Making Uranium Glass and Waste Disposal - Nuclear Engineer Reacts to NileRed/NileBlue

Original Videos ‪@NileRed‬ ‪@NileBlue‬
Making Uranium Glass: • Making uranium glass
Waste Disposal: • Cleaning up my uranium...

[@tfolsenuclear]

By popular demand, here is a combination of my reaction to NileRed/NileBlue uranium glass

[@vojtechskracek541]

Hello, I've been watching your videos here and there and recently I've stumbled upon a channel called "That Chernobyl Guy". He mainly covers the Chernobyl disaster and things surrounding it, including interesting facts and stories such as the red Mercedes truck, lives of the individual operators, the RBMK reactors (and other accidents involving them) and also other nuclear disasters. I haven't seen all of his videos, but from what I have seen, he seems very knowledgeable about the whole thing. I know that you don't focus only on Chernobyl and other nuclear disasters, but I think it might be worth checking his channel out.

[@eredaane4656]

I'm not suprised that the general public knows about the green glow and associates it with radiation. Its shown in uranium glass and the dyes used in watches (Radium usually). The light blue glow of ionisation is not something most people ever get to see.

[@matthewkolar7560]

A Geiger counter is best compared to a smoke detector. It cannot tell you where the fire is, or how big it is, but it can tell you that you should probably clear out of the building before you get hurt by the smoke.

[@eredaane4656]

@@matthewkolar7560 well, a geiger counter does tell you how much smoke there is relative to before/somewhere else, it just doesnt show you how close you are to poisoning yourself by inhalation

[@Pamudder]

As Richard Rhodes notes in an early chapter of MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB, uranium was prized as a dye and coloring agent for hundreds of years before its nuclear character was discovered, in part because it could make multiple colors when combined with other substances.

[@judesvlogs5708]

Cool lol

[@georgecoffey9387]

It was also a byproduct of refining radium, so it was cheap and available

[@apeacebone6499]

I have a very silly nuclear waste disposal story: a few years ago, my cat developed hyperthyroidism, which these days they treat with an injection of iodine-131. This accumulates in the overactive thyroid tissue and kills it off, while leaving the healthy tissue behind. However, for a couple weeks after, it's also being excreted in the cat's stool and urine! So for two weeks, I had to store everything I scooped from her litter box in a sealed bin, and then I had to leave that bin for 80 days while the radioisotope decayed. The level of radiation wasn't dangerous, but it was enough that it would be picked up by detectors at the landfill, and if it was traced back to me, I'd be on the hook for some hefty fines!

[@HyperVanilo]

Is your cat still alive?

[@apeacebone6499]

@@HyperVanilo She is! 16 years old and going strong.

[@justinth963]

I wonder what they do if a human has that injection.

[@moomya]

Cute cat

[@turdboi420-69]

​@@apeacebone6499yoo that's sick. Tell her hi for me

[@eaglegosuperskarmor]

He went on the trash taste podcast at one point and talks about some of the clean up for this project and about talking with the local government offices about the local uranium regulations

[@fell5514]

As a quirk of it's metallurgical properties, when used in a high velocity projectile, rather than squashing or flattening on contact with a target, depleted uranium actually SHARPENS instead. Layers flake off of the outside, making a progessively sharper point as it burrows through the target's armor. It's also highly pyrophoric in it's finely divided state, meaning that when it does achieve full penetration the interior of the target will be sprayed with burning powdered toxic metal.

[@EShirako]

Wow, ok, that really explains a lot about why depleted uranium is both very useful and quite dangerous to civilians afterwards. If it flakes, though, that really explains why it's dangerous to civilians...even when burned, it is still 'uranium, because fire doesn't perform alchemy'. There'd be uranium-oxide-whatever floating around.

[@fell5514]

@@EShirako Yup. Do not breathe in uranic pentoxide dust, it is bad for you.

[@johnathanhautz2223]

Not to mention the fact that it is incredibly dense. Some aircraft use depleted uranium counter weights in their wings. There is a 3 inch diameter dent in the floor at the place I work from someone dropping one of those weights.

[@Nick-rs5if]

Danger Brie Forbidden Cheddar Edam from Hell Parmesan Finale

[@ranid0072]

Wrong Branza (Garganzolla) Deadly Gauda

[@regnadkcin6702]

Your reaction to " Cody’s Lab Uranium Refining (Reupload) " would be interesting, if you haven't already watched it.

[@WilliamHostman]

Uranium was used for most of the same uses as radium... including glass and paint. So also cobalt. I've got a couple cobalt glass tumblers... about 10× background in Anchorage... and a gorgeous deep blue, until hit with the uv...

