Don't Take it for Granite that Your Countertop isn't Radioactive

"granite countertops, the cherry on top of the McMansion sundae".

awesome.

wow! Radioactive counter top? It is true that any level of radiation is very unhealthy and you should take action if you find out that your counter top is radioactive. By taking action I mean you should rip it off!

Will have to find a geiger counter or set up some radon tests on my counter top. Oddly, I find I actually believe the Marble Institute more than the Solid Surface Alliance.

Uranium (and its daughter products) routinely occur in granite. Typically at 4 to 5 parts/million. (http://world-nuclear.org/info/inf75.html).

The claim that scientists agree that there is no safe level of radiation is not true. Radiation biologists are split on this issue. Since we as a species evolved in a milieu of radiation, some biologists believe that a low level of external gamma radiation is health promoting. This is obviously not a universally held view.

Goes well with the microwave.

How did this granite craze start? Was it that granite was once exclusive and pricey? The townhouse I rent has granite (a selling point in their mind) but the stuff is terrible.

A) don't even accidentally let your knife edge hit it
B) my kitchen is cast iron and glass, so accidents either ruin the counter or the container
C) ugly. Can't tell if it's clean or dirty
D) everything Lloyd says.

"...the cherry on top of the McMansion sundae."

Wow, I'm glad we don't use sweeping generalizations on TreeHugger.

Claiming that background radiation is a health threat is like calling a spring rain a hurricane. We are, all of us, surrounded and bombarded by background radiation all day, every day. Please do some research on background ionizing radiation before jumping to a bunch of conclusions about the health threats presented by granite counter tops.

EVERYTHING is a little bit radioactive... remember.. we are born of the same stellar material.

Paul, If you live in Denver or on the Canadian shield you are getting more radiation than the granite counter. A trip in an airplane gives you as much radiation. But those aren't easy choices; a granite counter is. Why would anyone make a CHOICE to live with a material that is mildly radioactive? And if you read the New York Times article that was the source, some of the samples were right off the scale.

There are dozens of things in your kitchen that are millions of times more likely to kill you than your countertops. The most likely way to die is simply falling down. Accidentally drinking the cleaning stuff underneath the sink is up there, as is eating something from the fridge that's gone bad.

To put it in perspective, drinking from BPA-coated bottles while sitting on your granite countertops for a few hundred thousand years increases your risk of death about as much as eating just one raw oyster.

But hey, it's good that the lawyers are on this one. They can help us sue the manufacturers, so we can all can take our winnings and go back to the familiar safety of our freeways, workplaces and extreme-sport vacations.

I've also been told that eggs, tomatoes, spinach, cell phones, running, driving, taking mass transit and mattresses are bad for me as well for many reasons. This seems like nothing but blatant fear mongering by the NYT. My question is what does a person do with all these granite counter tops, floors, building facades, etc.? Throw them in the dump? Replace them with Plastic Laminate counters that last only a fraction as long as granite and contain all kinds of VOC'S? I'm going to go ahead and pass on this latest shallow fright fest.

"A trip in an airplane gives you as much radiation. But those aren't easy choices; a granite counter is."

Actually that is a fairly easy choice.

" Why would anyone make a CHOICE to live with a material that is mildly radioactive?"

Do you properly shield your table salt? Or your wife? They are both radioactive too.

Lloyd, I don't live in either of those places and I don't understand why anyone would CHOOSE to do so if background radiation is so terrible.

I read the Times article in this morning's paper and wondered how long it would take for that story to get blown out of proportion. I thought that it was alarmist to say the least and I think that it preys on most peoples' scientific ignorance. People hear radiation and think of Hiroshima and stop listening. Granite has its shortcomings aethestically and from a sustainability perspective, but to damn an entire industry because what it sells is mildly radioactive is hysteria at its worst. Potassium is also mildly radioactive, should people stop taking vitamin supplements or drinking orange juice?

If you want to criticize the granite industry for its bad labor practices, have at it. If you want to criticize them for shipping heavy goods all over the world, be my guest. But going after them for some supposed radioactive danger is a stretch.

I'm sooo ready for granite countertops to go the way of travertine. It's so tired.

Anyways, yeah, everything's radioactive to some extent.

