. Probably turning into helium]) of the surface. Take a note of the readings the Geiger counter is reporting. Then cover the probe with a piece of paper, that would probably be sufficient to fully block even the highest energy alpha particles you’d see from uranium ore maybe a couple sheets of paper to be safe. Pan the probe at the exact same distance from the rock and along roughly the same route and note the change in numbers the Geiger is reading. Whatever the difference is how many alpha particles (which loosely translate to uranium decaying per second. It’s probably a factor of 7 high so divide the number by 7 to get a more accurate guess) the rock is giving off. Take that number and divide by 12,444. Whatever number you get at the end is the number of grams of uranium (roughly) at the surface of the rock. If you crush the rock and then spread it into a thin layer and repeat the previous process, you could calculate g/ton from the rock. Disclaimer, this has been mental math so the numbers could be off slightly but it should still give a pretty accurate guesstimate without paying for an assay. Could run an assay and the compare the guesstimate to actual numbers and then be able to adjust the guesstimate accordingly to be more accurate. That also only holds true for uranium ore. If there’s a thorium ore body as well, the number won’t be accurate. Knowing roughly what the ratio of thorium ore to uranium ore would let you adjust the guesstimate to then have it accuracy predict the total concentration of both. The rate the probe was being moved in the video would be way to fast to do this, especially with uranium ore, the Geiger counter will have a high dead time from all the gamma and X rays being emitted. Going slow as a snail gives the most accurate numbers
Careful taking souvenirs from the desert in some places there are laws against removing natural environments because cholla skeletons and the like are so popular amongst the pet trade for a while ppl were over harvesting not leaving enough for natural wildlife
FASCINATING!
Very cool video!
"Absolutely mesmerizing footage inside the Uranium Mine - a true spectacle of the surreal and otherworldly! 🚀 #UnrealBeauty #UraniumMineAdventures"
Dan another great year of videos! I wanted to wish you and yours a Very Merry Christmas!!!
Have a Very Merry Christmas
Greetings from the BIG SKY. I'd bet there's a bunch of that stuff on Fort Peck .
I like the Geiger counter sound.
Autinite be remembering that ores name? ^_^ Great video, super enjoyed the hosts and the content. Thank you!
Hey Dan have you seen the Rover surface pictures of mars showing gold veins could you imagine
I got to tour a uranium mill in Wyoming when I was about 12 years old. The man, that took my Dad, and I was the head chemist at the mill. He said the raw uranium was much more dangerous to your body than the processed uranium. The raw uranium will kill you.
Merry X-mas and a happy new year from Zion Il.
Time for a new hat Dan. Or is that the new air conditioner setting?
The Franklin and Sterling Hill Mine in Northern New Jersey is the Fluorescent mineral capitol of the world.
I visited years ago and it was amazing, some minerals are unique to that area.
I'm not sure about uranium or rare earths, but it was beautiful nonetheless.
Cheers,
Rik Spector
Those minerals are fluorescent but not radioactive, their UV activity comes from complex predominantly zinc content in specific places of the crystal lattice.
@@karlgunterwunsch1950 Thanks for clarifying my remarks
That’s true, I had forgotten.
At some point you need to get Cody's Lab involved in some of the chemistry end of it all.
damn smart kid.
Hey Dan. We have plants and mushrooms that glow with a black light. Check out Oregon grape roots. Rub the root on skin and you will glow like body paint. And sulphur tuft shrooms glow green.
Dan,
I couldn't believe the price of those XRF guns!!!!! Upward of 28K...wow
I hope he can find enough good stuff to pay for it, never mind the cost of maintenance...yikes!
You couldn't pay me enough to go anywhere near a Uranium mine!
Happy New Year,
Rik Spector
Some of the XRF guns go for $50k+++. Gulp!
@@jamesriggsdds2337 up to 100k depending on the type of
Material your researching
stunning!
