Uranium - Wikipedia

Uranium - Wikipedia
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This article is about the chemical element. For other uses, see
Uranium (disambiguation)
Chemical element with atomic number 92 (U)
Uranium,
92
Uranium
Pronunciation
eɪ
yuu-
RAY
-nee-əm
Appearance
silvery gray metallic; corrodes to a
spalling
black oxide coat in air
Standard atomic weight
°(U)
238.028
91
0.000
03
238.03
0.01
abridged
Uranium in the
periodic table
Hydrogen
Helium
Lithium
Beryllium
Boron
Carbon
Nitrogen
Oxygen
Fluorine
Neon
Sodium
Magnesium
Aluminium
Silicon
Phosphorus
Sulfur
Chlorine
Argon
Potassium
Calcium
Scandium
Titanium
Vanadium
Chromium
Manganese
Iron
Cobalt
Nickel
Copper
Zinc
Gallium
Germanium
Arsenic
Selenium
Bromine
Krypton
Rubidium
Strontium
Yttrium
Zirconium
Niobium
Molybdenum
Technetium
Ruthenium
Rhodium
Palladium
Silver
Cadmium
Indium
Tin
Antimony
Tellurium
Iodine
Xenon
Caesium
Barium
Lanthanum
Cerium
Praseodymium
Neodymium
Promethium
Samarium
Europium
Gadolinium
Terbium
Dysprosium
Holmium
Erbium
Thulium
Ytterbium
Lutetium
Hafnium
Tantalum
Tungsten
Rhenium
Osmium
Iridium
Platinum
Gold
Mercury (element)
Thallium
Lead
Bismuth
Polonium
Astatine
Radon
Francium
Radium
Actinium
Thorium
Protactinium
Uranium
Neptunium
Plutonium
Americium
Curium
Berkelium
Californium
Einsteinium
Fermium
Mendelevium
Nobelium
Lawrencium
Rutherfordium
Dubnium
Seaborgium
Bohrium
Hassium
Meitnerium
Darmstadtium
Roentgenium
Copernicium
Nihonium
Flerovium
Moscovium
Livermorium
Tennessine
Oganesson
Nd
protactinium
uranium
neptunium
Atomic number
92
Group
f-block groups
(no number)
Period
period 7
Block
f-block
Electron configuration
Rn
] 5f
6d
7s
Electrons per shell
2, 8, 18, 32, 21, 9, 2
Physical properties
Phase
at
STP
solid
Melting point
1405.3
​(1132.2 °C, ​2070 °F)
Boiling point
4404 K ​(4131 °C, ​7468 °F)
Density
(at 20° C)
19.050 g/cm
when liquid (at
m.p.
17.3 g/cm
Heat of fusion
9.14
kJ/mol
Heat of vaporization
417.1 kJ/mol
Molar heat capacity
27.665 J/(mol·K)
Specific heat capacity
116.225 J/(kg·K)
Vapor pressure
(Pa)
10
100
1 k
10 k
100 k
at
(K)
2325
2564
2859
3234
3727
4402
Atomic properties
Oxidation states
common:
+6
−1,
+1,
+2,
+3,
+4,
+5
Electronegativity
Pauling scale: 1.38
Ionization energies
1st: 597.6 kJ/mol
2nd: 1420 kJ/mol
Atomic radius
empirical: 156
pm
Covalent radius
196±7 pm
Van der Waals radius
186 pm
Spectral lines
of uranium
Other properties
Natural occurrence
primordial
Crystal structure
orthorhombic
oS4
Lattice constants
= 285.35 pm
= 586.97 pm
= 495.52 pm (at 20 °C)
Thermal expansion
15.46
10
−6
/K (at 20 °C)
Thermal conductivity
27.5 W/(m⋅K)
Electrical resistivity
0.280 µΩ⋅m (at 0 °C)
Magnetic ordering
paramagnetic
Young's modulus
208 GPa
Shear modulus
111 GPa
Bulk modulus
100 GPa
Speed of sound
thin rod
3155 m/s (at 20 °C)
Poisson ratio
0.23
Vickers hardness
1960–2500 MPa
Brinell hardness
2350–3850 MPa
CAS Number
7440-61-1
History
Naming
after
planet Uranus
, itself named after Greek
god of the sky Uranus
Discovery
Martin Heinrich Klaproth
(1789)
First isolation
Eugène-Melchior Péligot
(1841)
Isotopes of uranium
Main isotopes
Decay
Isotope
abun­dance
half-life
1/2
mode
pro­duct
232
synth
68.9 y
228
Th
SF
233
trace
1.592
10
229
Th
SF
234
0.005%
2.455
10
230
Th
SF
235
0.720%
7.04
10
231
Th
SF
236
trace
2.342
10
232
Th
SF
238
99.3%
4.463
10
234
Th
SF
238
Pu
Category: Uranium
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Uranium
is a
chemical element
; it has
symbol
and
atomic number
92. It is a silvery-grey
metal
in the
actinide
series of the
periodic table
. A uranium atom has 92
protons
and 92
electrons
, of which 6 are
valence electrons
. Uranium
radioactively decays
