Uranium!!! Now What?

Guess I will cancel my order on ebay.

I'm in line at the grocery store. Put it in a zip top bag and keep it away from people. I'll have more advice later.

Ok. Grocery crisis averted. The commissary requires full attention.

Uranium as a metal is not very radioactive. As an ore it is quite dangerous for a number of reasons. The problems you encounter are from the fact it is not pure. You have many daughter isotopes in your samples that are very dangerous. Uranium decays into radium which emits low energy gamma rays, but then decays into radon gas. Radon has a half life of a little over three days, and is heavier than air. Any radon in your lungs when it decays becomes a radioactive metal that will sit in there and happily emit alpha particles right into your lung tissue. There is a similar hazard from just having radioactive ore, any pieces that crumble off contaminate the area you store them. If you ingest this dust, again you are bombarding your innards with alpha particles. Of all forms of ionizing radiation, alpha is the most biologically harmful. But only once its inside you. In my line of work, neutron radiation is much scarier to deal with, but since it doesn't occur naturally, its not a concern here. You obviously don't want kids getting ahold of it. Again the biggest risk is ingestion. It takes an obscene amount of naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) to pose an external hazard, but you don't want to test that theory on rapidly growing organisms like kids. I won't bring any of my specimens inside the actual house because I have a two year old daughter and a very very pregnant wife. In my shop they are stored in a 30 pound lead box. That's a pretty small box btw. About 4x4x2.5 inches inside. The reason for my excess safety there is I have some very pure pitchblende samples that put out a crap ton of gamma.

So, for your and your family's safety, you want to keep them in a sealed zip top bag, away front anywhere you spend a lot of time (living room, bedroom...) and out of the reach of kids. I can link you to some good sites for more info later today.

Its not wrapped in tinfoil its wrapped in lead foil so if you dont have any lead foil double bag it in heavy duty garbage bags and dont poke holes in it and get someplace proper and safe. Just my 2 cents.

I have had it stored away in my garage, its not like I had it as a centerpiece at my dining room table. I realized that it is radioactive and that I shouldn't treat it like a normal mineral. Really I was kind of hoping that I would have been able to safely display it somehow rather than having it wrapped up and tucked away, but if that is what I have to do to keep everyone safe, I will. My thinking was, that if several small ants could crawl all over it without growing a second head, I'm glad I asked though! Thanks for the comments Geoff.

Throw it in the trash. Then if someone knocks be surprised, say "I am sorry" and ask foregiveness.

It is always easier to ask foregiveness than it is to ask permission. Plus, it is always better to plan ahead!

I take a lot of radioactive materials from collectors that don't want to deal with them.

United Nuclear Radiation Safety

You won't grow extra body parts, this isn't a comic book.

You can pack it around the wife's wedding ring and turn the diamonds a beautiful green.  Green diamonds form from the natural radiation in the ground they are exposed to.

I googled uranium to see why someone would want to display it. I'm still wondering.....

Anyone find any pretty uranium?

Thanks.