Disposing 20,000 Pounds of Metalic Sodium circa 1947
January 8th, 2008 by mitch
(332 Views)
The video is a copy of a newsreel showing the US military disposing of several tons of metallic sodium by dumping it into a lake, after the end of WWII. It may just be me, but I seriously doubt any chemist advising the military thought this was a good idea for waste disposal. I’m sure they might of thought it was a fun idea, but a good idea…
Note 1: Brought to my attention by enahs.
Mitch
on
Ah back in the good old days, when men were men and dumping tons of sodium in the lake was more than just hella sweet- it was useful.
I love the scene where a cloud of NaOH is rolling up the hill.
That was me, fyi.
enahs: credit given
Ok so what did they do with the extra potassium metal lying around.
Astonishing are the risks we took in the past - and are still paying for today, eg asbestos is in nearly every building built in the 1950’s - 1970’s in the UK. A lot of the time, if you’re replacing old kitchen floor tiles or garage roof tiles you never give asbestos a thought when they could be full of it.
One of those things that work perfectly well until it is time to replace it or decommission it.