, usually by emitting an
alpha particle
. The
half-life
of this decay varies between 159,200 and 4.5 billion years for different
isotopes
, making them useful for dating the
age of the Earth
. The most common isotopes in
natural uranium
are
uranium-238
(which has 146
neutrons
and accounts for over 99% of uranium on Earth) and
uranium-235
(which has 143 neutrons). Uranium has the highest
atomic weight
of the
primordially
occurring elements. Its
density
is about 70% higher than that of
lead
and slightly lower than that of
gold
or
tungsten
. It occurs naturally in low concentrations of a few
parts per million
in soil, rock and water, and is commercially
extracted
from uranium-bearing
minerals
such as
uraninite
Many contemporary uses of uranium exploit its unique
nuclear
properties. Uranium is used in
nuclear power plants
and
nuclear weapons
because it is the only naturally occurring element with a
fissile
isotope – uranium-235 – present in non-trace amounts. However, because of the low abundance of uranium-235 in natural uranium (which is overwhelmingly uranium-238), uranium needs to undergo
enrichment
so that enough uranium-235 is present. Uranium-238 is fissionable by fast neutrons and is
fertile
, meaning it can be
transmuted
to fissile
plutonium-239
in a
nuclear reactor
. Another fissile isotope,
uranium-233
, can be produced from natural
thorium
and is studied for future industrial use in nuclear technology. Uranium-238 has a small probability for
spontaneous fission
or even induced fission with fast neutrons; uranium-235, and to a lesser degree uranium-233, have a much higher fission cross-section for slow neutrons. In sufficient concentration, these isotopes maintain a sustained
nuclear chain reaction
. This generates the heat in nuclear power reactors and produces the fissile material for nuclear weapons. The primary civilian use for uranium harnesses the heat energy to produce electricity.
Depleted uranium
238
U) is used in
kinetic energy penetrators
and
armor plating
10
The 1789
discovery
of uranium in the mineral
pitchblende
is credited to
Martin Heinrich Klaproth
, who named the new element after the recently discovered planet
Uranus
Eugène-Melchior Péligot
was the first person to isolate the metal, and its radioactive properties were discovered in 1896 by
Henri Becquerel
. Research by
Otto Hahn
Lise Meitner
Enrico Fermi
and others, such as
J. Robert Oppenheimer
starting in 1934 led to its use as a fuel in the
nuclear power
industry and in
Little Boy
, the
first nuclear weapon used in war
. An ensuing
arms race
during the
Cold War
between the
United States
and the
Soviet Union
produced tens of thousands of nuclear weapons that used uranium metal and uranium-derived
plutonium-239
. Dismantling of these weapons and related nuclear facilities is carried out within various
nuclear disarmament
programs and costs billions of dollars. Weapon-grade uranium obtained from nuclear weapons is diluted with uranium-238 and reused as fuel for nuclear reactors.
Spent nuclear fuel
forms
radioactive waste
, which mostly consists of uranium-238 and poses a significant health threat and
environmental impact
Characteristics
A neutron-induced nuclear fission event involving uranium-235
Uranium is a silvery white, weakly radioactive
metal
. It has a
Mohs hardness
of 6, sufficient to scratch glass and roughly equal to that of
titanium
rhodium
manganese
and
niobium
. It is
malleable
ductile
, slightly
paramagnetic
, strongly
electropositive
and a poor
electrical conductor
11
12
Uranium metal has a very high
density
of 19.1 g/cm
13
denser than
lead
(11.3 g/cm
),
14
but slightly less dense than
tungsten
and
gold
(19.3 g/cm
).
