Kodak T-9 Uranium Toner

[tgtaylor]

Does anyone have experience using this toner?

I've run across 2 formulas for uranium toners and uranium nitrate (depleated uranium) is available ($200/25 grams) and FedEx will ship for a $12 extra fee for Class 7 radioactive material.

If 5 people went in on 25 grams, it would work out to $45 each for 5 grams. Anyone interested?

Thomas

[Neil Purling]

Excuse my ignorance but how dangerous is Uranium Nitrate? The fact you can send it by the postal system suggests it may not be significantly more dangerous than raw photographic chemicals such as Metol, Phenidone or even Hydroquinone?

[Bob Salomon]

Excuse my ignorance but how dangerous is Uranium Nitrate? The fact you can send it by the postal system suggests it may not be significantly more dangerous than raw photographic chemicals such as Metol, Phenidone or even Hydroquinone?

FedX is not the postal system.

[Michael R]

Uranium (uranyl) nitrate is radioactive, although the level of radioactivity is low. However radioactivity is not the primary concern. It is a highly toxic compound, and is also a strong oxidizer.

I'd be in for 5g but I'm up in Montreal so it won't work.

[tgtaylor]

It's depleated uranium and not weapons grade or reactor grade. Mildly radioactiveandnot terribly dangerous but you wouldn't want to eat or play in it.

Thomas

[dpn]

I'm definitely interested in 5 grams. There's a lot of text on the dangers of uranium toners -- it's not the radiation that will get you, but inhalation or ingestion toxicity.

There's a practitioner on the rangefinderforum named "Chris" who wrote at length about his work process. Fume hood, ample PPE, and a very healthy respect for the materials seem key. Here's the thread: http://www.rangefinderforum.com/foru...hlight=uranium

Here's the relevant quotation from Chris:

Oh man! You should see me in the Tyvek moon-suit I wear when I work with heavy metal salts in a photo tray! The hazard associated with uranium, vanadium and other heavy metals is liver and kidney damage, not the extremely slight radioactivity the depleted uranium nitrate has. While the pure compound does click a geiger counter nicely, the prints do not register anything at all above the background radiation.

Robert W. Schramm used to work with the material before he passed. (http://schrammstudio.com/)

Also check out Abby Hepner's "Transuranic: Uranium Prints" exhibition. I can't find a live link to photos of the exhibition, but her project was very interesting: photograph routes and storage facilities for nuclear waste, and make uranotype prints of them. See https://www.spenational.org/conferen...uranium-prints.

I also collect vaseline glass, and have wanted to do uranium toned prints of my collection for a long time. I'm not sure what is scarier: working with hot mercury fumes in daguereotypes or uranium toning.

Here are some links of interest on toning and practitioners:

http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/M...aniumtoner.htm
http://www.periodictable.com/Items/092.16/index.html
http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Uranium/uranium.html
http://www.orau.org/PTP/collection/M...euranotype.htm
http://www.morganpoststudio.com/#!uranium-printing/cx64

[tgtaylor]

I'm definitely interested in 5 grams.

Great! Hopefully a couple more will throw in. In the meantime it appears that uranium nitrate is available as a grey colored compound and a yellowish green compound. Does the color make a difference?

Great links BTW!

Thomas

[Bruce Watson]

All right. I'll ask. What's the attraction? It's a lot of risk -- what's the reward?

[koraks]

A beautiful ruby to maroon tone. I got something close to it when I toned a cyanotype with an acorn extract, but it lost its saturated ruby tint. I imagine with uranium it'll be more permanent.

[Drew Wiley]

Uranyl nitrate is so weak that the radiation allegedly won't even penetrate the skin. I don't think a hundred gram bottle of it would fog a sheet of film under the bottle. I tried that experiment. But like anything else, you want to be careful with the powder. I use it as a dye mordant. There is some controversy how permanent uranium toning really is in black and white work. Of course, uranyl nitrate is also nicknamed yellowcake, a term related to hypothetical dirty bombs. But it would
allegedly take six or seven SHIPLOADS of the powder to extract enough nasties to pull that off. So getting a tiny jar of it should be simple enough from any legit
scientific chem supplier.