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Open Thread…
Fun with Na in the 40’s. Remember playing with tiny bits of this stuff in chemistry class?
That would never happen today but would it not have been amazing to witness this? I wonder if anyone is alive still who was there.
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February 28, 2007 - 4:08 pm
Ahh! Good old Natrium (the latin name for Sodium). I remember learning about this fantastic element in high school chemistry. The teacher did essentially the same experiment as in this video just on a much smaller scale, and behind reinforced glass. Another time I will tell you about when the same instructor lit a corked bottle with ethanol gas. The cork flew off and richoted across ceiling and walls. Color us impressed! This sodium is also highly reactive with air as well. It is my understanding that some of the Hanford reactors used liquid sodium in the cooling chambers. This always amazed me. Imagine the explosion if there was a breach in the cooling system that allowed in moisture or air. Of course I guess sodium was used because it has better thermal properties and a higher boiling point than other more “stable” compounds like water.
February 28, 2007 - 6:16 pm
I dropped a pea size in a beaker once. Fortunately no serious injuries.
It’s the Hydrogen and Oxygen produced plus the heat that explodes.
March 1, 2007 - 8:38 am
LMAO- it’s a commercial for government regulation! That’s something you don’t see everyday. Funny how these explosions sound exactly like those in war movies of the same era…
Cool clip, Jimmy!
March 1, 2007 - 10:09 pm
Recently it was reported that boron could be used in a similar reaction to crack hydrogen from water fast enough to run an internal combustion engine.
http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Hydrogen_from_Water_using_Boron
March 3, 2007 - 9:54 am
Imagine all that we don’t about waste disposal at Hanford…eeek. Actually, many people have imagined that, and have been diligently digging up the evidence…Michele Gerber. Now there is a heroine. MI>On the Home Front: The Cold War Legacy of the Hanfor Nuclear Site.
I never thought about the Lower Grand Coulee lakes as dumps, though. Shit. Into the water it goes! Over the steep bank it goes! Into the ravines it goes! Into the dark woods it goes! Out of site, out of mind!
March 3, 2007 - 5:14 pm
You really don’t have too much to worry about on the sodium. That stuff is so volalile that once the reaction takes place not much residual is left. But still worrisome! Yikes!
Michelle is great. I have met her several times. She is the keeper of the keys of Hanford’s history so to speak.
March 4, 2007 - 2:07 am
Finally watched this…FOR CRIS’ SAKE
For a more “up to date” version of “facile” disposal watch the last 10 or so
minutes of “On Deadly Ground” w/Steven Seagal…good speech, scary
footage!! (film)
March 4, 2007 - 7:12 am
I cannot watch Steven Segal. Nor can I listen to him. I will read the transcript
March 5, 2007 - 2:50 pm
No need…the jist of the speech was that not only did no one care, but
polluters were going about business as usual circumventing environmental
reg’s…etc. The footage was the “kind no one sees on CNN” of barges
loaded with barrels of toxic waste being dumped into the open ocean.
The film was made in 1994 and while environmental concerns have been
around for many years…it was an appalling sight to behold…you get used
to it and more awareness is happening. My question for the doubters is
this…if something catastrophic were to occur in any given area and the
locals had to hoof it cross country where exactly would one quench one’s
thirst after a long and stressful journey?? Peace.