Product Overview
The term “yellowcake” is probably familiar to most as something that’s used for making nuclear bombs. That’s really not too far from the truth (though in vastly more cases it’s earmarked for nuclear power production) but the term itself is informal and refers to more than one chemical.
Regardless of which specific substance we’re talking about, yellowcake always refers to a byproduct of uranium ore refining. As it comes out of the ground, uranium ore looks, and almost entirely actually is, just like any other ordinary looking rock but with a minor component of radioactive trace elements. To get to the good stuff, as a first step this rock is usually liquefied with acid. With uranium’s density being much higher than any of the other mineral components, this makes it easy to simply divert the topmost layers to the garbage heap out back and collect the heavy sludge at the bottom.
This heavy sludge is now of course much higher in uranium content but still has many impurities. To get rid of them, the refinery will usually add solutions containing ammonia which yields a yellowish residue from whence the term comes. This yellowcake is primarily ammonium diuranate with chemical formula (NH4)2U2O7 and this is usually the last step that the guys at the mine facilities will perform before packing it and sending it off to, hopefully, a properly accredited nuclear agency. They in turn will undertake the more arduous processing steps to get to the eventually tiny percentage of uranium-235, the fissionable isotope, that they need for running their reactors.
Clearly, there’s little expectation of seeing yellowcake for sale on Amazon. And, really, if you think about it, that’s a good thing considering it has very few legitimate uses for individuals. The only valid exception, in fact, would probably be for those shopping for unusual scientific collectibles. For them we’re glad to present this as an option for your stocking stuffer.
Remember kids, it’s safe only as long as it stays in the bottle! Treat it with the same respect as rat poison and everything’ll be alright.
Ok to ship internationally!