[@icychill105]

I would be interested to see him react to that podcast clip where he discussed calling waste management to see how he should dispose of his radiated waste products.

[@Spartacus-4297]

Tyler it is worth noting Uranium ore also glows green under black light. (your point about cooling towers just immediately reminded me of the fact that more radiation comes from burning coal than is typically released by a nuclear plant).

[@christopherleubner6633]

I rember Uranium Red glaze for ceramics. It was 17% uranium dioxide by weight. If you fired it with an oxidizing atmosphere it made a bright red, if you used a reducing atmosphere it made a black glazing. Adding extra glass powder to it made a range of amber yellow to bright orange. ❤

[@Rob_Fordd]

One of the coolest objects I've ever seen was a complete uranium glass party set that had six whiskey glasses and a drink dispenser in the shape of a small barrel made of the stuff; glowed super bright. I'd love to meet the baller that originally owned it lol.

[@FerrumAnulum]

Theres a surprisingly robust collectors market for turn of the century and depression uranium glassware. And its not even that expensive of a hobby to collect this stuff. If you have a grandparent that has a lot of antique dishes, take a blacklight and you might just find some.

[@InstrucTube]

I've learned more chemistry watching his channels than I ever did in school. Love these things. Also yes, that second geiger counter runs around $700. Much more expensive than the $50-$100 one from before.

[@OchiiDinUmbraa]

I feel like this video was posted before. Or is that just a deja vu?

[@3liony]

He said in the comment above (although the time difference is small enough that it may not have shown up on your end when you commented) that this is a combo of his two reactions (the making video and the clean up video) into one because people were asking for it.

[@GHar94]

It’s a thing KZbinrs are doing to maximise profit. They put multiple videos together in an omnibus

[@Xannthas]

@@GHar94 At least in this case it makes sense since both Nile videos are connected, rather than doing the standard KZbin thing and taking a month's worth of videos about random mobile games, rearranging them, and uploading them as one video as opposed to being a playlist.

[@GHar94]

@@Xannthas but those videos are also related to the same series of games or ‘run’ of a game, there’s no real difference.

[@realDose]

"It' a small detector" was such a subliminal flex😂

[@uberdang830]

Have you heard of radium painted clock and watch dials? They where around pre ww2. It also was an industry that killed alot of people.

[@TheRealLyrelia]

"... very precise way he handles all of his materials" *flashback to NileRed throwing many a thing on the floor/wall*

[@michaelbobic7135]

Hi Mr. Folse: uranium was used in hundreds of commercial products from 1870 to about 1920s. Many of them were pretty toxic.

[@wizzkidelectronics]

i have a few uranium glass products its really weak . but i do have a jennings vacuum capacitor that fairly strong and is super bright under a black light . reads about 200-250 cpm

[@maxwelllucas896]

Regarding pre nuclear era uranium products, I think uranium was always more popular in ceramics than glass. It was basically a waste product of radium production. One ton of uranium oxide for each gram of radium. I Grew up in Manhattan Beach, we had Metlox Pottery, started in 1927. Factory shut down when I was a kid in 1989 . Was a big hole in the ground for fifteen years till they got the money together to dig deeper for all the lead, cadmium and uranium contaminated soil.

[@dwtimmons]

I appreciate the videos and information your putting out! Keep up the videos!

[@Mad_Elf_0]

Regarding early uses of uranium: there used to be a *lot* of places in the UK (hospitals, residential buildings, etc.) that had nice green tiles on the walls. The green came from uranium, and the radioactivity levels were a *bit* too high to be safe, so any time they're found these days, they require full hazmat disposal protocols.

[@jonpino]

NileRed did say on a podcast that he did call the proper authorities to see how he should dispose of the Uranium waste. He was told that for the level of radioactivity his waste gave off he technically could just throw it away with no issues or legal repercussion. He still wanted to be safe about it and who could blame the guy.

[@ElectricRose9001]

Very bad, very cursed idea.... *Uranium glass Prince Rupert's Drop*

[@psirvent8]

Actually not that bad as long as you can resist the urge to break it.

[@3Dfuntastic]

Lol, UV doesn't pass through glass... The vial would have to be made out of quartsglass 😂😂 After pouring the glass it neads to be anealed (reducing the temperature every hour by 100C)

[@nematrec1]

Any chance you could react to "Asking the Government Permission to make Uranium Glass" from Trash taste highlights NileRed on a podcast talking about getting permission from the government for this

[@kelvinchung3786]

Alan Becker really did it again I beg you to react to animation vs geometry its very awesome.

[@Thatbasicguy756]

Something you should react to is the Minecraft mod “HBM’s nuclear tech mod” and I want to see how accurate that mod is to real life.

