Can salt 🧂 help power our future?
Molten Salt Reactors use molten fluoride or chloride salts as a coolant.
The coolant can flow over solid fuel like other reactors or fissile materials can be dissolved directly into the primary coolant.
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) was a mission from 2001 to 2010 that made all-sky maps of the cosmic microwave background, the radiation left over from the recombination epoch, roughly 380,000 years after the Big Bang.
Did you know that uranium can help us date the earth? I find that quite interesting. Its chemical composition allows for a long life, giving us insight on just how old our planet is!
The Kramatorsk radiological accident, Ukrainian SSR, 1980 - 1989.
In the 1970s, a capsule with radioactive Cesium-137 was lost in the sand quarry. Several years later, it ended up in the wall of an apartment building and killed 6 people before the source could be found.
Some minerals are as dangerous as they are beautiful. Asbestos can cause serious lung disease, cinnabar contains toxic mercury, and galena is a major source of lead. Torbernite is radioactive due to its uranium content, while orpiment and hutchinsonite contain poisonous arsenic. These minerals remind us that nature’s most stunning crystals can also pose severe health risks.