How to Obtain and Extract Americium

This instructible shows how to obtain and extract Americium,have fun :)

Step 1 How to Obtain and Extract Americium

Inside inexpensive smoke alarms is a tiny amount of the radioactive element Americium. The isotope used, americium 241, has a half life of 452 years. Since americium 241 decays into the much more stable isotope neptunium 237 (half-life 2.1 million years), the sample in the smoke detector will have a few trillion new neptunium atoms in it every year.

Comments

[Kozz]

I don't know much about such things, but I know there's plenty I do NOT know, which is why I wouldn't touch this. My understanding is that it's true that alpha particles are weak (cannot go through a sheet of paper). However, if you ingest them, that's an entirely different ball of wax.

I feel the need to mention the "Radioactive Boy Scout": https://www.google.com/search?q=david+hahn+radioactive+boy+scout

[emerson.john]

If there were an Instructable about melting butter someone would comment, issuing a dire warning about the perils inherent in butter melting. There should be a Ninny Badge for those kindly souls.

[feralucce]

while your statement is accurate... I've never gotten cancer, nor risked the health of my pets and family members with ionizing radiation by melting butter...

[kill-a-watt]

More people have died from kitchen fires started with overheated household edible fats than have ever died from misusing a smoke detector.

Sorry, but this reminds me of the media fear mongering after the accident at Fukushima (total dead: zero) vs the 9000+ people who died with almost no warning from the earthquake and tsunami.

(why we ever thought it was a good idea to build a city near the sea, I'll never know ;-)

[feralucce]

Kill-a-watt: agreed, but this is not "Misuse" of a smoke alarm. It is advocating handling ionizing radiation without proper precautions...

That's like saying "more people have died in car wrecks, so it is perfectly fine to work with an ungrounded high-voltage source while it's energized.

Fukushima was an accident, the earthquake and tsunami can't be helped...

Just because more people have died from kitchen fires is no reason to handle unsafe materials without proper safety measures...

fukushima, btw is starting to have long lasting effects from cancer due to ionizing radiation http://www.prisonplanet.com/experts-admit-fukushima-is-causing-hidden-cancer-deaths.html

[kill-a-watt]

http://xkcd.com/radiation/

I'm sorry, but prisonplanet is a wee bit too tinfoil beanie for me to put any stock in anything they say.

>Fukushima was an accident, the earthquake and tsunami can't be helped...

Nonsense. The body count from the 2011 TMhoku earthquake and tsunami was (corrected from above) ~16k. The vast majority of these lives could have been saved if they had relocated everyone not essential to port operations to higher ground.

Nobody questions the common practice of living in a tsunami zone. Bam! just like that, thousands dead. Now realistically compare this risk to the Fukushima disaster (total body count = ZERO)

I'm just asking everyone to realistically evaluate risks.

[feralucce]

1) Fukushima happened too recently to make that statement
2) there is a difference between living near something when that happens and PURPOSELY handling nuclear material without safety gear.

I am done with this.

[emerson.john]

I am not advocating that readers expose themselves to ionizing radiation. I would like for The Ninnies to cease assuming they possess knowledge the rest of us lack.

[Kozz]

@emerson.john, why the name-calling? Are you the same guy who called other people "pussies" when they didn't want to commit to doing something reckless, foolish, and with unforeseen consequences? Or perhaps you've got a degree in Nuclear Materials and Engineering and can offer professional assurances that there is negligible risk to the average guy in his workshop?

Perhaps the only thing you lack which "The Ninnies" possess is an abundance of caution and a strong inclination to NOT collect alpha-emitter particles in one's gonads.  If that makes us "Ninnies" by your measure, I guess it's a small price to pay.

[Treknology]

Actually melting butter can be really dangerous, particularly if you are frying pancakes while stark naked.

[DavidKaine]

You're comparing melting butter to intentionally exposing yourself to a source of ionizing radiation. Americum-241 does emit gamma radiation, and it only takes a single photon striking a cell in your body the right way to cause damage that multiplies as the cell does. Also, in disassembling the ionization chamber, it's possible to damage the very thin coating of Americum on the disc and send the material airborne; when inhaled or ingested, even the low-energy alpha particles can cause damage. Furthermore, your body will NEVER be rid of the Americum or its harmful effects, not unless you intend to live for a few thousand years.