[@FatalisReigns]

glad im not the only one who thinks his videos are relaxing lol. would watch these before bed and would definitely make me sleepy, maybe because my brain has no idea what im hearing most of the time 😅

[@mattilindstrom]

The lead nucleus is doubly magic, anything heavier which isn't at least practically stable will end its journey as lead (might take n times the current age of the universe, but the end result is the same). The tragedy of lead in high resolution gamma spectrometry shielding is the presence of 210-Pb, for a large extent due to atmospheric nuclear bomb tests. This is why very old lead from the antiquity up to the 1940's is favored.

[@autohmae]

3:32 I'm certain Nilered would love to make something go boom.

[@Wehra96]

im not so sure he would like for that boom to be a fission bomb however. At least not within his normal working conditions/testing areas

[@harrodharrod5239]

False. NileBlue on the other hand... The stark difference between those two channels is really astounding.

[@autohmae]

@@Wehra96 if he knows how to do it safely in the desert somewhere, pretty certain he would. 🙂

[@hawkeye454]

In my line of work we use sodium hydroxide to etch aluminum metal

[@TheTransporter007]

Idea for original content: Buyers guide for radiation detectors. (geiger mueller/scintillating/dosimeters, etc)

[@thejerg]

I'm surprised you haven't reacted to the Veritasium/Electroboom videos about the speed of power transmission. It's a really interesting theory vs experiment set

[@LSWoOz]

The very forbidden cheese!

[@Cosmin27383]

44 views in 4 minutes, bro fe- *gets shot*

[@kcgunesq]

Nile's channels are some of the best on youtube. Thanks for reacting to this video.

[@ThePilotBlog]

you should play the Chernobyl liquidators game im curious to see your thoughts

[@Forsworcen]

Isn’t glass opaque to UV light? That would make the fluorescence not work because no UV light is hitting it?

[@blahorgaslisk7763]

21:20 (about) The Boron info was interesting. That matches with what I learned in school about 40 years ago. From what I remember the reactors we were looking at had something they called a Boron stop. Basically in a real accident when the reaction couldn't be controlled or the control rods wouldn't move they had a system to flush a lot of Boron into the water and supposedly this would halt the reaction about as well as if the control rods had been fully inserted.

[@christineg8151]

Your comment that he should make marbles cracked me up. The first place I encountered uranium glass is actually in antique marbles. I have several in my collection, and it's not uncommon for marble collectors to carry a pocket UV light when looking for marbles, because though the yellow/green color is often from uranium, there were later marbles made to duplicate the color without the radioactivity.

[@garethevans9789]

I do enjoy NR's channel. The dude is definitely very thorough and humble enough to show his mistakes and thought process along the way. His recap video on the early days when he made bromine is in his parents garage. The Cody's Lab videos of when he made yellow cake from uranium ore and died it off inside his house are a little horrifying (I believe it was over a kilo of yellow cake). I can't remember if he mined it himself or ihe brought it. It's a shame the Feds made him take them down. He doesn't upload many videos these days, which is a shame as I also enjoy his content and random experiments (that man has a hell of a lot of mercury). I hope he gets his mojo back. You guys should do a video together to talk about the incident, but I'm notsure how much hr can say. Unrelated but I think some videos on how radiation is used in nuclear medicine and industry could be interesting. I had a bone scan after I injested Tc99m. It's pretty sureal when you realise YOU are the gamma source and everyone around you is wearing radiation shielding (your bladder also looks like a lightbulb), not sure if it's worse than the smell when you're getting your eye balls laser-etched (a little like burnt hair). Just a suggestion.👍

[@DrArkham.]

Please react to Decouple Media channel more specific the video inside world's biggest nuclear plant! In this video they take a tour of the largest nuclear power plant in Canada, a plant that uses C.A.N.D.U. They tell the story of how Canada switched from the majority of the country's energy being generated by coal and managed to reduce coal plants and increase nuclear ones.

[@felixhex]

Isn't there gamma rays coming from our central star, the, umm, sun. Also, energetic U.V. light can ionize `some` atoms meaning the fact that what you call, umm, sunlight, is ionizing. Not to be confused witth solar storms, which are ionizing, too, but mainly what we'd call alpha and beta radiation, on earth, meaning that it's charged, hence earths magnetic fields ability to prottect life on earh, on a large scale. While there's also more exotic particles in those solar flares, this is how this is diverted anyway, through earths active core, which shields life on earth from parts of the ionizing radiation from the sun, but what's part of the electromagnetic spectrum, waves, meaning UV, Roentgen & Gamma still penetrates further and... Well, other stuff with ozon and, doesn't even matter Dude, the sun is literally a furnice of nuclear fusion

[@SuiLagadema]

I'd visit the US for the sole purpose of getting my hands on trinitite. I love collecting small fragments of places, only when allowed, to bring back home. Just tiny fragments that contain so much history in them.

