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a school in austria had to be suddenly evacuated after it was accidentally discovered that a rock that had long been on display in a classroom was actually composed of radioactive material. 




according to the u.k. metro , the radioactive rock in a salzburg school was actually a chunk of uranium , the same metallic element used to fuel nuclear reactors and produce atomic bomb warheads. 




the discovery came when an anti-nuclear lecturer visited the school to deliver a presentation about the danger of nuclear materials, bringing with him an old-school radium-illuminated watch and a geiger counter to show students how it measured radioactivity, such as the small amount emanating from the watch.   photos: everyday home hides most incredible 1950s bomb shelter we<u+2019>ve ever seen 




however, lecturer thomas neff soon realized that he was receiving abnormally high readings on the geiger counter, so he began moving about the room in an effort to track down the anomaly. 




he eventually came upon a display of various rocks, minerals and fossils, in front of which his geiger counter veritably <u+201c>exploded<u+201d> off the charts, giving a reading of 102,000 counts per minute, about 100 times greater than the radioactivity of the watch, which itself was roughly 20 times greater than that which occurs normally. 




neff quickly halted his lecture and alerted school authorities, who immediately began evacuating students and faculty while experts were brought in to assess the danger and rectify the situation.   




an alert was also sent out to other schools in the region, where subsequent searches of those locations turned up another 38 radioactive rocks in 11 different schools. 




the uranium rocks have now been gathered in a safe place, though there is no word whether any students or teachers became sick from their exposure to the potentially deadly material . 




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freak: classroom evacuated after teacher realizes unshielded uranium in classroom
ben marquis