Uranium tile

The relatively high specific activity and moderate half-life of 1,600 years of 226Ra, the main radioisotope of radium found in uranium ore, made for a material which when mixed with a phosphor allowed for a glow-in-the-dark substance.

21st century contemporary ceramic artist and academic researcher Sencer Sarı is one of the known specialists who is working with these uranium glazes.

[2] The beta particles are the easiest to detect, and they are also responsible for the bulk of the radiation exposure to those handling ceramics that employ a uranium glaze.

It also reported the results of an Oak Ridge National Laboratory analysis that predicted 34.4 mrem/year to a dishwasher at a restaurant using ceramic plates containing 20% uranium in the glaze, 7.9 mrem/year to the waiters, and 0.2 mrem to a patron for a four-hour exposure.

[4] An FDA study[clarification needed] measured 1.66 x 10−5 uCi/ml in a 4% acetic acid solution in contact with the ceramic dinnerware for 50 hours.

Ordinary ceramics often contain elevated levels of naturally occurring radionuclides, e.g., 40K and the various members of the uranium and thorium decay series.

Because of this, health physicists who are conducting radiation surveys expect to see higher readings when they are making measurements over ceramic tiles and similar materials.