> Sadly, many ended up getting sick due to the dangerous work environment. I've seen pictures of guys holding uranium rods with barely any protection. This is

> Sadly, many ended up getting sick due to the dangerous work environment. I've seen pictures of guys holding uranium rods with barely any protection. This is often safe, actually, but that's not always the case. How safe can depend on a few factors, such as enrichment, purity, presence of neutron moderator (graphite, water, beryllium, etc...) I've been within several feet of low-enrichment uranium rods before without any specific protection equipment (i.e. water) at one of the reactors I've visited. Spent rods are definitely dangerous though.