Pix That Make You LOL-Warning-SNWS

Mg isn't radioactive unstable but my recollection is that pure magnesium will catch "combust easily". IIRC, when I was in high school, it was stored in oil but that was a bit over half a century ago so take that for what it's worth (I graduated from high school in 1972).

[time passes] Just checked chatGPT and there's no particular need to store it that way. I went to school outside the US so perhaps they took different precautions?

You're thinking about sodium metal which like lithium is highly water reactive and is stored in oil to prevent contact with water. Many years ago I worked as a chemist in a hazardous waste disposal facility near Vancouver, BC and found a jar with what looked like small, whole walnuts in a liquid. Turned out it was small sodium chunks that had slowly reacted with moisture over 50 years. Cut one open and there was a pea sized piece in the middle.

A few of the guys I worked with and I used to walk the half block to the Fraser River at lunch to smoke some pot and goof around so I took the jar and some tongs with me. I chucked the open piece in the water where it popped and burned while skittering around on the surface on fire. When whole pieces were tossed in they sank a few feet before water got to the metal then they exploded like small hand grenades sending a column of water 10 - 20ft in the air. Fun was had by all! :)

I still have a 1lb piece of sodium sealed in a tin can and a jar with lithium chunks in oil that must be 1/4lb or so of the metal. What to do with that I wonder.

:peace:
 
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