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United Nuclear has all sorts of fun little thing like this spinthariscope that let's you watch atom splitting. http://unitednuclear.com/spinthariscope.htm

Assuming sufficient and sufficiently geeky parental involvement, there are lots of cool things from United Nuclear. http://www.unitednuclear.com/

A collection of the smaller magnets and some ferrofluid are a pretty good combination. Ferrofluid has aproximatly the same danger and potential for mess as old engine oil, so depending on the kid you might need to supervise it. A variety of magnets also add variety to a ROMP set. http://scientificsonline.com/product.asp?eid=EID02&pn=3082172

You might also try throwing some mechanical puzzles at him. One that I particularly like can be found at http://stores.brilliantpuzzles.com/-strse-212/Internal-Combustion-Metal-Puzzle/Detail.bok but there are many.

That's what this site does

http://www.unitednuclear.com/

I love the "Looking for some Uranium" gif.

I'm fond of http://unitednuclear.com/

Neodymium Magnet Ring? Very geeky!

could you link us to the paper you read? Would be an awesome DIY project to try to replicate. http://www.unitednuclear.com/glassware.htm has a hoffman apparatus for a starting point.

Oh, boy! Time to navigate over to United Nuclear to pick up a gram of this stuff for my element collection!

Sounds like a poor man's Aerogel! Not that many rich people are rich enough to buy this stuff. Unless they want scraps from United Nuclear. If you want green Aerogel and not stuff that is decribed as being more dangerous to make than TNT to make you can create some SEAgel buy freeze drying agar.

its actual a response to a possible panic caused by people using bad detectors.

Then make a law banning the sale of bad detectors, or setting off alarms based on measurements from uncertified detectors. Don't point a gun at me and demand that I hand over my Geiger counter.

Not that I have a Geiger counter, nor do I live in NYC. If I did live there, I buy one, take it over the city hall, and make a big scene about how my "intelligence detector" was given very low readings in the area...

(In fact, you can get an alpha particle scintillation detector for under $30. I usually visit NYC a few times a year, if a stupid enough version of this law passes I might get one of these and carry it on my next trip just for the thrill of being a criminal.)

For those who don't listen to Coast to Coast AM or are UFOphiles, the "Bob" bitrex is referring to is Bob Lazar (wikipedia, C2CAM). Bob is the president of United Nuclear.

From Wikipedia: Robert Scott Lazar (January 26, 1959), or Bob Lazar, worked from 1988 until 1989 as a physicist at an area called S-4 (Sector Four), located near Groom Lake, Nevada, situated next to Area 51. According to Lazar, S-4 was a hidden military location for the study of extraterrestrial vehicles.

From C2CAM: Bob Lazar is the President of United Nuclear. They specialize in research & development of cutting edge technologies, design and manufacture of radiation detection equipment for the nuclear weapons industry, and the retail of scientific equipment & supplies. He was formerly senior staff physicist for the U.S. Department of Naval Intelligence at the Nevada Test Site and a nuclear physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he was involved in advanced nuclear weapon design and development.

if commercial sets are too tame, there's always the internets (note archive.org link)

buy chemicals here (...while you can -- the feds are actively working to shut this guy down)

btw, chemistry sets were lame even 30 years ago. the chemicals they came with were things like alum, lime, aspirin, melting salt

and a link to click on if you fear your government more than terrorism (vote in the PRIMARY dammit -- before the repub. machine grinds up Paul and spits him out; like the dem. machine did to howard dean)

United Nuclear

Well some one beat me to the punch on this. Good luck trying to find the more restrictive elements however, theres an unfinished tutorial on how to extract pure uranium from bulk ore, now all they need to do is show how to make centrifuges and a nuclear reactor. Although I almost got the chance to help design a lead cooled reactor.

You can also try this set, but I would rather have my own reactor in my backyard selling power, granted Nevada power doesn't pay jack squat after a certain amount when it comes to selling power from alternative sources.

C3000 Set

Check out http://www.unitednuclear.com/ and build your own. Amazing stuff your mother wouldn't let you have. a

Just curious: where/when did you go to high school? These sound like absolutely fantastic experiments that I fear are entirely impossible these days (legally). I know that you and I can go out and buy mild gamma sources (like here) but that doesn't mean it is legal in a public high school (e.g. mercury).

I don't know... but they sure look cool! I'm thinking we should just opt for UV lighting instead; unfortunately they don't yet have a model that screws into the typical socket :(

Buy polonium 210 on the internet? I believe that, but I don't believe that they'll sell it to you in lethal quantities. I'll assume that you're referring to the united nuclear website (http://www.unitednuclear.com/isotopes.htm). Just think - if you could buy as much polonium 210 as what was used against Litvinenko, do you really think that any postage service would want to deliver a radioactive package?

Although it would be cool to be able to stroll down to the "chemistry store" and pick up a couple of ounces of, say, salt's better half.

