HANDLE with CARE!

Radioactive Rocks and Minerals

- SUSAN M. BRACKNEY

Radioactive rocks and minerals like uraninite, autunite, and torbernite often have interesting structures and varying degrees of fluorescence. They can be interesting specimens in a rock collection. Fortunately, with the appropriate equipment and safety protocols, it is possible to keep those radioactive rocks while keeping yourself out of harm's way.

IDENTIFYING THE RISKS

Understanding which parts of your collection may pose a risk is the first step. You might have just a few individual, radioactive mineral specimens. But some large rocks nay also contain an amalgamation of multiple types of potentially radioactive minerals. In addition to these radioactive minerals, there are also daughter products that are created as the result of radioactive decay. Daughter products, such as radium, radon gas, and uranium, are themselves radioactive.

According to Alysson Rowan, author of Here Be Dragons or The Care and Feeding of Radioactive Mineral Species, some radioactive minerals may even be hiding in plain sight. "A specimen that doesn't look very good because it's not well crystalized - somebody may cut that into a decorative stone and mount it for wearing," Rowan says. "You can find these things on sale, and there's no mention of the fact that it is radioactive."

Based in Holsworthy, England, Rowan is also a former radiation safety worker with extensive training in geology. She continues, "There's no mention that this is not something that you would want to wear, so, people buy these things and wear them in ignorance."

DETECTION EQUIPMENT