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Making uranium glass

NileRed · 15.1M views · 2020-02-15 · 30:03

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Overview

NileRed makes radioactive uranium glass from scratch, showing the chemistry involved and the green fluorescence under a blacklight. The video includes warnings about handling radioactive material.

On Hacker News

HN recommends it as an informative and entertaining look at how uranium glass is actually made.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2020–2024

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What people said

Ameo · 2020-02 · Strong recommendation

A really neat video by a Youtuber I follow - NileRed, who creates a lot of interesting chemistry content - was released a few days ago where he produces Uranium glass from scratch: [VIDEO] If you're interested in the process and chemistry behind it, it's a very informative and entertaining watch.

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hilbert42 · 2024-08 · Reference

Whether it's warranted or not is immaterial given the current situation with regulations and there seems little chance of that changing. Personally, I've a healthy respect for radiation/nuclear materials but I'm not afraid to work with them so long as I know what I'm dealing with—and that's the key point. It'd be a bit pretentious to describe situations where I've been exposed to radiation levels above background except to say they were deemed occupationally safe. That said, I've always avoided such situations when and wherever possible. Let's put my view into perspective: here's NileRed (a YouTube channel I like and watch often) making uranium glass in his home lab: [VIDEO] . Note: I'd never do this despite the low level radiation because of the potential for breathing in uranium dust, albeit a small risk. That said, I nevertheless own several old wine glasses made from uranium glass which I keep not to use for drinking but as a demonstration of how uranium glass fluoresces under UV light. It's very difficult to put information about radiation into proper perspective or in ways that the lay public can properly understand and appreciate, thus the need for tight regulations. Then, as I mentioned, there are the bad actors and of course a small collection of damn fools who are a danger not only to themselves but also to others. No doubt, you're right about cadmium and traces of it in food. That comparison isn't lost on me either. It just so happens at another time I ran a busine

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Schroedingersat · 2022-10 · Reference

Good thing no-one who has incentive to build an A bomb or dirty bomb had any U238 shot into their house and/or children or anything. There's absolutely no risk of anyone being able to get their hands on some to make plutonium if there were hundreds of breeder reactors in every country. And you definitely can't just buy it as a private citizen [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by NileRed, played through YouTube.

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