Why bother to walk to the "chemistry store" when you can buy it online?

united nuclear also makes aerogel. that's an interesting material and it's a solid

http://www.unitednuclear.com/aerogel.htm

4. Ferrofluids - magnetic fluids that can look spectacular. They're made from nanoscale magnetic particles suspended in a liquid. The spectacular sculpture in the video below is made using a ferrofluid and electromagnets.

If you can't hear the difference that magnetic leveitation makes to speakers, you clearly don't know what you're talking about. Real audiophiles mount their speakers on aerogel. It only costs a few thousand dollars per speaker. But after you've spent 5 million on the excavation, 5 thousand on sheilding the whole thing and 5 hundred on the sandbags, it's a small sacrifice to make for ultimate sound quality.

You're thinking of polonium-218, with the radon. Its half life is 3 minutes. Polonium-210 is different. It's a popular radioisotope for 3 reasons:

1. Its half life is a convenient 120 days or something (not microseconds or decades).
2. It decays to lead 208 which is stable.
3. It is a pure alpha emitter (no beta or gamma) which makes it relatively safe to handle as long as you do not ingest it.

Polonium-218 has none of these properties.

They sell small amounts of polonium-210 in those little plastic red disks you find in high school chem labs. United Nuclear was selling them for like $69. You'd need to buy a lot of disks to kill a Russian spy.

I don't know about you, but I want the H-bomb shirt to walk around in an airport or police station.

http://www.unitednuclear.com/tees.htm

How about a lump of aerogel for those who have been good? Soooo tempting. I wish they had the large pieces in stock.

There is already clarification on how they sell Polonium 20

http://www.unitednuclear.com/isotopes.htm

http://www.unitednuclear.com/isotopes.htm Here's their explanation.

Not enough to poison someone, almost impossible to extract, etc. Poor United Nuclear will probably be run out of business just like everyone else who helps amateur scientists.

Damn! Why didn't they publish this before the trick-or-treaters came knocking?

United Nuclear Scientific Supplies - looking for some URANIUM? CLICK HERE.

Damn! Why didn't they publish this before the trick-or-treaters came knocking?

United Nuclear Scientific Supplies - looking for some URANIUM? CLICK HERE.

I'm thinking that when going out to dinner with ex-KGB, one might need this.

http://www.unitednuclear.com/traser.htm Now this is usefull! With a half-life of over 12 years! You won't need to buy any batteries for a flashlight anymore. It's a darn shame they're out of stock. :-(

I got a good laugh. I hope you do too.
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General

Information and products available on this web site are not intended for Children.
Some of the products offered can be very dangerous in the hands of
the inexperienced. If you intend on conducting experiments with pyrotechnic
chemicals, make sure you are familiar with the materials & chemistry involved
in your project, or are working under the supervision of an adult who is!

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Everything we sell is legal to buy and own in the USA with out any licenses, etc.

Please note that assembling and even possessing EXPLODING DEVICES
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The only exception is for those professionals who posses proper
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This site should NOT be construed as training material for the manufacture of fireworks or firing of fireworks displays. Although some information may be presented that is usable for the manufacture and use of fireworks, it is presented as general information only.

United Nuclear sells a variety of chemicals, metal powders and supplies commonly used in general chemistry, the manufacture of high power rocket motors and general pyrotechnics. Some of these materials can also be used to make exploding fireworks (such as M-80's, etc.) that can be very dangerous.
Exploding fireworks such as M-80's, Cherry Bombs, Silver Salutes, etc. are no longer considered fireworks. They are considered high explosives. Manufacturing or possessing these banned devices is a felony.

If you live in California for instance, just about everything related to pyrotechnics is illegal.
The California State Fire works Laws are on line, along with the Fire Marshall's Regulations.

Pyrotechnics and explosives are not safe - factories have been destroyed in the past, and they have access to the best materials and equipment, and take the most stringent safety precautions. Some people on the net have also been injured by accidents, and many of them had years of experience and took extremely comprehensive safety measures.

Some knowledge of chemistry and physics is essential - if you didn't do high-school chemistry, get yourself a chemistry textbook and read it. Make sure you understand the basic principles involved for any composition
you might be making. It is a good idea to check a formula out with someone who is experienced in chemistry, to make sure you haven't missed any safety aspect.

This is Important
Be very careful with any pyrotechnic formulas or instructions for building devices you find on the Internet. Unfortunately, a very large portion of the information found on various websites throughout the internet is completely wrong - and extremely dangerous. Make sure you trust the source of the information if you are experimenting with chemicals - especially chemicals & pyrotechnic mixtures.
Just because you might see the same formula listed on more than one website, does not make it correct. People have a bad habit of repeating and reposting bad & incorrect information as if it were true.
Remember, anyone can post anything on the Internet, right or wrong.

Anytime we post an chemical experiment or procedure to make something on our site, we test it as thoroughly as possible before posting it. Even with our safeguards, typos can occur and accidental errors do pop up when pages are updated or copied. Pay close attention to what you are doing. If you have any questions, ask someone who is experienced in chemistry.

