Ralf Sudowe
@rsudowe.bsky.social
Nuclear Chemistry, Radiochemistry and Health Physics at Colorado State University | Science, Sci-Fi & Scotch | All views are mine
The New York Times posted an obituary for Darleane.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/s...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/s...
Darleane Hoffman, Innovator in Nuclear Chemistry, Dies at 98
www.nytimes.com
October 7, 2025 at 9:47 PM
The New York Times posted an obituary for Darleane.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/s...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/s...
Hello #nukesky community, has anyone been able to find an actual Cs-137 activity concentration for the shipment of cloves that the FDA flagged for contamination last week? I have only been able to find notices for shrimp.
September 29, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Hello #nukesky community, has anyone been able to find an actual Cs-137 activity concentration for the shipment of cloves that the FDA flagged for contamination last week? I have only been able to find notices for shrimp.
When Darleane invited me to come to the US to work as a postdoc for her, it literally changed the course of my life. I would not be where I am now without her. She was an incredible scientist and an amazing human being. She will be deeply missed by by all of her students, postdocs and colleagues.
🧪 Remembering Darleane Hoffman (1926–2025) — a pioneering nuclear chemist whose discoveries included primordial plutonium and seaborgium. A barrier-breaker and mentor, she reshaped nuclear science and inspired generations of women to pursue careers in STEM. 🖤
2023 Enrico Fermi Presidential Award Winner: Darleane Hoffman, Berkeley Lab Faculty Scientist
YouTube video by Berkeley Lab
www.youtube.com
September 10, 2025 at 7:03 PM
When Darleane invited me to come to the US to work as a postdoc for her, it literally changed the course of my life. I would not be where I am now without her. She was an incredible scientist and an amazing human being. She will be deeply missed by by all of her students, postdocs and colleagues.
A very sobering piece by former LANL director Sig Hecker.
thebulletin.org/2025/08/refl...
thebulletin.org/2025/08/refl...
Reflections on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 80 years on
Siegfried Hecker, former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, expresses concern that, 80 years after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that the world is on the wrong path—instead of c...
thebulletin.org
August 6, 2025 at 5:26 PM
A very sobering piece by former LANL director Sig Hecker.
thebulletin.org/2025/08/refl...
thebulletin.org/2025/08/refl...
New group picture - Sudowe Research Group 2025
March 3, 2025 at 9:10 PM
New group picture - Sudowe Research Group 2025
Very happy to say that the second paper from @slabbxo.bsky.social's dissertation was just published online in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Adsorption and Chromatographic Behavior of Dispersed Sodium Bismuthate Systems for the Separation of Americium from Curium
The selective partitioning of americium (Am) and curium (Cm) is integral for nuclear science areas such as the nuclear fuel cycle, stockpile stewardship, and isotope production but remains a long-stan...
pubs.acs.org
February 17, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Very happy to say that the second paper from @slabbxo.bsky.social's dissertation was just published online in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Reposted by Ralf Sudowe
NEW: I got a RARE look inside the underground complex where America conducts its subcritical nuclear weapons experiments.
I was told reporters hadn't been down there since the mid-1990s. Read on to learn how American maintains its stockpile without underground tests.
www.npr.org/2025/01/29/n...
I was told reporters hadn't been down there since the mid-1990s. Read on to learn how American maintains its stockpile without underground tests.
www.npr.org/2025/01/29/n...
Step inside the secret lab where America tests its nukes
A thousand feet beneath the desert, the United States conducts experiments to verify that its weapons work. But some fear a live test could come soon.
www.npr.org
January 29, 2025 at 11:49 AM
NEW: I got a RARE look inside the underground complex where America conducts its subcritical nuclear weapons experiments.
I was told reporters hadn't been down there since the mid-1990s. Read on to learn how American maintains its stockpile without underground tests.
www.npr.org/2025/01/29/n...
I was told reporters hadn't been down there since the mid-1990s. Read on to learn how American maintains its stockpile without underground tests.
www.npr.org/2025/01/29/n...
Reposted by Ralf Sudowe
Once created, element 119 will contain 119 protons—the most of any element discovered. It will sit on a new, eighth row of the periodic table, and it could be the first element to be named since 2016. cen.acs.org/physical-che... #chemsky🧪 #scinews
Why Japan is winning the race to discover the next element
After a breakdown in US-Russia relations, Riken finds itself ahead of its rivals. And Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory chases element 120
cen.acs.org
January 24, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Once created, element 119 will contain 119 protons—the most of any element discovered. It will sit on a new, eighth row of the periodic table, and it could be the first element to be named since 2016. cen.acs.org/physical-che... #chemsky🧪 #scinews
A long weekend and freezing temperatures are perfect for building models. First up, Fokker Dr. 1, Snoopy's mortal enemy!