15
16
Uranium metal reacts with almost all non-metallic elements (except
noble gases
) and their
compounds
, with reactivity increasing with temperature.
17
Hydrochloric
and
nitric acids
dissolve uranium, but non-oxidizing acids other than hydrochloric acid attack the element very slowly.
11
When finely divided, it can react with cold water; in air, uranium metal becomes coated with a dark layer of
uranium dioxide
12
Uranium in ores is extracted chemically and converted into uranium dioxide or other chemical forms usable in industry.
In 1938,
Otto Hahn
and
Fritz Strassman
discovered that barium was a product of bombarding
uranium-235
with neutrons, and a year later
Lise Meitner
and
Otto Robert Frisch
developed the theory of
nuclear fission
to explain this new phenomenon, making U-235 the first
fissile
isotope to be discovered.
18
On bombardment with slow neutrons, uranium-235 most of the time splits into two smaller
nuclei
, releasing nuclear
binding energy
and more neutrons. If too many of these neutrons are absorbed by other uranium-235 nuclei, a
nuclear chain reaction
occurs that results in a burst of heat or (in some circumstances) an explosion. In a nuclear reactor, such a chain reaction is slowed and controlled by a
neutron poison
, absorbing some of the free neutrons. Such neutron absorbent materials are often part of reactor
control rods
(see
nuclear reactor physics
for a description of this process of reactor control). Other naturally occurring isotopes such as
Uranium-238
are
fissionable
, but not fissile, meaning that they only undergo fission when absorbing high energy (fast) neutrons.
19
As little as 15 lb (6.8 kg) of uranium-235 can be used to make an atomic bomb.
20
The nuclear weapon detonated over
Hiroshima
, called
Little Boy
, relied on uranium fission. However, the first nuclear bomb (the
Gadget
used at
Trinity
) and the bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki (
Fat Man
) were both plutonium bombs.
Uranium metal has three
allotropic
forms:
21
α (
orthorhombic
) stable up to 668 °C (1,234 °F). Orthorhombic,
space group
No. 63,
Cmcm
lattice parameters
= 285.4 pm,
= 587 pm,
= 495.5 pm.
22
β (
tetragonal
) stable from 668 to 775 °C (1,234 to 1,427 °F). Tetragonal, space group
mnm
nm
, or
2, lattice parameters
= 565.6 pm,
= 1075.9 pm.
22
γ (
body-centered cubic
) from 775 °C (1,427 °F) to melting point—this is the most malleable and ductile state. Body-centered cubic, lattice parameter
= 352.4 pm.
22
Applications
Military
Various militaries use depleted uranium as high-density penetrators.
The major application of uranium in the military sector is in high-density penetrating projectiles. This ammunition consists of
depleted uranium
(DU) alloyed with 1–2% other elements, such as
titanium
or
molybdenum
23
At high impact speed, the density, hardness, and
pyrophoricity
of the projectile enable the destruction of heavily armored targets. Tank armor and other removable
vehicle armor
can also be hardened with depleted uranium plates. The use of depleted uranium became politically and environmentally contentious after the use of such munitions by the US, UK and other countries during wars in the Persian Gulf and the Balkans raised health questions concerning uranium compounds left in the soil (see
Gulf War syndrome
).
20
Depleted uranium is also used as a shielding material in some containers used to store and transport radioactive materials. While the metal itself is radioactive, its high density makes it more effective than
lead
in halting radiation from strong sources such as
radium
11
Other uses of depleted uranium include counterweights for aircraft control surfaces, as ballast for missile
re-entry vehicles
and as a shielding material.
12
Due to its high density, this material is found in
inertial guidance systems
and in
gyroscopic
compasses
12
Depleted uranium is preferred over similarly dense metals due to its ability to be easily machined and cast as well as its relatively low cost.
24
The main risk of exposure to depleted uranium is chemical poisoning by
uranium oxide
rather than radioactivity (uranium being only a weak
alpha emitter
).