So sure, if you want to make me that Ninny Badge, go right ahead.

[emerson.john]

Righto! I will get to work on that. Actually, in lieu of the badge (my graphics skills are limited), I would be happy to send you a roll of aluminum foil. With that you can make a nice baseball cap liner to protect yourself from deadly cosmic radiation and alien control signals.

[rimar2000]

Ready, I did it. Now what do I do with it?

[offtherails2010]

omg, well done and i 2nd your wuestion, lol x2 !

[the.russkey]

You can make a random number generator. There's a guide on the internet somewhere. You basically put the Americium on the imaging element of a webcam, seal them in a box, and watch for little flashes as the alpha particles the CCD. Its a rather interesting, real, random number generator!

Here it is: http://www.inventgeek.com/Projects/alpharad/overview.aspx

[Treknology]

Apart from the build up in contamination, does this damage the CCD chip in any way?

[the.russkey]

I doubt it, but once you've gone though the trouble of taking the webcam apart to stick the Americium on it, I doubt it will be serviceable as a regular camera. You'll probably need to remove the IR filter and lens in the process.

[Treknology]

I would not be attempting to remove the isotope, it goes against everything I've posted elsewhere. I would only consider attaching the emitter to the front of the exposed CCD chip.

[lesizz]

Patience my dear man! In 452 years half of the specimen will be turned into neptunium 237.

[rimar2000]

Thanks, that reassured me a lot

[Higgs Boson]

Making a cloud chamber would be a good start. You can see the tracks left by the alpha particles emitted by the americium 241. I plan to make an instructable on making a cloud chamber, and hopefully within a year I'll have a Rutherford type accelerator that can accelerate alpha particles down a meter long glass tube into a gold or lead target. I still need to work out the theory of it, so it will probably be longer than a year. But definitely make a cloud chamber and use the americium 241 as a source. I suggest using a diffusion cloud chamber, they'r much simpler, but need dry ice.

[rimar2000]

Higg's Boson, so you really exist? Let them know it to the guys at CERN, which are still looking for you!

[Higgs Boson]

It would be a disappointment if I didn't exist and the standard model of particle physics turned out to be wrong!

[andy]

“Science is organized common sense where many a beautiful theory was killed by an ugly fact.” [Huxley] - good time to be a physicist either way.

I look forward to your accellerator write up.

Thanks,
Andy.

[nhpfister]

we would just have to find an alternative reality without you. Of course, there you wouldn't have written the above, I wouldn't have answered, wouldn't have thought of the need to find the alternative reality... I think I just suffered a probability field stroke, and the null hypothesis stands. You might like to hear that your existence is confirmed.

[{Havoc}.Goliath]

You could develop and patent your own smoke detector?

[rimar2000]

Good idea. I will make it nose shaped.

[Treknology]

The nose-shaped ones usually work very well unless the host body is sleeping, hence the need for a loud alarm. Most smoke-inhalation deaths are because the victim never woke during the fire.

[freeza36]

stow it away in the garage until further notice

[rimar2000]

I tried do it but my wife forbade me...

[Grissini]

shoot it with a neutron gun. Make some uranium and get in BIG trouble.

[rimar2000]

Please, put an instructable to make a neutron gun. Cheap, if possible.

[throbscottle]

Why do they call it "Americium"? Why not "Britishium" or "Spanishium" or "Chinesium" or "Russium" or "Someothercountrium"? If it was named after an older country, would it have a longer half life? What if it were named after a really unstable country? Never underestimate the power of names!

[GASSYPOOTS]

letsmakeitdoabarrelrolloffaroofium
LOL

[offtherails2010]

LMFAO x 2 !!!!
'Well-Said !'

[zilcho]

I believe it is called Americium because it was first synthesized in America. Actually (correct me if I'm wrong) it was one of three elements first synthesized at UC Berkley: Americium, Californium, and Berkelium. There was an element named after Russia too: Darmstadtium.

[zilcho]

My bad, the Russian element was Dubnium not Darmstadtium.

[sokamiwohali]

AFGANIUM...Iraqium...Iranium...lol

[MistaStokes]

Yes! Iranium! Sounds perfect! Time to become a physicist, discover element 119 just so I can call it "Iranium".

[sokamiwohali]

hahaha...give me credit tho...ill have to sue if you dont!! lol