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Activation of Uranium by using a Fusor?

Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2015 11:27 am
by Brian Daker
Welcome people

First

Unfortunately my english skills are not that good.. so forgive me if i do any mistakes

Currently i am planning to build up a fusor because i want to try out several things with it.
At the moment i got a x-ray transformer for 60kV but i dont know if its enough.

So now to my question..

i have extracted some Yellowcake from Uranium Ore (around 5grams) and i want to put it into the fusor chamber

if everything works well.. and i get neutron emissions.. would it be possible to activate the Uranium 238 isotopes and get Plutonium 239? or will there be a fission again of the Plutonium 239?

Please help me about my theory

thanks

Re: Activation of Uranium by using a Fusor?

Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2015 7:34 pm
by John Futter
FBDIMM
you might want to read the rules of this forum and introduce yourself with your real name in the appropriate area

Re: Activation of Uranium by using a Fusor?

Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2015 4:22 pm
by Brian Daker
Okay, done

Re: Activation of Uranium by using a Fusor?

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2015 1:09 am
by Frank Sanns
This site does not allow illicit activities to be discussed on this site. Attempts to bread highly illegal isotopes is not wise.

If you had read some of the FAQ you would know that the neutron output of a stellar fusor is on the order of 10^6 neutrons per second. You can do the math and figure how many years of fusor operation it would take to have a visible quantity of any transmuted material.

Re: Activation of Uranium by using a Fusor?

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2015 1:53 am
by Richard Hull
Even though you posted your original query in the wrong forum, "general forum" when it should have been in this forum, I have answered it there. It is a doomed effort as I note in my response with the reasons given therein and Frank named just one of those reasons in his posting above.

The fusor physics is all wrong for what you propose.

Richard Hull

Re: Activation of Uranium by using a Fusor?

Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2015 6:57 am
by Brian Daker
Hmm.

Is there anything special i can do with the neutrons?

Re: Activation of Uranium by using a Fusor?

Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 7:14 am
by Dennis P Brown
Is there anything to use neutrons for? Absolutely - build a neutron detector, test and calibrate it and post how you dd it here. If you want to activate extremely tiny (but on the up side it will be harmless) amounts of material build a small nuclear accelerator. Just remember accelerators are powerful x-ray machines.

Re: Activation of Uranium by using a Fusor?

Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2015 6:30 pm
by Bob Reite
You can activate silver and some other elements with neutrons from a fusor. I'm sure there is an FAQ about it on here.

Re: Activation of Uranium by using a Fusor?

Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 2:11 pm
by Brian Daker
Bob Reite wrote:You can activate silver and some other elements with neutrons from a fusor. I'm sure there is an FAQ about it on here.
But why not uranium then?

Re: Activation of Uranium by using a Fusor?

Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 4:02 pm
by Richard Hull
But why not Uranium then?....

You need to study the activation cross sections of various materials and understand a bit about what can and cannot be activated with the rather thin mist of neutrons produced by the fusor.

We are not here to teach you nuclear physics. That is a personal quest you must commit to on your own.

Some materials that when activated have long half-lives and rotten activation cross sections. Others like silver have massive high cross sections (activate easily), and very short half lives, like silver. Things like this latter silver example can be activated fully in a short time in a far less dense neutron flux. Uranium is not one of these. Elements with very small activation cross sections and long half lives need to be inserted into the firey furnace of a functioning nuclear fission reactor of weeks or months in a neutron flux one hundred trillion times more dense than that issuing from a simple fusor.

This is why no amateur fusioneer has died from radiation. There just is not enough neutrons there for the short operational periods capable of running a fusor to harm anyone. Most successful fusioneers never even reach neutron numbers where silver activation is possible as they are here for a DIY and bragging rights and not any form of research of learning experience. They are not true amateur scientists.

If you have the high neutron numbers like 1 million neutrons per second, Isotropic, you can easily activate the great trio
Rhodium, Silver, Indium. A few other elements can be partially activated, but often require special detection gear to see the resultant activity.

Again, forget ever activating uranium.

Richard Hull