During the later stages of
World War II
, the entire
Cold War
, and to a lesser extent afterwards, uranium-235 has been used as the fissile explosive material to produce nuclear weapons. Initially, two major types of fission bombs were built: a relatively simple device that uses uranium-235 and a more complicated mechanism that uses
plutonium-239
derived from uranium-238. Later, a much more complicated and far more powerful type of fission/fusion bomb (
thermonuclear weapon
) was built, that uses a plutonium-based device to cause a mixture of
tritium
and
deuterium
to undergo
nuclear fusion
. Such bombs are jacketed in a non-fissile (unenriched) uranium case, and they derive more than half their power from the fission of this material by
fast neutrons
from the nuclear fusion process.
25
Civilian
The main use of uranium in the civilian sector is to fuel
nuclear power plants
. One kilogram of uranium-235 can theoretically produce about 20
terajoules
of energy (2
10
13
joules
), assuming complete fission; as much
energy
as 1.5 million kilograms (1,500
tonnes
) of
coal
10
Commercial nuclear power plants use fuel that is typically enriched to around 3% uranium-235.
10
The
CANDU
and
Magnox
designs are the only commercial reactors capable of using unenriched uranium fuel. Fuel used for
United States Navy
reactors is typically highly enriched in
uranium-235
(the exact values are
classified
). In a
breeder reactor
, uranium-238 can also be converted into plutonium-239 through the following reaction:
12
238
92
+ n
239
92
+ γ
239
93
Np
239
94
Pu
Uranium glass glowing under
UV light
Before (and, occasionally, after) the discovery of radioactivity, uranium was primarily used in small amounts for yellow glass and pottery glazes, such as
uranium glass
and in
Fiestaware
26
The discovery and isolation of
radium
in uranium ore (pitchblende) by
Marie Curie
sparked the development of uranium mining to extract the radium, which was used to make glow-in-the-dark paints for clock and aircraft dials.
27
28
This left a prodigious quantity of uranium as a waste product, since it takes three tonnes of uranium to extract one gram of radium. This waste product was diverted to the glazing industry, making uranium glazes very inexpensive and abundant. Besides the pottery glazes,
uranium tile
glazes accounted for the bulk of the use, including common bathroom and kitchen tiles which can be produced in green, yellow,
mauve
, black, blue, red and other colors.
The uranium glaze on a ceramic artwork glowing under
UV light
Uranium glass used as lead-in seals in a vacuum
capacitor
Uranium was also used in
photographic
chemicals (especially
uranium nitrate
as a
toner
),
12
in lamp filaments for
stage lighting
bulbs,
29
to improve the appearance of
dentures
30
and in the leather and wood industries for stains and dyes. Uranium salts are
mordants
of silk or wool.
Uranyl acetate
and
uranyl formate
are used as electron-dense "stains" in
transmission electron microscopy
, to increase the contrast of biological specimens in ultrathin sections and in
negative staining
of
viruses
, isolated
cell organelles
and
macromolecules
The discovery of the radioactivity of uranium ushered in additional scientific and practical uses of the element. The long
half-life
of uranium-238 (4.47
10
years) makes it well-suited for use in estimating the age of the earliest
igneous rocks
and for other types of
radiometric dating
, including
uranium–thorium dating
uranium–lead dating
and
uranium–uranium dating
. Uranium metal is used for
X-ray
targets in the making of high-energy X-rays.
12
History
Pre-discovery use
The use of
pitchblende
, uranium in its natural
oxide
form, dates back to at least the year 79 AD, when it was used in the
Roman Empire
to add a yellow color to
ceramic
glazes.
12
Yellow glass with 1% uranium oxide was found in a Roman villa on Cape
Posillipo
in the
Gulf of Naples
, Italy, by R. T. Gunther of the
University of Oxford
in 1912.
31
Starting in the late
Middle Ages
, pitchblende was extracted from the
Habsburg
silver mines in
Joachimsthal
Bohemia
(now Jáchymov in the Czech Republic) in the
Ore Mountains
, and was used as a coloring agent in the local
glassmaking
industry.
32
In the early 19th century, the world's only known sources of uranium ore were these mines.
