U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: Source for Uranium Nitrate

Re: Source for Uranium Nitrate



Mark,

Gonna be really hard to get. It now needs to be shipped as a radioactive substance in approved lead lined containers and all of that crap. I am not even sure if can go on airplanes. We quit shipping it several years ago. Cole Parmer used to carry it but they quit when the shipping went sky-high. http://www.coleparmer.com/catalog/product_view.asp?sku=00043XC You can see they discontinued it as well.

I think it is all a big bunch of hooey. It is in fact slightly radioactive but only slightly. All the good bomb making stuff has already been taken out, and that makes logical sense. I have my own special horde of it, about 300 gms left that we can't sell, and I once showed the bottle to some students visiting and their professor freaked and virtually ran out of the room. Like most airport security, it's all show.

--Dick Sullivan



Mark Booth wrote:
I am seeking a good source for purchasing Uranium Nitrate for creating a Uranium toner solution. So far I have had trouble finding a source. PF doesn't carry this item and I would suspect that hazardous considerations may be a factor or scarcity.
Specific Application: Perhaps there is an alternative toner with similar effects (realizing that considerable differences exist with formulas and applications). My initial use would be with silver-gelatin and then moving to eventual non-silver application. It is said by Robert Schramm, in his excellent but short article regarding Uranium Toning www.unblinkingeye.com <http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Uranium/uranium.html> to produce red-brown tones on silver prints and blue, green and red tones on platinum prints. If one reads the article, figure #1 image presents a similar effect that I would like to replicate, as much as possible, /girl aside!/ I would be inclined to use Bergger VC NB paper or Silver Supreme paper for a given motive that I have photographed. Then figure #2 toning would be of future interest in other applications. (effects are considerably different on platinum vs. silver as can be seen)
Anyone's recommendations or suggestions would be greatly appreciated to this (less experienced) practitioner. I imagine that Tim Rudman's book, /The Photographer's Toning Book/, would be a good source to review as well!

Thanks in advance,
Mark Booth

*/
/*