So, that's where you get the energy (inspiration and radiation) to make your videos. What do you suppose is the half-life of your glowing personality? You have captured a major geological and mining thrill to share. Amazing!
👍👍… Merry Christmas everyone and to Dan and his family 🤝🍻🎄🎄🎄
Try the Geiger on those bright cyan locations!
Very cool video. The dark material with the fluorescing blue spots resembles some cleiophane I have seen. I would be curious to know what the assay said.
My kitchen countertop has a count of 1,500 cpm in one spot. Normal background radiation around hear is less than 200 cpm.
Vanadium was present in the real Damascus steels in super small amounts. They think it is part of what gave it such great strength and flexibility.
I live in boulder Colorado, a friend of mine found a rock he liked so he kept it in his pocket. Months later someone told him. It was uranium 😮 he has no kids!😢
😂😂
Very cool. Merry Christmas Eve
I'm surprised you didnt find any scorpions while flashing the uv light around in the cave or in the desert Dan.
Another great productions, seasons Greetings to you and the Family from the YVR.
Big thanks to Harry....
I think that you and your buddy Jason should collect some of that uranium ore and run it over his shaker table. Then smelt it down to a prill, and then cappell it to get a bead of rare earth.
You should link your friends in the description section. I usually can't read them when you put them on screen.
Would love to see a video on how Pitchblende is mined!
Lots of Urainium in the Selkerk range so I hear tell
You should have seen if RUclipsr “Radioactive Drew” could have collaborated with you on exploring some uranium mines.
Interesting fact about colour. A green apple is not really green
Our eye can only see the reflections
When the sunlight hits an apple it reflects a colour that is different than the surface.
Green (surface) absorbs green and red absorbs red and so on
Black is a mix of all colours that absorbs all and reflects none
White is not a colour. Because it is the lack of colour it reflects the full spectrum
The cactus at 16:17 is cholla (double l makes a y sound). Dan, I'll trade you some (without barbs) for gold! 🙂
Did you have to use a black light to get them to glow
Good morning and Merry Christmas everyone!
Good Morning, Merry Christmas🎄 to you and yours, best wishes toward the New Year🍹 .... Howdy from southwestern Oregon and my fam, .... take care and stay safe !⛏⚒⛏
I thought Vanadium made a tool, not a mine, when alloyed with steel.
People moaned about the noise of the beeping of the death counter machine thingy??😮 And you found a mute button.. fk that..
Yes dan hello from Stratford upon Avon uk
You must like 80s music
Hardinthepandium 😂😅 !!!; )
Q: Who's anium?
A: Uranium!
That has to be the most god-forsaken cactus I've ever seen...
It's the dead structure of a choya cactus
❤
TIME, DISTANCE, SHIELDING!
I might’ve picked up one of the uranium pieces from your site today! 🤔 ☢️
Dan do you use a dosimeter to determine your exposure to radiation?
Have a question, does uranium glass wear give off radiation or is it safe to be around if you have a cabinet full in your dining room .
So cool!
Did you get that UV light at the Abbotsford Gem show back in May, there was dealer selling that design one row down from your booth.
Could you tumble a uranium sample in a rock tumbler to make it smooth?
That wood was cholla I think
Getting fissionable material that can be used in a reactor from a uranium mine is a multi step process that is quite involved and takes quite some time. First you mine it out of the ground, then you refine it into U308 (yellow cake or natural uranium) in a mill. Then you must convert it into UF6, uranium hexafluoride, which is a gas. This called conversion. Then you put the UF6 into a gas centrifuge and spin it up at high speed to separate it into its isotopes of U235 and U238 and collect the U235 up to 5% concentration which is called LEU or low enriched uranium. This called enriching. Then you must fashion the LEU into a form that can be used in a reactor, usually some type of pellets. This called fabrication. This whole process is done at completely different facilities and takes about 18 months to two years to complete.
❤❤❤❤
just wondering if yooperlites were radioactive??they glow in the dark on the michigan beaches
Niiiccce!