Disposing 20,000 Pounds of Metalic Sodium circa 1947
by mitch on Jan 08 2008 (1277 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
Subscribe to the comments for this post
7 People have left comments on this post
Jan 9, 2008 - 06:01:20Ah 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.