Discovery
The planet
Uranus
, which uranium is named after
The
discovery
of the element is credited to the German chemist
Martin Heinrich Klaproth
. While he was working in his experimental laboratory in
Berlin
in 1789, Klaproth was able to precipitate a yellow compound (likely
sodium diuranate
) by dissolving
pitchblende
in
nitric acid
and neutralizing the solution with
sodium hydroxide
32
Klaproth assumed the yellow substance was the oxide of a yet-undiscovered element and heated it with
charcoal
to obtain a black powder, which he thought was the newly discovered metal itself (in fact, that powder was an
oxide of uranium
).
32
33
He named the newly discovered element "Uranit" after the planet
Uranus
(named after the primordial
Greek god of the sky
), which had been discovered eight years earlier by
William Herschel
34
He later renamed it "Uranium" to conform to the naming standard.
35
In 1841,
Eugène-Melchior Péligot
, Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the
Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers
(Central School of Arts and Manufactures) in
Paris
, isolated the first sample of uranium metal by heating
uranium tetrachloride
with
potassium
32
36
Henri Becquerel
discovered
radioactivity
by exposing a
photographic plate
to uranium in 1896.
Henri Becquerel
discovered radioactivity by using uranium in 1896.
17
Becquerel made the discovery in Paris by leaving a sample of a uranium salt, K
UO
(SO
(potassium uranyl sulfate), on top of an unexposed
photographic plate
in a drawer and noting that the plate had become "fogged".
37
He determined that a form of invisible light or rays emitted by uranium had exposed the plate.
During World War I when the
Central Powers
suffered a shortage of molybdenum to make artillery gun barrels and high speed tool steels, they routinely used
ferrouranium
alloy as a substitute, as it presents many of the same physical characteristics as molybdenum. When this practice became known in 1916 the US government requested several prominent universities to research the use of uranium in manufacturing and metalwork. Tools made with these formulas remained in use for several decades,
38
39
until the
Manhattan Project
and the
Cold War
placed a large demand on uranium for fission research and weapon development.
Fission research
Cuboids of uranium produced during the Manhattan Project
A team led by
Enrico Fermi
in 1934 found that bombarding uranium with neutrons produces
beta rays
electrons
or
positrons
from the elements produced; see
beta particle
).
40
The fission products were at first mistaken for new elements with atomic numbers 93 and 94, which the Dean of the
Sapienza University of Rome
Orso Mario Corbino
, named
ausenium and hesperium
, respectively.
41
42
43
44
The experiments leading to the discovery of uranium's ability to fission (break apart) into lighter elements and release
binding energy
were conducted by
Otto Hahn
and
Fritz Strassmann
40
in Hahn's laboratory in Berlin.
Lise Meitner
and her nephew, physicist
Otto Robert Frisch
, published the physical explanation in February 1939 and named the process "
nuclear fission
".
45
Soon after, Fermi hypothesized that fission of uranium might release enough neutrons to sustain a fission reaction. Confirmation of this hypothesis came in 1939, and later work found that on average about 2.5 neutrons are released by each fission of uranium-235.
40
Fermi urged
Alfred O. C. Nier
to separate uranium isotopes for determination of the fissile component, and on 29 February 1940, Nier used an instrument he built at the
University of Minnesota
to separate the world's first
uranium-235
sample in the Tate Laboratory. Using
Columbia University
's
cyclotron
John Dunning
confirmed the sample to be the isolated fissile material on 1 March.
46
Further work found that the far more common uranium-238 isotope can be
transmuted
into plutonium, which, like uranium-235, is also fissile by thermal neutrons. These discoveries led numerous countries to begin working on the development of nuclear weapons and
nuclear power
. Despite fission having been discovered in Germany, the
Uranverein
("uranium club") Germany's wartime project to research nuclear power and/or weapons was hampered by limited resources, infighting, the exile or non-involvement of several prominent scientists in the field and several crucial mistakes such as failing to account for impurities in available graphite samples which made it appear less suitable as a
neutron moderator
than it is in reality. Germany's attempts to build a
natural uranium
heavy water
reactor had not come close to reaching criticality by the time the Americans reached
Haigerloch
, the site of the last German wartime reactor experiment.
