When The Queen Of England Handled Plutonium

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]Queen of England handled plutonium.

[00:00:04]>> [music] >> In 1957, Queen Elizabeth II visited Harwell, Britain's first atomic energy research establishment. While touring the facilities, the monarch was handed a plastic bag full of plutonium and invited to feel how warm IT WAS. PLASTIC BAG! THE LUMP WAS ALMOST certainly plutonium-239, which alpha decays pumping out alpha particles, helium nuclei, with a half-life of 24,000 years. Due to this decay, each kilogram of the material pumps out a few watts of thermal energy, about 0.1% of the output of a space heater. So, it can be warm to the touch.

[00:00:42]However, from your high school physics, you may remember that alpha particles only travel a few centimeters in the air and they're easily blocked by a thin layer of paper or plastic or even [music] the skin. So, the chances of the slowly decaying lump significantly irradiating the monarch through a plastic bag were minimal. The danger of alpha emitters lies in ingestion or inhalation because then the alpha particles are trapped in the body and can't punch their way out. They irradiate the body from the inside.

[00:01:08]Thankfully, the Queen wasn't invited to smell or taste the plutonium. For more, be scientific and bad and find me over on YouTube.

[00:01:17]>> [music]