Once you've separated it out, you could try offering it to any friends who
make decorative glass.  It gives a wonderfull fluorescent yellow color (if
you like that sort of thing).
Adrian Leek.


-----Original Message-----
From: RSRICHMOND@aol.com [mailto:RSRICHMOND@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2001 10:44 PM
To: mikek@mail.saimr.wits.ac.za; HistoNet@pathology.swmed.edu
Subject: Re: RE: uranium nitrate disposal


Mr. M.Kirby at S.A.I.M.R in Johannesburg, South Africa asks:

>>Uranium nitrate in solution. How do you guys dispose of the stuff?

Incineration? Encapsulation?

I've got 20 litre drums of the stuff sitting in my waste store and would

appreciate any advice.<<

Uranyl ion can be precipitated out, very nearly quantitatively, as sodium 
uranyl sulfate, a dense granular bright yellow precipitate easily separated 
out and stored in an airtight jar. I suppose you have some idea of the 
initial concentration of the solutions. From then on it's a straightforward 
stoichiometric calculation of how much sodium sulfate (or sodium hydroxide 
and sulfuric acid) you need. - In the United States I doubt you could find 
anyone in a hospital who could do the calculation, and - if I didn't do it 
myself - I would enlist the aid of a bright high school chemistry student.

Obviously incineration would only disperse the stuff, since you're disposing

of a chemical element.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville, Tennessee USA