January 20, 2025 at 11:45 PM
A long weekend and freezing temperatures are perfect for building models. First up, Fokker Dr. 1, Snoopy's mortal enemy!
Follow up paper to the genetic study on the dogs in the Chornobyl exclusion zone that was published last year. #NukeSky
www.popsci.com/science/cher...
www.popsci.com/science/cher...
Chernobyl’s feral dogs are genetically unique, but not mutated
At least 30 generations have roamed the abandoned region since 1986.
www.popsci.com
January 15, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Follow up paper to the genetic study on the dogs in the Chornobyl exclusion zone that was published last year. #NukeSky
www.popsci.com/science/cher...
www.popsci.com/science/cher...
Reposted by Ralf Sudowe
December 29, 2024 at 11:14 PM
December 25, 2024 at 8:11 PM
It's been a while since I posted a cat picture. So please say Hello to the fluffy Cookie.
December 18, 2024 at 3:22 AM
It's been a while since I posted a cat picture. So please say Hello to the fluffy Cookie.
Reposted by Ralf Sudowe
A @newscientist.bsky.social cartoon for Christmas
December 17, 2024 at 3:34 PM
A @newscientist.bsky.social cartoon for Christmas
Reposted by Ralf Sudowe
I recommend this article @nytimes.com by W.J. Hennigan. Excellent analysis of the consequences of the collapse of the global arms control regime. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Opinion | What One Russian Satellite Tells Us About the Future of Nuclear Warfare (Gift Article)
No shockwave. No mushroom cloud. But a space nuke would change life on Earth forever.
www.nytimes.com
December 5, 2024 at 5:48 PM
I recommend this article @nytimes.com by W.J. Hennigan. Excellent analysis of the consequences of the collapse of the global arms control regime. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Reposted by Ralf Sudowe
75 years ago today, the US Atomic Energy Commission and US Air Force conducted a secret experiment at the Hanford Reservation in Washington State, exposing thousands of people living downwind to dangerous levels of radioactive iodine-131 and xenon-133 from freshly-irradiated or “green” uranium fuel.
December 2, 2024 at 7:35 PM
75 years ago today, the US Atomic Energy Commission and US Air Force conducted a secret experiment at the Hanford Reservation in Washington State, exposing thousands of people living downwind to dangerous levels of radioactive iodine-131 and xenon-133 from freshly-irradiated or “green” uranium fuel.
They were up to some interesting shenanigans on our campus, but nuclear science is still going strong at CSU.
Wow still think this is pretty wild:
Several men weigh down the back of a fork lift moving a nuclear reactor in front of a campus building at Colorado State University 1957
Several men weigh down the back of a fork lift moving a nuclear reactor in front of a campus building at Colorado State University 1957
November 30, 2024 at 6:47 PM
They were up to some interesting shenanigans on our campus, but nuclear science is still going strong at CSU.
Optimist: The cup is half full
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
Nuclear Scientist: We can just decay correct the content of the cup.
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
Nuclear Scientist: We can just decay correct the content of the cup.
Optimist: The cup is half full
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
Cosmologist: The cup is dusty or full of gravitational waves
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
Cosmologist: The cup is dusty or full of gravitational waves
Optimist: The cup is half full
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
Astronomer: This is a high metallicity sightline
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
Astronomer: This is a high metallicity sightline
November 24, 2024 at 3:22 AM
Optimist: The cup is half full
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
Nuclear Scientist: We can just decay correct the content of the cup.
Pessimist: The cup is half empty
Nuclear Scientist: We can just decay correct the content of the cup.
Reposted by Ralf Sudowe
30 years ago, the U.S. airlifted highly-enriched uranium out of Kazakhstan—one of the great nonproliferation success stories. Longest C5 flight ever. For an excerpt from The Dead Hand: wapo.st/4eIE7yI And for key documents, see posting at Natl Security Archive: nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEB...
November 24, 2024 at 1:14 AM
30 years ago, the U.S. airlifted highly-enriched uranium out of Kazakhstan—one of the great nonproliferation success stories. Longest C5 flight ever. For an excerpt from The Dead Hand: wapo.st/4eIE7yI And for key documents, see posting at Natl Security Archive: nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEB...
Reposted by Ralf Sudowe
With all the new followers I guess it is time for an introduction. Hi, I am Ralf and I am a professor in the Environmental & Radiological Health Sciences Department at Colorado State University, where I teach courses on radiochemistry, radiation measurements and environmental radioactivity.
November 21, 2024 at 5:36 AM
With all the new followers I guess it is time for an introduction. Hi, I am Ralf and I am a professor in the Environmental & Radiological Health Sciences Department at Colorado State University, where I teach courses on radiochemistry, radiation measurements and environmental radioactivity.
I need to add this one to my lecture materials. In this case "perpetual" means 16,000 years.
November 21, 2024 at 1:11 AM
I need to add this one to my lecture materials. In this case "perpetual" means 16,000 years.