Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Is owning radioactive substances illegal in India ?

Radiums Lab - 12-4-2025 at 10:47

I wanted some thorium metal(or its compounds, for my element collection), we find a lot of it in our beaches, I wanted some info about its legality and barely could find any (all say it's illegal but it's not official).

I'm even planning to obtain some uranium and its compounds in near future.

Anyone could please help me find an official document or info which could help me a lot, I love to do some radioactive chemistry.

The legality alone is a big thing. I have a cherry on top, people here get freaked out after hearing those names(like U, Ra, Th, etc.) and news about radioactivity.
I'm certainly going to have a bad time.
And I don't want to become the Indian radioactive boy(like the Australian counterpart).

davidfetter - 12-4-2025 at 18:17

Just generally, it is not a good idea to give cops a reason to start looking at you. Do any inquiries quietly, and do not draw attention to yourself.

Radiums Lab - 13-4-2025 at 02:50

Quote: Originally posted by davidfetter  
Just generally, it is not a good idea to give cops a reason to start looking at you. Do any inquiries quietly, and do not draw attention to yourself.


Thank you for the suggestion, but cops in our country are not that tight or strict (I hope you get what I mean).

I am planning to start an YouTube channel soon and you too know how much viewers are observant about the lab surroundings, if I forget to keep the radioactive chemicals away I will get messed up big time.

It's difficult to enquire because even the officials don't know anything properly about radioactive substances or their legality.

[Edited on 13-4-2025 by Radiums Lab]

bnull - 13-4-2025 at 03:14

India has a Department of Atomic Energy (https://dae.gov.in/acts-rules/). Right at the top you see links for the Civil liability for Nuclear Damage Act (22-September-2010) and The Atomic Energy Act, 1962. Read and beware of lawyers, especially those in government agencies.

Radiums Lab - 13-4-2025 at 04:04

@bnull thank you for providing the link.

After reading through many government documents and laws here's a conclusion:
~ I can never even see some uranium or it's salts even in microgram scales.
~Thorium is not that regulated as uranium but there's still some regulation on it.

My reaction:
~The regulations about radioactive materials is bulls*it here.
~I should probably move to US to see some salts or metals itself.

Guys please give some suggestions, and please warn me if I am wrong on American laws itself.

I really badly want some samples of radioactive materials.

davidfetter - 13-4-2025 at 08:08

Quote: Originally posted by Radiums Lab  
Quote: Originally posted by davidfetter  
Just generally, it is not a good idea to give cops a reason to start looking at you. Do any inquiries quietly, and do not draw attention to yourself.


Thank you for the suggestion, but cops in our country are not that tight or strict (I hope you get what I mean).


So, high caste?

If you see cops as some kind of bland, beneficent presence, you have not yet run afoul of them. They can be and are quite brutal should you ever do so. This is a thing you can VERY easily know in detail, for situations within a km of where you wrote this, if you are interested.
Quote: Originally posted by Radiums Lab  

I am planning to start an YouTube channel soon and you too know how much viewers are observant about the lab surroundings, if I forget to keep the radioactive chemicals away I will get messed up big time.

It's difficult to enquire because even the officials don't know anything properly about radioactive substances or their legality.
[Edited on 13-4-2025 by Radiums Lab]


Ah, good! You're realizing that those allegedly charged with enforcing the law are hugely ignorant of it. That's because it doesn't matter what's on the books, only power relationships. As an aspiring YouTuber, which is to say somebody in the top decile, socioeconomically speaking, you should have little to worry about.

Radiums Lab - 13-4-2025 at 09:02

@davidfetter you just figured out my entire socioeconomic background by just reading only one of message, suprising to find such highly skilled people.

I didn't mean to portray police as good people or non rude ones.
It's just easy to get in trouble with them but hard to get out.
I just wanted to point out that cops themselves do not care what you are doing even if they feel suspicious(most of cases but not always).
What I wanted to point out here is if someone very observant and who knows about the salts and properties of the radioactive substances, just spots a beaker of it lying on the table in one of my video about something else and points it out to cops then they start interfering and poking around my house which is bad.

Its easy to forget sometimes, to remove things from view of camera or forgetting to avoid pointing camera at what you don't want to show.

[Edited on 13-4-2025 by Radiums Lab]

bnull - 13-4-2025 at 15:07

Quote:
What I wanted to point out here is if someone very observant and who knows about the salts and properties of the radioactive substances, just spots a beaker of it lying on the table in one of my video about something else and points it out to cops then they start interfering and poking around my house which is bad.

If you find someone who's able to tell radioactive substances by seeing them inside an unlabeled flask on a video, I'll eat my glasses. Take it easy.
Quote:
Its easy to forget sometimes, to remove things from view of camera or forgetting to avoid pointing camera at what you don't want to show.

This is pretty easy to solve: organization. You can't make a good video without it. Organize your stuff before recording, review what you have recorded (meaning you must re-watch the whole bleeding things to make sure they're acceptable), have a separate space where you record your videos. ChemPlayer shared a chemistry video package in this 2016 thread; unfortunately, the Google Drive link is dead. A good part of their videos is archived here, so you can take a look and have a general idea of how it can be done. Notice how it is all organized.

By the way, is anyone here close to ChemPlayer? I'd love to get my hands on those chemistry guides.

Radiums Lab - 14-4-2025 at 08:06

@bnull thank you for suggesting about lab organization.

I think it's better to move to US for a while to do some radiochemistry and explore their compounds.

In the US should I have an licence to own upto 0.5kg Depleted/ Natural uranium and thorium each I've heard that you can own upto 7kg of it without any licence. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

@bnull I didn't mean people would spot radiation with naked eye, what I meant to say is uranium posses special colours when observed carefully and uranyl nitrate would start glowing (if that's the right term) under UV light so I wanted to be careful.

Texium - 14-4-2025 at 13:16

Hate to break it to you, but now is not exactly a great time to be moving to the US…

bnull - 14-4-2025 at 13:38

Quote:
I didn't mean people would spot radiation with naked eye, what I meant to say is uranium posses special colours when observed carefully and uranyl nitrate would start glowing (if that's the right term) under UV light so I wanted to be careful.

Oh. But it would be quite hard to do that, to have a sample of uranyl nitrate casually lying around in the lab and had some UV shine on it by accident while you were recording something completely different in the foreground. So many substances fluoresce with almost the same colors that it is visually hard to distinguish a fake sample (say, table salt mixed with a fluorescent dye) from a real one. But I wouldn't completely rule out that kind of accident, stercus accidit, and someone guessing right. Just have an actual checklist with what should be in the filming environment to make sure and review the recordings.

Radiums Lab - 14-4-2025 at 22:12

@bnull thank you for suggestions. I'll totally follw that.
@Texium I'm not moving to US in near future atleast in next 6 years.