Americium - A Metal, That Can VISUALIZE RADIATION!

[Music] hi everyone i decided to check batteries in my smoke alarm and i noticed an interesting detail in the description this device contains animalism 241 or the active source i'm wondering why it is here and what should i do with this smoke alarm when it stops working i can't throw away a redirected device can i so let us deal with all these questions [Music] i think all of you have smoke alarms at home for example in estonia it is mandatory to have a smoke alarm in every flat based on their operation principles there exist two basic types of smoke alarms first type is photoelectric and the second is ionization type the first type of smoke alarms detect light scattered by smoke particles and are more advanced devices in the past when there were no light emitting diodes and transistor circuits smoke alarms with reactive materials were used most frequently the popular soviet red one smoke alarm with plutonium-238 based radioactive source falls into this category and so do most popular ionization smoke alarms with american 241 or the active source which are still on sale before explaining to you the operation principle of such reactive devices let's learn about where this element can be found and how it ends up inside such smoke alarms just like all elements there are heavers and uranium in the periodic table americium doesn't occur naturally and that is why it was created artificially using nuclear synthesis to be more precise using bombardment of plutonium atoms with daetrons accelerated in a particle accelerator called cyclotron this happened for the first time as a part of the famous manhattan project which deals with developing certain types of nuclear weapons in the usa the new element was discovered in 1944 by a team of scientists led by glenn seaborg but because the manhattan project was top secret this information was kept secret and was published only a year after the end of the second world war because the electron shell of the new element resembled that of european the new element was named after the continent of which it was discovered that is america besides being synthesized in laboratories nowadays americium can be extracted from nuclear fuel waste one tonne of it contains 100 grams of different isotopes of american after being reduced and purified the obtained american looks like a shiny metal which quickly oxidized when exposed to air most frequently it exists as an oxide also for modern day uses american can be obtained in nuclear research reactors using bombardment of plutonium 239 atoms with a stream of neutrons you might remember from my previous videos that plutonium 239 is used for making nuclear weapons and during the cold war there were tests of nuclear weapons practically all over the world during such tests there forms a powerful stream of neutrons and thanks to it during the first milliseconds of the explosion plutonium atom inside a nuclear bomb can turn into americium atoms which can get scattered by the shockwave for thousands of kilometers this is why even 60 years later there can still be found traces of different american isotopes as a former nuclear test sites because half-life of some of those isotopes is over 7000 years just like all metals from the actinide series americim is already active metal to be more precise it doesn't have stable isotopes that is why as time passes it breaks down into more stable elements since this element's core is too big it strives to lose excess protons and neutrons transitioning to a more stable state usually this happens as a result of a so-called alpha decay as a result of it alpha particles which are cores of helium atoms fly out of the cores of american atoms since such cores don't have electrons they can attract them from other elements the scientific name of this process is ionization for instance a helium atom core that flow out of americium can collide with an oxygen molecule from the ear and steal its electron creating oxygen ions in the ear it is this property of americium that is used in modern smoke alarms which allows to measure the spread of smoke by determining the degree of air ionization in order for you not to get confused i'd like to illustrate how such smoke alarm work there is an electric circuit board underneath the device case there is also such an ionization chamber which contains our de-active ammunition also there are two parallel plates inside the ionization chamber and they are connected to the power supply at the same time every second they fly out lots of alpha particles from the american source which constantly collide with oxygen molecules from the ear knocking out their electrons and turning them into ions because the upper and lower plates are connected to the power supply generalized ions and electrons get attracted to the lower and upper plates creating what's known as ionization current which is registered by the smoke alarm's electric circuit as soon as smoke particles get into the ionization chamber they hinder the release of new ions which weakens the current in the circuit which gets registered by the alarms detector and sets of the alarm that is why such a seemingly simple device has saved thousands of lives but still because of the radioactive source inside the device and frequent false alarms such smoke alarms are gradually getting banned by some countries i'm wondering how high the radiation level is in the ionization chamber of such a device that it can even ionize the ear to see that i took that where i'm a recent