I inspect things coming into the country and carry a personal radiation detector with me at all times, all of these quarry products that come in are radioactive to a small degree. I think that people should be more concerned about the fact that these rocks are being shipped from all over the world, India, China, Pakistan, Turkey, Brazil, to be installed in peoples kitchens when we could be using products we already have here in the US. I think in the future archaeologists will be looking in bewilderment at things we leave behind and wonder what people were thinking to ship rocks from India to Idaho. I also think they will wonder if the batman figurines are some kind of idol worship.

As a lot of people have already said sustainability or even taste are more powerful arguments against granite than its supposed ability to give you superpowers. Still beats marble, though.

Joel: Granite can be recycled in the construction industry by being turned into a granulate for the composition of concrete. It's one of its many potential (re)uses.

It's a subjective choice but I've experienced with recycled wood\cement composites for counter tops with comparatively more environmental, economical, and aesthetical (?) benefits. You can easily shape and mold your own and replace it easily, how cool is that?

Great comments borderguy. Taking this to its extreme, it is a very interesting exercise, whenever buying anything (especially large items such as electronics, furniture, things for the kitchen) and wondering what future generations picking through our landfills will think of it.

It is equally disturbing to drive around on trash day and see the stuff that people throw out - not from the perspective of "that's too nice to throw away", but from the point of "how in the hell did somebody ever convince themselves they needed to buy such a thing in the first place?"

The problem with things like granite countertops is they're too custom. Once they're uninstalled (as they inevitably will be when the next owner remodels), they can't be used for anything else because they're cut to a specific size with holes cut in various place, so they won't fit anyone else's kitchen. Stupid!

Most elements have naturally occurring radioactive isotopes. Most objects you encounter are mildly radioactive. For example, living next door to a nuclear power plant generally provides a radiation dose equivalent to eating one banana a day, or sleeping with someone else instead of by yourself.

This article speaks of picocuries but gives no information about what kind of dose people living in a home with such a counter top could be expected to actually receive. How many millirem/year would be much more relevant, since rem is the most widely accepted unit of biologically equivalent dose.

Natural background radiation in most parts of the human-inhabited world ranges from 300-600 millirem/year or so. In some it is as low as 200, in others as high as 10,000. And every study done comparing individuals experiencing different levels of background radiation thus far has shown no indication that low-level doses affect the rate of cancer in any statistically observable way.

And the comparison with smoking is not only unlikely, but misleading as well. Yes, smoking allows more radiation to get to the lungs- several thousand millirem per year, by some estimates I've seen. But that isn't why smoking causes cancer. Lung cancer caused by smoking comes from the chemical toxins in the cigarettes, not radiation. Radiation is actually a remarkably weak carcinogen. For example, the >100,000 atomic bomb survivors who have been studied extensively since 1945 have shown only a 6% higher rate of cancer than the general population.

Please, put the risks in perspective. Even taking for granted the hypothesis that low-dose radiation works just like high-dose radiation (the linear non-threshold hypothesis, that risk of cancer varies linearly with dose all the way down to 0 dose), very few deaths are caused by radiation. We knowingly live with many, many toxins and carcinogens in our home far more dangerous than granite counter tops. We willingly get into our cars and ride our bikes with nary a thought. This is as bad as the fear-mongering over the mercury in CFL's.

What I have always found odd about the granite countertop craze is this: a granite countertop, by its very nature, will pretty much last forever yet these things are typically being installed on top of cabinets that will last, at most, 30 years - if they don't go horribly out of style first. At this point I'm pretty much convinced that laminate (if installed on a proper substrate) is the best green countertop choice.

By the way, 4 picocuries corresponds to one atom of radon decaying every 6 seconds. Based on a quick calculation I just made (I could be wrong), that means about 10^-17 grams of radon per liter of air. How can we be worried about granite counter tops, but not about salt substitutes? How come we don't restrict the movement of people receiving radioactive substances for medical reasons?

The original NYT article contains a few factual errors in its numbers, too. They say they legal limit for exposure to a person living near a nuclear power plant is 100 millirem. Actually, it is 15 millirem and has been for decades. In fact, that is the exposure limit for a so-called "fencepost man" who lives right at the fence of the power plant, gets his water from a well drilled at the fence line, and grows his food on a plot of land adjacent to the plant. The also state that average background radiation is about 3690 millirem/year, without any indication of how much variation there is in that or how there is no evidence showing such variation has any discernible health effects (and some good evidence that it doesn't). Also, since I've looked at the numbers now, I can say pretty much with certainty that this is nowhere near as much radioactivity as smoking exposes you to, and remember, smoking causes cancer mostly for reasons other than radioactivity.

