Making Uranium Glass

I hope this goes without saying this time, but do NOT try this at home.

Today's video shows YouTuber NileRed making uranium glass. He first has to refine the uranium from uranyl nitrate into sodium diuranate (mostly a simple reaction with sodium hydroxide solution), then he has to dry the powder product, and then he has to make glass.

Making the glass is actually the most straight-forward task in that it's just melting silicon dioxide, boric acid, and soda ash together. We do that in our material science course, but we add in something to color the glass: copper (II) oxide, manganese dioxide, or chromium oxide.

NileRed adds in sodium diuranate, a uranium compound that makes a gorgeous yellow glass that fluoresces a brilliant green under UV light.

He then gets to figure out how to anneal his glass because it keeps shattering on him.

And he never tells us - as he mentions at 10:30 and a couple more times - what the heck 'special waste container' he has that makes it okay for him to dispose of uranium waste.

I feel like we might be getting into radioactive boy scout territory here, NileRed.