[@dand8538]

Please do a review on Cobalt-60 Rods: Totally Silent. Totally Deadly. By Into the Shadows you tube channel. That was nasty. Would love to see your reaction to that.

[@Arthion]

I'd imagine you could make some really cool glass sculptures using uranium glass. Imagine having that as a piece of decor and turning off the light and shining a blacklight on it when you have guests just to see their reaction.

[@yoavravid7893]

20:00 glass blocks uv so none was getting to the uranium.

[@christopherleubner6633]

React uranyl nitrate with sodium silicate and the uranium will combine with the silica and could be made into a much better form to use for glass. 0.1 to 0.5 % weught basis is what you want for green glass.

[@buntsingstv2217]

Alan Becker made another video that you could make an analysis over called Animation vs. Geometry. It might not be related to what you know being a nuclear engineer, but just suggesting

[@justin8894]

Ions. Geigers. Oh my.

[@Metaljacket420]

You can also find naturally formed pieces of glass in deserts where lighting struck sand, and there are layers of glass particles all over the world from meteor impacts.

[@atrus9217]

I’m pretty sure the perception of green, glowing, liquid radioactive waste comes from the Simpsons and the video game Doom. That trope is extremely common in both media, both of which were extremely popular.

[@tsandman]

Nah, the "Uranium Green Glow" myth dates from way before that, at least we all associated this "Green Glow" to "radiation" even before the Simpsons or Doom existed (ie: when I was a kid in the early 80's, before both of those existed)

[@johnisabella5148]

Hydrogen is used in glow in the dark sites for pistols tritium you can buy them online

[@Brent.ivanjoren]

First

[@Name-ot3xw]

Just kind of a neat fun fact, glass is a pain to melt because of the high temps, but you can also do it in a microwave.

[@davidmaisel8062]

I'm pro worker, pro environment, and pro nuclear.

[@michaelbobic7135]

@tfolsenuclear rednile is far more prudent about handling procedures than may first appear. He does use fume hoods, positive and negative pressures, and safety gear. I think he's a professional chemist. You can't see it, but if expect he's probably wearing a mask of some kind.

[@brandondixon2138]

I dont know if you take video suggestions, but i highly recommend warching and/or reacting to kyle hill's video about homer simpson being the worst nuclear tech ever

[@tschak909]

Nuclear Death Cheese. :)

[@dongiovanni4331]

DU is also used with (usually titanium alloy) in the APFSDS ammo in the Abrams as well.

[@hamaljay]

You can put beta particles in a particle accelerator and make them pass through things? I'd like to see that.

[@johnisabella5148]

Du is even used in nuclear energy

[@mattsmith5704]

Just noticed the GA tech diploma, my dad and grandpa went there for electric engineering

[@monad_tcp]

17:18 um, yummy

[@michaelrenouf9173]

Petition to change your name to “T Nuclear Force”

[@Sugar3Glider]

I like it when you react to content that's a leap year old.

[@johnisabella5148]

Black pitch back in the 1880s

[@zerebusgarago6223]

Saying that the high level waste is only 3% is meaningless if you don't quantify the total amount of waste. 3% of 100,000tons is still quite a lot of fission products.

[@xXKisskerXx]

A spoon full of uranium helps the.... glass.. .. do.. uh.. ok lost my train of thought.

[@ythegamerita]

"Poor" is probably the grade she got in english, though quotation marks would've helped, still though that's why she's in school, to learn Edit: KZbin being KZbin posted my comment on this video, even though i didn't comment here

[@ythegamerita]

@@EXYZ3 i was commenting on a short about a teacher rejecting a foreign kid because she had poor English, though the rejection note had lots of grammar errors, I've seen people's comments getting posted on wrong videos before, I have no idea why it happens

[@clownhands]

Hi Tyler, big fan. You’re a nuclear engineer with an MBA. Please consider not doing the dumb dumb thumbnail thing. It’s not your potential audience. -a subscriber.

[@mikebarushok5361]

The better counter is probably a scintillation counter and not a Geiger counter. A crystal, often germanium and a photo multiplier make up the detection and there's additional circuitry for things like temperature compensation. They are more expensive, but can even measure the beta particle spectrum to identify the source element and isotope.

[@judesvlogs5708]

Specifically, I live next to the one in Pickering Ontario

[@judesvlogs5708]

I live decently close to a nuclear power plant my CPM is around 20 to 25