At what distance from the granite do they measure the radioactivity? That can affect the readings, too, since the radon gets diluted as it moves away from the counter top (though since it is gaseous and thus pretty well mixed, this may not be a significant effect).

First take into account where this granite is coming from. The intent was never to scare people only inform them. Not all granite is going to have elevated levels of radiation and radon. It's going to be primarily among the exotics, Bordeaux, Shivakasi, Niagara Gold, African Ivory, etc.

It's a small percentage of the industry but still if it were your family is no insignificant issue. Some of the "hot" stuff is coming from Namibia. The quarry where is comes from is smack dab in the middle of uranium country, its been exporting material to the US since at least 2002 . There is Rossing open pit uranium mine to the east of the quarry & bordering to the south is a nuclear fuel license owned by Bannerman Resources. There was even a news article last year discussing a "fight" between another stone company & Bannerman for the same land. Is this only insane to me?!

One stone that we have from Namibia was tested for radon & put out 500 pCi/sq. ft. of radon. Dr. Llope from Rice University is currently studying core samples & isolating the isotopes of 55 samples.

There have already been cancer cases but since cancer doesn't leave its calling card people cannot definitively link their cancer to their hot granite. We have a core analysis from a Bordeaux granite that showed over 1100 pCi/g of Radium not including almost 900 pCi/g of Lead. (Look up uranium decay chain). In this house there was a maid, & 2 cats that died of cancer. There was also a previous homeowner that survived brain cancer.

This issue may have gotten out of hand but at least people know now to test their granite & remove the hot stuff (hopefully) before its too late.

Oh and by the way there was a story about the taliban taking control of marble quarries in Pakistan to fund their operations, http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080714/WIRE/807140393/-1/archive&title=Taliban_stays_in_business_with_marble.
If you had read most of http://solidsurfacealliance.org/blog, you would have read the article.

Anthony, whoever you are: you rock. Thanks for the rational posts.

We understand why homeowners would be alarmed by this story, but the Marble Institute of America would like to assure people that research shows granite countertops pose no threat. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Consumer Reports and repeated independent studies have shown granite countertops pose no health hazard.
• EPA stated Friday: “EPA has no reliable data to conclude that types of granite used in countertops are significantly increasing indoor radon levels.” (http://iaq.custhelp.com/cgibin/iaq.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php)
• University of Akron researchers found no threat. (www.marble-institute.com/industryresources/radontesting_u-akron2008.pdf
• An independent scientific analysis of a variety of studies shows that, accounting for normal airflow in the typical home, radon contributed by granite countertops ranges from 0.01 – 0.02 pCi/L – levels that are 200 to 400 times lower than the EPA guideline of 4 pCi/L.

By some measures, the amount of radon emitted by a granite countertop is less than one millionth of that already present in household air from other sources. Many granite countertops do not emit radon at all, and those treated with sealant reduce emissions even further.

Tiffany Daniels
Cohn & Wolfe on behalf of the Marble Institute of America

I just saw a special on the news about boader control. They scan trucks for everything coming in the country. One of thoses is for radition. He did mention about granite.

I just got into the home improvement industry and I keep hearing the insiders talking about how big of an issue this could become. I think your onto something.

The primary reason this issues is being brought to the media is an attempt by quartz countertop manufacturers to increase their market share. As they call it, "Leveling the Playing Field". They are looking for a strong point of difference to hang their hat on, an angle with scare factor. Is it working?

This is being sold as consumer protection advocacy, it all about selling more quartz surfaces.

Don't get me wrong I would put quartz in my house over granite. I personally prefer its look and performance. That being said, to see this issue as anything but marketing would be a mistake.

Don't waste another "Green Minute" on this, it's just hype.

A couple thoughts:
First, who actually trusts the EPA?
Second, it seems to me that the health effects of radiation would vary greatly depending on where they came from. Yes everything emits radiation, but does so at a unique frequency right? So maybe there is healthy radiation (say, from the person you love, or a banana) and dangerous radiation (from radon or a cell phone). Anybody know more about this?

