Originally Posted by
bunsen_h
I've held a piece of uranium, rod-shaped, about half a kilogram (~ 1 lb.) IIRC. It wasn't even warm to the touch. I don't recall if it was natural uranium or depleted. (My boss at the time had had a lot of experience with radioactive materials, and was perhaps a bit too casual about the hazards.) At any rate, a uranium elemental would cause more harm through toxicity than from radioactivity unless it was enriched, or unless one spent a long time exposed to it. Would a uranium elemental be contaminated by the daughter products: radon, radium, etc.? (EDIT: Special breath weapon, radon cloud?)