There is no information on high explosives on this website,
nor will we knowingly link to any site that provides that kind of information.

Boy, this guy's annual "Desert Blast" looks safe and fun. Yikes. http://www.unitednuclear.com/mag.htm

According to here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonium

"The maximum allowable body burden for ingested polonium is only 1,100 becquerels (0.03 microcurie), which is equivalent to a particle weighing only 6.8 × 10-12 gram. Weight for weight, polonium is approximately 2.5 × 1011 (250 billion) times as toxic as hydrogen cyanide. The maximum permissible concentration for airborne soluble polonium compounds is about 7,500 Bq/m3 (2 × 10-11 Ci/cm3). The biological halflife of polonium in humans is 30 to 50 days.[18]"

The toxic dose is 0.03 micro-curies

http://www.unitednuclear.com/isotopes.htm

Lists their polonium source as 0.1 micro-curie. Now Polonium is only REALLY toxic when inhaled, where alpha particles do the most damage.

I know they probably track source sales like mad, but yeah, that seems a bit too convenient. I don't know what the disks are made off. If they are, say, ceramic based, it's probably resistant to most methods of extraction. Anything else, well...

I don't know how much longer then that this will be a 'legal' alpha source.

http://www.unitednuclear.com/mugs.htm

Captcha: frothy

I wonder how that could have happened...

http://www.unitednuclear.com/isotopes.htm

"Only Legal Source" ..... not for long

"The world media is rushing to judgement and condemning Putin as the mad mastermind behind this terrorist act, yet there are some rather big problems with this theory: none of the known suspects are likely KGB assassins. Their loyalties, as far as can be discerned, lie in quite the opposite direction: Lugovoi, who ran afoul of the Putin administration, and Scaramella, whose anti-KGB credentials are apparently impeccable. The prejudices of the media, and the editorial writers, lead us down one path, but the facts - at least as they are known so far - take us down quite another. ...In any case, Lugovoi is part and parcel of the Berezovsky network, and if he had anything to do with the murder then the theory that this was a falling-out among Russian exiles, dressed up to look like a KGB hit, gains credibility. But how, then, does one explain the method utilized: polonium-210, which only a state is likely to have access to?

Then again, if we look at Berezovsky's estimated fortune of some $3 billion, his empire is for all intents and purposes a mini-state. Add to this the assets of other exiled oligarchs, including many who fled to Israel, and you have resources equal to the task of procuring and delivering polonium-210 to any target. Yet this still doesn't rule out state involvement in the operation, even if we assume Litvinenko's death resulted from some internecine squabble within the London-based exile community."

From http://unitednuclear.com/about.htm:

United Nuclear was formed in 1986 by Los Alamos scientist, Bob Lazar.Bob Lazar? This Bob Lazar? Yes.

Okay. After seeing the rest of the site the 'poisoning' is starting to make sense

It's not exactly hard to come buy. The public can buy it over the internet. http://www.unitednuclear.com/isotopes.htm A few hundred dollars buys you a nice lethal dosage.

Holy cow. That site is so ghetto I'd be afraid to give them my credit card number. Guess there isn't enough money in nuclear e-commerce to gussy the site up a bit.

Holy cow. That site is so ghetto I'd be afraid to give them my credit card number. Guess there isn't enough money in nuclear e-commerce to gussy the site up a bit.

can only be obtained from a limited number of state run laboratories

http://unitednuclear.com/isotopes.htm

http://unitednuclear.com/isotopes.htm

Not over the counter, but how about on the internet? Only $69!

Technically you have to be 18 to use a charge card to pay for deuterium oxide, some might question larger quantities like the 5L bottle for $2000.00; I'm sure that North Korea was trying to by much larger quantities than that.

Technically you have to be 18 to use a charge card to pay for deuterium oxide, some might question larger quantities like the 5L bottle for $2000.00; I'm sure that North Korea was trying to by much larger quantities than that.

I haven't been able to find a place to buy deuterium, unless you want to talk to a guy called Al (last name of 'Qaeda').

Put away the fear-mongering, and learn to use Google. Deuterium is easily obtained from many places for *gasp!* science experiments.
http://unitednuclear.com/hw.htm
http://www.isotope.com/cil/products/displayproduct .cfm?prod_id=5267
And the world's leading "producer" of Deuterium is Canada.

You can get Deuterium Oxide from http://www.unitednuclear.com/chem.htm (and probably many other chemical suppliers) from which you can make deuterium gas.

http://www.unitednuclear.com/

'Nuff said?

Anecdote related to heavy water and its cost:
1000 tons of heavy water. [...]. The water has a value of $300 million

Thats about $333/L, Not a bad price, especially if that's Canadian dollars. Helps to buy in bulk.

UnitedNuclear will sell you 5 litres at US$400/L, but the price goes up to over $1111/L in small quantities (ie $10 for a 10 gram vial, about a third of the way down this page.).