Strontiumnitrate

[Trippiej!]

Hi there.

 

Soon I will get a package with strontiumnitrate.

 

All of a sudden my parrents came to me and said this stuff would be radioactive.

Something I never tought about, because i've read a lot like MSDS and other lecture about toxicity of chemicals. But I never came across the fact that strontiumnitrate would be radioactive.

 

I've read something that the only radioactive strontium-based substance only is obtained and used in nuclear powerplants.

 

Now I want to know if it's realy radioactive or not. If someone have a source that litarly tells it's true or false, i could hand it over to my parrents.

 

The fact that i think it's false is because they sell strontiumcarbonate at ceramic-supply-stores (not nitrate, but still strontium).

The Chinese ppl work with it since ages ago and the only thing that happend is some of the factories blew up....

 

Welll... Thanks if someone know the awnser. And please post a source if you have it.

 

Greetings!!

[Pretty green flame]

Strontium nitrate IS NOT radioactive. Nothing to worry about.

A certain isotope of Strontium is radiactive but IIRC it is only present when a nuke goes off or something like that, i don't know to be honest but anyway, strontium nitrate is not radioactive.

[WarezWally]

Not radioactive

 

People always think the worst when you say strontium and cobalt

[GalFisk]

The misconception comes from the radioactive isotope strontium-90, which is a troublesome component of nuclear fallout. It has a relatively long half life (~29 years), and is concentrated in the bones just like calcium.

[Sylar]

The real misconception is that something could not be radioactive.

 

It's only the level of radioactivity that matters.

In this case the background radiation is probably higher then the radiation from the Sr-carbonate/nitrate.

[Miech]

The misconception comes from the radioactive isotope strontium-90, which is a troublesome component of nuclear fallout. It has a relatively long half life (~29 years), and is concentrated in the bones just like calcium.

My sources tell me there is a radioactive isotope of strontium, containing 47 neutrons. That makes the radioactive isotope strontium-85. It has a half life of roughly 65 days, and loses 1.08 MeV of energy per send out particle.

 

Anyway, 0.00% of strontium from natural sources is strontium-85, so nothing to worry about (exept from toxicity).

[Arthur]

Unless you are buying from dodgy suppliers there is little chance of you getting noticeable amounts of radiation or sources, without radiological protection people being informed. Medics get the isotopes they need, so do reactor operators, and the military.

 

There is a radioactive isotope of almost every every element over At.No. 20 ish. --Even in the case of uranium the active isotope is very rare in the natural state of the material.

 

Strontium in active isotope form is possibly present as fallout product from nuclear tests and reactor waste. BUT the level will be so low that there will be no worry from it

[Frozentech]

This is a perfect example of old media info that has gotten out of hand over the years. Strontium 90 a major component of radioactive fallout from weapons, is what they are thinking of. It was also released in large amounts during the Chernobyl reactor accident. So it was in the newspapers a LOT in the late 1980's. Strontium Nitrate, or Strontium Carbonate should NOT contain any Sr90.

[Trippiej!]

Thanks for the replies.

Since I came up with this issue, i've done a lot of reading.

I think the chance I get radio-active strontium is 0.0 (as in the first place) I've read that Sr-90 comes with a nuke indeed. Some other radioative isotopes are used in hospitals for radioation therapy or so.

 

But it still doesn't say that my strontium isn't radioactive..

Where do I get the info that say strontium nitrate for pyro use do not have the bad isotopes?

 

I've send my suplier a email, i hope he send me a email back.

 

Greetings!

[GalFisk]

You can look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_strontium

It's a list of strontium isotopes, and it also says how much of each are present in natural strontium. Note that all four naturally occuring isotopes are stable, i.e. non-radioactive.

[Mumbles]

You could always bring up the point that your parents themselves are naturally radioactive. Might as well toss the bananas as well. Potassium 40, a naturally occuring isotope, is infact radioactive. Radioactivity has a stigma about it that it always causes cancer and people to glow, etc. Might want to try to educate them on the bad forms of radioactivity, and show them that what you're using has none of the bad isotopes.

[Richtee]

You could always bring up the point that your parents themselves are naturally radioactive.  Might as well toss the bananas as well.

Heh... checkout the Wiki on Brazil nuts... I had heard this years ago...still kinda freaks people out when I tell them this:

 

Radioactivity

 

Brazil nuts contain small amounts of radium, a radioactive material. Although the amount is very small, about 1–7 pCi/g (40–260 Bq/kg), and most of it is not retained by the body, this is 1,000 times higher than in other foods. According to Oak Ridge Associated Universities, this is not because of elevated levels of radium in the soil, but due to "the very extensive root system of the tree."[16]

 

Source:

 

Brazil nut Wiki

[nejc@]

If you live in the house it is full of radioactive gas radon, especially if you don`t frequently air you rooms. Radon and very small particles of radioactive metals are everywhere.

Scientist in one of the biggest institutes in Slovenia showed me a proof of that. We were standing in a room. There was detector of radioactivity and it showed that there is nothing enought radioactive to be harmful for us in the room. Then the scientist took textile filter and put it on a strong vacuum cleaner. He turned the cleaner on for about half a minute. Than he carefuly took the filter off the cleaner and he put it on the detector. It started to bip loudly...

So little radioactive Sr(NO3)2 is nothing to worry about

Oh, do you have any clock or compass that shines in the dark(numbers, hands) without recharching on the sun? Thing that shines is highly radioactive metal named radium, as I remember.