As a granite AND quartz solid surface fabricator since 1981, I can tell you that this is one of the boldest lies that the solid surface alliance has taken the time to fabricate. There is more radon in a potato than there is in a granite coutertop, and is proven by a real organization like the FDA to not have harmful levels of this material. I cannot believe that anyone whom would take their website seriously would post such foolish garbage.

As you are probably very aware, there have been on-going accusations that have been consistently made against natural granite products having the ability to cause cancer, because of the high levels of radon that they have been said to produce. These accusations have been going on for quite a while, and it is time to put them to rest.

Who better to accomplish this, than professionals who strive to ensure the safety, as well as the satisfaction of all customers? The National Stone Restoration Alliance is ready to put accusations to rest. Josveek Huligar, a proud member of the NSRA is willing to conduct a very important test in his own home. This is a test that can ultimately change the world of granite, as we know it.

Huligar plans to have the very slab of granite, which was said to be ‘hot’ and to have contained radon, installed in his own home. The entire process will be on camera no less, for the entire world to see. Before the slab of granite is to be installed, samples will be taken, and the air will be tested in the home, as described by the EPA, and then sent to be evaluated by AirChek (Air Chek - The Radon Information Center), to check for traces of radon and radiation. When this test is complete, the granite will be installed, and then his home will be tested once again to check the levels of radon and radiation. You can monitor this entire process yourself on a public web cam at Natural Stone Restoration Alliance | Home.

The slab being used for this test has been provided by Mr. Tim Scarlata of Atlantic Granite & Marble (Atlantic Granite & Marble), located in Rochester N.Y. After searching extensively to find the perfect slab for the test, Scarlata was able to locate two slabs of granite that did in fact produce higher than normal readings of radiation. Atlantic Granite & Marble will also be fabricating and installing the counter top while on video for the public to view.

There have been some individuals who have spent large amounts of money on not only the installation of natural granite in their homes, but then they have turned right around and paid tons more money in having the granite removed because of the scare that has been put on society with the radon issues. Huligar, being in the business of ensuring customer satisfaction and quality, also takes this issue very seriously, because the health and well being of his customers are at stake. He plans to do everything possible to ensure the continued safety and reliability of NSRA customers.

You could certainly be seriously hurt, or even killed if granite were to fall on top of you, but at this time, this is the only way that has been proven to cause harm to anyone.

It is the believed that the radon scare is nothing more than marketing strategies, and it has done exactly what it was intended to do, and that is cause fear of using granite in the general public. Huligar and associates of NSRA do not believe this to be true. However, he knows how important it is for the public to see that he stands behind the good name of The Natural Stone Restoration Alliance and their objective to supply clients with the natural beauty of stone, and that every effort will always be taken to do so in a safe manner. To further put the publics mind at rest, solutions to any unfavorable characteristics have already been found.

This test is vital to the natural stone industry, and Huligar is ready to stand up to the test to prove that granite is not harmful to the general public. People need to be able to see these accusations called upon.

The Natural Stone Restoration Alliance (NSRA) has already done their own research, and released their information that looked at both past and present studies, as well as the marketing strategies used by manufacturers that birthed the scare of radon in the home. The findings of this research are quite simply that levels of radon have no significant difference when granite has been installed in a home.

Do not let yourself fall into the trap of letting unproven fears cost you hundreds of dollars, find out the truth yourself by watching the web cam at Natural Stone Restoration Alliance | Home, and let this door be closed once and for all. Viewers can also comment on the research that is being performed at http://www.nsraweb.com/forums/news-5/radon-granite-testing-9130.html (Live testing of a kitchen for Radon before Granite is install)

So much miss information, no doubt spread by the stone industry. They did hire Cohn & Wolfe, the big tobacco PR firm. Let's correct some info posted so far.

"Uranium (and its daughter products) routinely occur in granite. Typically at 4 to 5 parts/million."
For granite under your home, true. For granite countertop "granite", not true. Source material for nuclear fuel is 80 ppm, some granite is way over that.

"Radiation biologists are split on this issue."

