Radioactive Dinner Plate

This video shows two plates being measured for emission of radiation. The orange Fiesta plate was made using a glaze which contains uranium oxide. Fiesta dinnerware was produced by the Homer Laughlin China Company of West Virginia.


Prior to World War II the glazes used natural uranium.  This practice stopped during the war when the US government seized the company's stock of uranium for the Manhattan Project.  In the late 1950's the Atomic Energy Commission relaxed restrictions on uranium and production practices switched to using depleted uranium to produce the red-orange glaze.

The US Environmental Protection Agency recommends that dinnerware produced with uranium glaze should not be used for food, drink or food storage.

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