on the lighter side...

["M. Woo" <m-woo@uiuc.edu>]

A friend of mine who does beadwork just gave me several small packages
of glass beads which contain uranium; the glass is often referred to as
"vaseline glass."  They are mostly transparent and an interesting
yellowish apple green in color with dark brown streaks throughout.

Since she creates bead jewelry, she offered to make me a piece using
these "hot" beads.  When I mentioned this at work, one of the staff
exclaimed, "Hey!  A check source that you can wear!" :-)

BTW, I tossed one bead (carved into the shape of a leaf and about 1.5" x
.5" x .25") onto a GM pancake probe and got a net reading of around 700
cpm or so.

-- 
Melissa Woo, Health Physicist <mailto:m-woo@uiuc.edu>
Div. of Environmental Health & Safety
101 S. Gregory St., MC-225, Urbana, IL 61801
ph 217.244.7233 fax 217.244.6594 <http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/m-woo/>
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