NileRed
1 HN recommender · recommended in 4 months, 2020–2024
30:03 · 15M views · Feb 15, 2020
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.
HN recommends it as an informative and entertaining look at how uranium glass is actually made.
4 comments from Hacker News
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: this video If you're interested in the process and chemistry behind it, it's a very informative and entertaining watch.
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: this 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
I've been to a few antiques stores where they have a blacklight case to show off the fluorescent uranium glass teacups and candlesticks. If you don't have a blacklight with you, it's tough to tell the difference between truly radioactive glass colored with uranium salts, and green-tinted depression glass produced at the same time last century that is neither radioactive nor fluorescent. Depression glass has an interesting story all its own [LINK] ) It actually surprised me that you can buy uranium glass online on ebay or etsy. It's not controlled or anything, and there are some very weird old curios manufactured last century. ( [LINK] ). I bought a tiny little salt cellar this way once the desire to own something radioactive overcame me. NileRed even made a video of manufacturing his own uranium glass this video
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 this video