Science is for Kids

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.

This video shows a sample of cesium-137 being tested for emission of radiation.  Nuclei of cesium-137 isotopes are unstable and will undergo a process of radioactive decay to form more stable isotopes.  Cesium-137 is formed during fission reactions of uranium-235 in nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons. The equation that describes the radioactive decay of cesium is shown below.  The conversion of a neutron (from the cesium nucleus) to a proton causes the atomic number to increase from 55 to 56.  This leads to the formation of barium-137.  It's important to notice that the mass number stays the same in examples of beta decay. 137 Cs → 137 Ba + 0 e 55 56 -1