Some might be, but not the majority. Some people still claim the world is flat. Look up the executive summary for BEIR VII, they clearly state that there no safe levels of radiation and that a single track of ionizing radiation has the potential for causing cancer in humans. BEIR VII discussed hormesis and other way out claims, then declared ALARA, As Low As Reasonably Achievable, as the law of the land in radiation industries. Hormesis, the claim that low level radiation is good for you is pure quackery. I've read the papers the hormesis followers claim support their claim, they don't.

Background radiation is responsible for some part of the cancer rate. Here is what NASA says about the issue:

How much does the natural background radiation contribute to this cancer rate?

Answer:
90 people in 10,000 exposed.


http://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/weekly/3Page0.pdf Look all the way down at the bottom of the page.

So if the majority of scientists agree that radiation/dose/risk is linear in nature, and if background radiation is at 60 counts per minute and has a cancer death rate of 90 per 10,000 for a lifetime, then a granite countertop that will double that background radiation (.4 mR per hour), you have an increased chance of cancer in 180 per 10,000 or 1 in 55 increased risk of cancer death. There is no debate on this, the facts are clear.

""And if you read the New York Times article that was the source, some of the samples were right off the scale. "

The New York Times told part of the story. I know Kate Murphy, was the third person interviewed for that story, I sent her to Stan Liebert and Dr. Chiodo. What she didn't write, or what the editors removed, was that the Sugarman countertop (Shivakashi) was thought to be responsible for a lung cancer case. Two years and two months expousure, Home Depot paid a settlement to the previous owner of the home. And the hottest granite I have ever seen was a small 2 1/2" diameter core sample from a Niagara Gold granite slab, over 1 mR per hour Gamma, around 17 mR/hr total radiation. We have one in our shop, over 30 mR/hr total radiation, but the Gamma is only around 635 uR/hr (.635 mR/hr). It is going in a Radon test room soon, with several PhD's helping set the protocol and monitoring the data for us. Bottom line, most granite is low, double or triple background radiation, but some is 200 times background.

"Do you properly shield your table salt? Or your wife? They are both radioactive too"

Sigh..... salt substitute is mildly radioactive, potassium chloride, 433 pCi/G. But it is Beta radiation, can't penetrate but a little bit into your body even at high levels. Humans contain about 2 pCi per gram of soft tissue. Soil is usuall 2 to 5 pCi/G. Some granites have been tested at hundreds of pCi/G of radiation, some at thousands of pCi/G. Much of this radiation is Gamma. Do you have a ton of salt substitute in your home?

"This article speaks of picocuries but gives no information about what kind of dose people living in a home with such a counter top could be expected to actually receive."

I know of only one dosimeter survey so far, with .1 to .25 mR/hr dose rate from the Bordeaux. But that granite wasn't terribly hot, around 70 uR/hr gamma in the hotter spots (we survey for the lower Gamma rate, more dependable and faster to find) while the slab sitting in our shop is at 635 uR/hr.

And from a granite fabricator:

"There is more radon in a potato than there is in a granite coutertop, and is proven by a real organization like the FDA to not have harmful levels of this material."

Heh, heh! Really?

There is 3.4 pCi/G of radiation in a white potato, almost all of it is beta producing Potassium. That is near soil background radiation levels. Over1,100 pCi/G of Radium alone in the Houston granite countertop, total radioactive elements were around 2,700 pCi/G. And does anyone wonder why this guy didn't link to the FDA "proof"? If there was any such proof, the stone industry would be paying Cohn & Wolfe hundreds of thousands of dollars to spread it around.

And Tiffany Daniels of Cohn & Wolfe, they are the big tobacco PR firm. The EPA said no such thing, they said it is possible that some granite is above nuclear fuel source levels, the Consumer Report was a one paragraph mention where they took two samples and put them in a room, shows how little they have in the way of proof stooping to that level.

And "repeated independent studies " are two unpublished studies paid for by the MIA (Marble Institute), one of which claimed a typical granite countertop would emit less than one radioactive decay per year (.85). Dr. Kitto and other researchers have shown that up to 50,000 Gamma decays per minute from some samples studied. We have a Gamma spectrometer, we did one twenty minute run on a granite hot spot, almost 7.5 million Gamma radiation decays. Maybe ten times that if you added the Alpha and Beta.

"EPA stated Friday: “EPA has no reliable data to conclude that types of granite used in countertops are significantly increasing indoor radon levels.”

