How bad is this article about uranium glass?

[swampwiz]

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/these-people-love-to-collect-radioactive-glass-are-they-nuts

It talks about uranium giving off "alpha waves/rays" & "beta waves/rays", and an isotope of U-308. My understanding is that alpha & beta radiation is particle in nature whereas gamma radiation is a photon that could be considered a wave (yes, I know deBroglie showed that particles have a wave quality, but the standard description is that of particles); the only natural occurring uranium is U-235 & U-238, and both give off only alpha particles, not "beta waves"; and the highest observed atomic weight of any isotope is Tennessine & Oganesson -294 (and that has only been observed in superheavy transmutation colliders) - so what is U-308?

 

[jedishrfu]

This is an article by a collector of uranium glass not a scientist familiar with the details of uranium radiation and so one would not expect them to be so precise in their wording.

If you're interested in radiation stories, there's a great series of videos on youtube by kyle hill called the half-life histories covering many past radiation disasters. One such story was the Goliana tragedy where an abandoned medical device was salvaged and its container of radioactive Cesium was broken open with disastrous results for the whole community.

 

[mfb]

It starts with so much nonsense ("radioactive beta-waves"??) before declaring that this nonsense is irrelevant, but then it has some more weird statements later on.

There is no U-308 and it's not even an understandable typo.

Uranium is almost exclusively decaying via alpha decays, but thorium-234 as decay product of U-238 does a beta decay to protactinium-234 (which quickly decays to uranium-234 with a much longer lifetime) and gamma decays are possible in the chain, too.

 

[gleem]

The US Health Physics Society has a document discussing radioactive materials in consumer products, including Uranium in glass. http://hps.org/documents/consumerproducts.pdf

Everything we encounter in our daily lives contains some radioactive material, some naturally occurring and some man-made: the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the ground we walk upon, and the consumer products we purchase and use. Although many might be familiar with the use of radiation to diagnose disease and treat cancer, some people, when they hear the terms “radioactive” and “radiation,” might recall images of mushroom clouds or monster mutants that inhabit the world of science fiction movies and comic books. Unfortunately, those false images can cause inordinate fear that is not justified regarding low levels of radioactive material. Many consumer items containing naturally occurring radioactivity can be safely used. This fact sheet describes a few of the more commonly encountered and familiar consumer products. Included are the items that can contain sufficient radioactive material to be distinguished from the general environmental background radiation with a simple handheld radiation survey meter.

Glass Glassware, especially antique glassware with a yellow or greenish color, can contain easily detectable quantities of uranium. Such uranium-containing glass is often referred to as canary or vaseline glass. In part, collectors like uranium glass for the attractive glow that is produced when the glass is exposed to a black light. Even ordinary glass can contain high-enough levels of potassium-40 or thorium-232 to be detectable with a survey meter. Older camera lenses (1950s-1970s) often employed coatings of thorium-232 to alter the index of refraction. It is safe to eat from this glassware. (HPS ATE 3167)

 

[snorkack]

Uranium is almost exclusively decaying via alpha decays, but thorium-234 as decay product of U-238 does a beta decay to protactinium-234 (which quickly decays to uranium-234 with a much longer lifetime) and gamma decays are possible in the chain, too.

Uranium series starts:

1. U-238 α 4 468 000 000 y
2. Th-234 β 24 d
3. Pa-234m β 70s
4. U-234 α 245 000 y
5. Th-230 α 75 400 y (no daughters are U)

Actinium series starts;

1. U-235 α 704 000 000 y
2. Th-231 β 25 h
3. Pa-231 α 32 800 y (no daughters are U)

So if you chemically purify U, Th-234, Pa-234m and Th-231 will build up in weeks until their beta activity equals that of mother. Whereas building up of Th-230 and Pa-231 will take millennia and until then the amount of their daughters will be negligible.
Does depleting U remove U-234 along with U-235?

 

[mfb]

Does depleting U remove U-234 along with U-235?

Sure, it's removed more efficiently than U-235 - but it is only 0.005% in natural uranium anyway (the half life ratio of U-234 to U-238).

 

[snorkack]

Sure, it's removed more efficiently than U-235 - but it is only 0.005% in natural uranium anyway (the half life ratio of U-234 to U-238).

But most of the radioactivity of natural uranium - for the same reasons natural uranium has as many U-234 decays as U-238 ones, but the U-234 ones are more energetic.