What to do with 20k pounds of metallic sodium

[erik the bold]

Cirica 1947  I think you'll like this....   
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3825610222960975525&q=sodium+lake&hl=en

OR

Thermite mit Ice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIqC610k1gY&NR

[280plus]

I watched a few of those thermite things at youtube. What a bunch of morons. Not one of them could figure out the grass might catch on fire? They're going to sya "Oh crap!!" and go dig out the hose after they set the stuff off?

 

[DrAmazon]

Both of these experiments/demonstrations CAN be done safely, but in all things ya gotta know what you're doing.  I've performed the sodium experment dozens of times (but not on that scale, I'm very jealous).  I've not done Thermite myself, but have supervised students performing the demo for various chemistry shows.

[280plus]

LOL,,,I got no problem with the experiments, I just woulda had the hose ready first.   



I recall chemistry class when we were putting small amounts of sodium into water. It makes hydrogen IIRC. One kid had his friggin beaker blow up and spray glass all over. Nobdoy got hurt though.

[Gewehr98]

We had thermite grenades in our jets.  The idea was, if forced to land in unfriendly territory, we were to take the thermite grenades and wedge them between the equipment racks and fuselage, set the fuses, and egress.  The temperatures created by the burning thermite would cause secondary ignition of the plane's fuselage and the electronics, denying the captor anything of value.  They wouldn't give me one of the grenades as a retirement present. 

[K Frame]

"One kid had his friggin beaker blow up and spray glass all over."

Same thing happened in my chemistry class with a large bore test tube.

I caught a small fragment on the arm that drew a tiny bit of blood.

[mfree]

Neat flick, could have done without the whiny bit at the end. "Hazardous" doesn't mean "poisonous" and in the alkali lake they dropped them in the net result was probably 1/10 of 1% increase in alkalinity, from residual sodium hydroxide.

[brimic]

In one of my past jobs, I worked with sodium metal  and sodium hydride alot. We'd dispose of it by setting contaminated flasks on a concrete pad outside of the lab and spray them with water from a distance.

[DrAmazon]

LOL,,,I got no problem with the experiments, I just woulda had the hose ready first.   



I recall chemistry class when we were putting small amounts of sodium into water. It makes hydrogen IIRC. One kid had his friggin beaker blow up and spray glass all over. Nobdoy got hurt though.

Therein lies the problem. Many chemical fires are made worse with water.  Thermite and Na are two fo them.  A bucket o' sand is a much better option. 

[280plus]

Good to know but I meant for the grass and other non thermite combustibles.   

[Bogie]

It's a good thing we didn't have video cameras when I was in high school.

White phosphorous.

Potassium perchlorate.

In roughly equal amounts (hey, we had a VERY nicely equipped chem lab...).

We would carefully spoon the crap into a glass test tube, and then wait for a squirrel to come within range. The principal had no idea why the grass in that part of the lawn had all these holes in it...