ThePortForum.com

Quiz. What piece of low-level nuclear waste, that is also drinking apparatus, am I using Churchill’s White Porto to attempt to make safer? And how?

Is it the new Uranium corkscrew from Screwpull which automatically cuts its emmisions in half when placed in a lightbox?

Err, no.

Is it the Pluto beaker that you are drinking it from? I'm more of a Donald fan, myself.

Your new decanter, which you have white port in, leaching out the metals?

Jay

Jay P wrote:Your ! decanter, which you have white port in, leaching out the metals?

Progress. But you haven’t explained the ‟low-level nuclear waste”.

Its the waste bit, I'm not getting. Everything (Well nearly) gives off some form of Natural Radiation, and is it Radon, which is naturally occuring and is all around us in rather high doses. But Waste??? Cant see that one.

The answer: I own a ½-bottle size decanter made of Uranium glass. Art Deco, quite possibly Czech. Legally, in the UK, Uranium glass is handled for disposal purposes at least as low-level nuclear waste.

Is it safe to drink liquid that has been in such a decanter? Well, I have left some cheap porto in it, and am now trying to persuade a local university to compare the liquids in the decanter and the bottle. There will, eventually, be a progress report.

Going back to the original question - how are you trying to make is safer?

If there is any U close to the surface, I would rather it leached into the white porto (which is to be discarded) than into decent vintage port (that is to be drunk).

OK - I get the theory.

But, even 'though my knowledge of radioactive substances only extends to what I learned at the age of 17 during my Physics and Chemistry classes at High School, I can't help thinking that would take a very long time. If the radiation from the surface of the galss leached out into the white port would it not be replaced by more radiation from within the glass?

Would it not be more effective to by a decanter that wasn't radioactive?

Derek

Uranium decays slowly, yes, agreed. But we aren’t collecting alpha particles: we’re trying to leach out the Uranium itself, so that none leaches when the decanter is used.