I certainly agree that uranyl nitrate is better got out of the laboratory - not only is it radioactive, but it's a strong oxidant. I suppose that nowadays it's made from depleted uranium (uranium from which most of the U235 has been isotopically separated), but uranium 238 slowly decays into radium 226, and as the radium accumulates the stuff in the bottle becomes more radioactive.
You can get around the disposal problem in the short term by precipitating the uranium as sodium uranyl sulfate, which is quite insoluble and can be stored in a jar under the sink. By the time the jar is full... well, I was going to say, you'll be retired, but I've quit saying that these days. - I can probably find the formula for doing this if anybody's interested. I remember a laboratory exercise my freshman year in college that involved co-precipitating the radium with ferric hydroxide, and demonstrating with a Geiger counter that almost all the radioactivity was in the precipitate, which actually (even in 1955) had to be disposed of as radioactive waste. I recall my lab partner's notebook contained the unfortunate misspelling "urinal nitrate" which the lab section man had circled and noted "Oh no!" - The section man, Addison Ault, went on to become the author of the foremost college organic chemistry textbook of its time. But an old man digresses. Bob Richmond Samurai Pathologist Knoxville TN _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet