Free Republic

Record concentrations of a helium isotope found inside 62-million-year-old Arctic rocks could be the most compelling evidence to date of a slow leak in our planet's core. Building on the results of a previous analysis of ancient lava flows, a team of geochemists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the California Institute of Technology are now more certain than ever that helium trapped in the core as our planet was forming is making its way to the surface. Helium isn't the kind of element that makes friends easily. Being so light and non-reactive, there's little to stop the gas from...

Scientists have discovered a new type of uranium that is the lightest ever known. The discovery could reveal more about a weird alpha particle that gets ejected from certain radioactive elements as they decay. The newfound uranium, called uranium-214, is an isotope, or a variant of the element, with 30 more neutrons than protons, one fewer neutron than the next-lightest known uranium isotope. Because neutrons have mass, uranium-214 is much lighter than more common uranium isotopes, including uranium-235, which is used in nuclear reactors and has 51 extra neutrons. This newfound isotope isn't just lighter than others, but it also...

Spraying of spent fuel pools at Units 3 and 4 is still underway. Visual inspection of Unit 4’s pool showed water in the pool, and so efforts have been temporarily focused upon Unit 3. While efforts at using helicopters to dump water onto the pools had been largely unsuccessful , army firetrucks used in putting out aircraft fires have been employed with some success. The elite Tokyo Hyper Rescue component of the Tokyo fire department has arrived on scene and is conducting missions of roughly two hours in length, during which they spray the pools for 7-8 minutes, wait for...

No luck shopping for that hard-to-buy-for science hobbyist in the family? The rare isotope linked to the death of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko is surprisingly easy to buy - in fact, for $69, it's a mouse-click away. The polonium-210 you can get online from a Sandia Park mail-order company, United Nuclear Scientific Supplies, is available to the general public in 0.1 microcurie units, an invisibly tiny amount that's exempt from federal licensing restrictions, according to the company's Web site. In a note on the site, United Nuclear founder Bob Lazar says it's not a practical poison: You'd need 15,000...

A community council issued an urgent plea to the Anchorage Assembly a few days ago: Please stop a plan to make radioactive materials in our neighborhood. Al Swank, who owns two houses along Delaney Park Strip, wants to manufacture radioactive medical tracers there. The material, a radioactive isotope, is injected into patients to locate cancer and is used in conjunction with PET scanners. Swank and some experts say producing these medical tracers is safe and won't harm anyone. But the South Addition Community Council's concerns prompted state health officials to adopt emergency rules Tuesday. And an Anchorage Assembly member has...

The head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has pledged to boost oversight of the Indian Point nuclear plants after the apparent leak of a radioactive isotope, aides to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday. Clinton, D-N.Y., met with NRC chairman Nils Diaz, who told her he would announce in coming days ``enhanced oversight ... with respect to both the leaks and the emergency notification system,'' said the senator's spokesman, Philippe Reines. Diaz didn't spell out exactly what the enhancements would be, but they could include additional reporting requirements and closer monitoring of the site. The NRC and Entergy Nuclear Northeast,...