source out of the smoke alarm in a special laboratory and under a fume hood naruto rises at home on your own the rd active source itself is just 0.29 micrograms of american oxide mixed with powdered gold and pressed into an aluminium case to protect the american source on top it is spread with a thin layer of gold to prevent spilling of the radiative oxide and contamination if i hold the unskipped diameter with a micro sensor over the case at first the radiation level will slightly increase but if i hold it in immediate proximity to the alpha source then the readings will be shockingly high that's because my transmitter can also detect alpha radiation although it is not exactly designed to detect it that is why this measurement is a rough estimate i also decided to check how well a regular sheet of paper can block alpha radiation emitted by the americium source i was really surprised because when it was blocked by the sheet of paper the radiation level dropped only ever so slightly for instance in one of my previous videos i carried out a similar experiment with a sheet of paper and alpha radiation emitted by plutonium isotope and during that experiment it worked as intended i need to find out what's wrong with my american source if we look at the diagram of american 241 decay which is present in my source then we will see that at first item is an alpha particle and then the likelihood of it emitting a gamma quantum of the energy of about 60 kilo electron volts with a probability of 36 percent and after that it turns into an epithelium atom most probably it was this weak gamma radiation that my already a scandal's emitter detected when the source was covered by the sheet of paper and blocked the alpha radiation if we use another type of dosimeter with a insulation detector then we will see a different reading even when the adjacemeter is away from the source evidently the cesium iodide crystal inside the device detects mild gamma radiation emitted by americium much better and at the same time it doesn't detect the stream of alpha particles by the way it is not forcedly that if we connect this dosimeter to a smartphone we'll be able to see the spectrum of emitted gamma radiation indeed we can see that most radiation doesn't exceed 60 kilo electron volts which is completely safe for people because such radiation doesn't damage our cells and doesn't have a great penetrating power that is why it is absolutely safe for specialists to work with an american source in laboratory conditions unless they swallow it or attach it to their skin with bandage well we have seen how those emitters detect americism but alpha radiation emitted by this source can be best seen in a so so-called wilson cloud chamber to make it i'm using a formed plastic chamber with dry ice covered with a regular baking sheet i put an empty aquarium on top of it with sponge soaked in ethanol attached to the bottom when i turn the aquarium upside down the alcohol vapor starts sinking towards the cold surface of the baking sheet and starts condensing in time creating such fork if you put an american source inside it we'll see how it starts emitting something resembling rays these are tracks of alpha particles created from ethanol vapor which condensed as a result of passing of fast unchanged alpha particles through it [Music] it looks very unusual but because of the powerful stream of alpha radiation emitted by such a source the easter eggs were not always visible and were seen only when the chamber was slightly aired out evidently the stream of alpha particles is too powerful and there is not enough alcohol vapor in the chamber to show the effect [Music] it really looks beautiful and half an hour later there were no more tracks but that's okay because there exists another unusual device which allows us to observe powerful streams of alpha radiation it's called a spark chamber detector and for some reason these days is rarely on sale that is why i decided to make a diy detector basically the design of this device isn't that complex and hasn't changed since the days of a rather forth to make it i used a plank to make a base and several pieces of breadboard i removed the copper layer from two of them in nitric acid and coated the other two pieces in molten solder now i just need to screw it out to the plank and attach a sheet of printed circuit boards to the center which will serve as a cathode now what's left to do is to carefully solder all the thin copper wires parallel to the lower sheet in order to make something like an air condenser to finish off my setup i'm soldering a chinese high voltage multiplier and also an 8 mm resistor in order to prevent burning of the thin wires in case of an electrical breakdown on connecting in out of the laboratory electrical power supply i tune the voltage in such a way that this detector is on the brink of an electrical breakdown and that is slightly whistles upon bringing the american alpha source close there should be an electrical breakdown and they should form beautiful sparks when alpha particles fly by however the wires were either too thin or they were placed too close to the lower plate but i did manage to make my diy setup that works in a sustainable way even substituting the thin wires with thicker wires and stretching them out perfectly didn't really solve the problem [Music] this footage vividly added trace my emotions after two days of dealing with this detector but still i didn't give up and decided to pull it all together again and do so more solidly i find rather