Yes they did say that, then promptly retracted the statement the next working day, the very next Monday. Even the MIA admitted this happened. I guess Cohn & Wolfe didn't get the memo.

"University of Akron researchers found no threat."

Boy, sounds like a lot of researchers, huh? Actually, it was one researcher, Dr. Chyi, and he refuses to answer questions on the study. But he did report one low radiation level Crema Bordeaux that would raise a homes Radon level by .27 pCI/L. The EPA says the average Radon level is 1.3 pCi/L, leading to 21,000 deaths per year. Do the math....4.366 deaths per year if everyone's granite emitted this much Radon. And Chyi's work was deeply flawed, which is why he didn't attempt to publish it. It was a simple report written for money.

"An independent scientific analysis of a variety of studies shows that, accounting for normal airflow in the typical home, radon contributed by granite countertops ranges from 0.01 – 0.02 pCi/L – levels that are 200 to 400 times lower than the EPA guideline of 4 pCi/L."

Uh, you left out Dr. Chyi's study that found the .27 pCi/L rise in Radon levels. That is only 15 times the EPA action level, how can you claim it is 200 to 400 times lower?

"By some measures, the amount of radon emitted by a granite countertop is less than one millionth of that already present in household air from other sources."

Uh, let's see, first you linked to Dr. Chyi's study finding a granite at 15th the EPA action level, then it was 200 to 400 times lower, now it is a million times less than outside Radon levels. Well, outside Radon is usually around .4 pCi/L, and .27 pCi/L is around 67%. Which is it? Is it .67 or .0000001?

"Many granite countertops do not emit radon at all, and those treated with sealant reduce emissions even further."

Prove it, Dr. Kitto and other researchers say otherwise, in fact there is plenty of research on concrete sealers. Few of them work, plus the back of the granite has been found to produce far more Radon than the top polished side. And if the sealer worked, it wouldn't stop the radiation.

This is a complete snow job by the stone industry. After lying about this for the last 14 years, who in their right mind would believe a word they say?

Best keep looking for info on this topic rather than believe the stone industry. Way too much money at risk, plus the have sucessfully covered this up for the past 14 years. They can’t tell the truth, so they keep digging the hole deeper.
If this was a non issue, neither the CRCPD (state radiation officials) nor AARST (radon scientists) would have committees seting maximum allowable radiation/radon levels for stones and measurement protocols. ANSI and ASME are also looking into the controversy for their organizations.
On the radon issue, we have a full scale radon test going currently, over 10 pCi/L so far from only 18square feet of granite in a 96 square foot room. That is like smoking 1 1/2 packs a day,
http://forum.solidsurfacealliance.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=98ST

We have a lot of info on the topics available.
forum.solidsurfacealliance.org
solidsurfacealliance.org/blog
solidsurfacealliance.org

Some of the comments on this page are extremely discouraging. They illustrate the low standard of education in this country. It seems that many people do not even have a clear idea of what radiation is, or how it effects the human body. It is NOT TRUE that all radiation is harmful- in fact, low levels of radiation are not only beneficial, but necessary for health. It is amazing to me that people are becoming so hysterical about granite- a natural occurring stone that is highly prevalent in the earth's crust- and yet remain unconcerned about all of the synthetic materials we all are exposed to on a daily basis. And this is to say nothing of the electromagnetic fields produced by the wiring in our houses, the microwaves from our appliances, emissions from our plastics! I am not suggesting that these things are necessarily harmful either, but rather that people need to think a little bit about the context of information before they react so emotionally. I agree with those who mentioned that the larger concern is that manufacturing granite counter tops usually requires shipping a very heavy material long distances, resulting in a large carbon footprint. This issue is also much more relevant in the larger scheme of things, applicable to many industries and- in my book- more worthy of a second look.

Dismayed,

I am too.

the National Academies has written the BEIR reports for many years now and have always supported the LNT theory, Linear No Threshold, of radiation risk. In fact, in BEIR VII they specifically looked at the Hormesis claims by those like yourself and rejected them. Now the National Academies is funded by the U.S. government to advise on science issues, so they would be difficult to dimsiss.

And just because you don't understand the issues is no reason to label others as "hysteriacal". And no one is concerned with the average country rock granites found in this country, it is the exotics that are above source grade, meaning they can be profitably processed into nuclear fuel.