precise instructions on how to make a spark chamber detector on the radio code site there were even diagrams for 3d printing eventually i ordered printing of all components and a couple of days later i assembled such a much better looking and most importantly work in spark chamber detector it's time to connect it to the power supply and demonstrate how it works [Music] when an american alpha source is placed close to the disease air condenser there happens an electrical breakdown inside it because of the stream of alpha particles and their ionization of the ear in between the wires and the lower cathode in other words the alpha particles passing through the air make it a more efficient electricity conductor which in turn creates something like mini lighting bolts it looks quite interesting by the way such a process also happens in our atmosphere because most frequently lighting balls strike in storms when cosmic particles pass through the atmosphere which like alpha particles increase the electrical conductivity of the air on its path it's also not worthly that when a sheet of paper is placed in between the source and detector we can see that there are no more sparks and we can see how well a regular paper can block off radiation we have got a rather interesting spark chamber detector but apparently because it takes a long time to tune it and it is not easy to transport it nowadays there are a few places when you can buy it only some enthusiasts may have it but let us answer the last question in this video how should we dispose of smoke alarms with a radiative emergency that went out of service to answer that question i decided to go to an interesting place which until recently was one of the most top-secret places in the world i set out on a journey to the estonian city of paliski which is located on a beautiful shore of the baltic sea since the 1960s this place has been top secret because just three kilometers away from the city center lies a soviet training facility with two nuclear reactors for submarines for training future soviet submarine sailors [Music] in 1995 this facility was transferred to estonia and the two reactors were dismantled and placed in a protective sarcophagus for 50 years until most radioactive elements have decayed but still it took 10 more years for estonia to fully decontaminate the territory of the facility and turning into currently functioning radiative waste disposal facility by the way the team kindly agreed to give me a tour around the facility it's clear that it is safe to be inside the old sarcophagus with the reactor however entry to the reactor is blocked with a one meter thick door because the radiation level inside is still pretty high it is precisely this place that many expired american smoke alarms from estonia will be brought to after that they'll be placed in concrete cubes for storage besides new radioactive waste delivered here for example from radiology hospital departments the storage facility also contains old soviet reactors which up to this day emit sensible background radiation for instance when we were walking around the upper tire of this hole the radiation level would spike in certain places evidently something nasty is stored underneath those places most probably this was one part of the alterator because a book about contamination of this facility features interesting images of how solid nuclear waste was dealt with in the soviet times for instance all steam generators along with rubbish and radioactive control roads were just thrown about in a regular warehouse nowadays the waste material is sorted and no longer poses a trade to those who are around unless they come too close to the radioactive cubes [Music] in fact this is a truly unusual place and they want to thank the alara company for arranging the tour and demonstrating how old smoke alarms with emiratism are stored by the way since recently scientists have been considering using american 241 as a fuel for nuclear batteries which can generate electricity using self-heating of american oxide blocks as a result of active alpha decay americium oxide itself can significantly heat up and the obtained energy can then be converted into electricity such thermal electric generators can be installed in future spacecraft which will be able to last 5 times longer than the current spacecraft for instance the perseverance mars rover is equipped with a so-called plutonium nuclear battery but its half-life is just 87 years if equipped with enemy resin battery which has a half-life of 432 years such a hour can work much longer that is why maybe one day all smoke alarms from this nuclear waste storage facility will find new application in spacecraft for space trips well i think this video was interesting for you and now you know more about that unusual element as american so if you like this video don't forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel to know more about new and interesting things [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Thoisoi2 - Chemical Experiments!

Views: 266,813

Keywords: Americium, nuclear battery, metal, radioactive metal, actinoid, metals, unstable metal, chemical elements, radiation, alpha rays, ionization, smoke alarm, ions, physical chemistry, radiochemistry, chemistry experiments, physics experiments, oxidation, detector, spark chamber detector, radiation source, americium-241, Thoisoi channel, visualize, visualize radiation

Id: ScH1PCPr0SA

Length: 20min 6sec (1206 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 13 2021