47
On 2 December 1942, as part of the
Manhattan Project
, another team led by Enrico Fermi was able to initiate the first artificial self-sustained
nuclear chain reaction
Chicago Pile-1
. An initial plan using enriched uranium-235 was abandoned as it was as yet unavailable in sufficient quantities.
48
Working in a lab below the stands of
Stagg Field
at the
University of Chicago
, the team created the conditions needed for such a reaction by piling together 360 tonnes of
graphite
, 53 tonnes of
uranium oxide
, and 5.5 tonnes of uranium metal, most of which was supplied by
Westinghouse Lamp Plant
in a makeshift production process.
40
49
Nuclear weaponry
Mushroom cloud
over Hiroshima after the dropping of the uranium-fired '
Little Boy
Two types of atomic bomb were developed by the United States during
World War II
: a uranium-based device (codenamed "Little Boy") whose fissile material was highly
enriched uranium
, and a plutonium-based device (see
Trinity test
and "Fat Man") whose plutonium was derived from uranium-238. Little Boy became the first nuclear weapon used in war when it was detonated over
Hiroshima
Japan
, on 6 August 1945. Exploding with a yield equivalent to 12,500 tonnes of
TNT
, the blast and thermal wave of the bomb destroyed nearly 50,000 buildings and killed about 75,000 people (see
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
).
37
In 1943 the
Manhattan Project
contracted two private companies,
Union Carbide
and
Chevron
, to quietly compile a survey of uranium deposits around the world. As the survey results came in, two geology professors studied the results and suggested general guidelines for new sources, including uranium associated with gold mines in
the Rand
area in
South Africa
50
Initially it was believed that uranium was relatively rare, and that
nuclear proliferation
could be avoided by simply buying up all known uranium stocks, but within a decade large deposits of it were discovered in many places around the world.
51
Reactors
Four light bulbs lit with electricity generated from the first artificial electricity-producing nuclear reactor,
EBR-I
(1951)
The
X-10 Graphite Reactor
at
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
(ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, formerly known as the Clinton Pile and X-10 Pile, was the world's second artificial nuclear reactor (after Enrico Fermi's Chicago Pile) and was the first reactor designed and built for continuous operation.
Argonne National Laboratory
's
Experimental Breeder Reactor I
, located at the Atomic Energy Commission's National Reactor Testing Station near
Arco, Idaho
, became the first nuclear reactor to create electricity on 20 December 1951.
52
Initially, four 150-watt light bulbs were lit by the reactor, but improvements eventually enabled it to power the whole facility (later, the town of Arco became the first in the world to have all its
electricity
come from nuclear power generated by
BORAX-III
, another reactor designed and operated by Argonne National Laboratory).
53
54
The world's first commercial scale nuclear power station,
Obninsk
in the
Soviet Union
, began generation with its reactor AM-1 on 27 June 1954. Other early nuclear power plants were
Calder Hall
in England, which began generation on 17 October 1956,
55
and the
Shippingport Atomic Power Station
in
Pennsylvania
, which began on 26 May 1958. Nuclear power was used for the first time for propulsion by a
submarine
, the
USS
Nautilus
, in 1954.
40
56
Prehistoric naturally occurring fission
Main article:
Natural nuclear fission reactor
In 1972, French physicist
Francis Perrin
discovered fifteen ancient and no longer active natural nuclear fission reactors in three separate ore deposits at the
Oklo mine
in
Gabon
, Africa, collectively known as the
Oklo Fossil Reactors
. The ore deposit is 1.7 billion years old; then, uranium-235 constituted about 3% of uranium on Earth.
57
This is high enough to permit a sustained chain reaction, if other supporting conditions exist. The capacity of the surrounding sediment to contain the health-threatening
nuclear waste
products has been cited by the U.S. federal government as supporting evidence for the feasibility to store spent nuclear fuel at the
Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository
57
Contamination and the Cold War legacy
U.S. and USSR/Russian nuclear weapons stockpiles, 1945–2005
Above-ground
nuclear tests
by the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1950s and early 1960s and by
France
into the 1970s and 1980s
24
spread a significant amount of
fallout
from uranium
daughter isotopes
around the world.
58
Additional fallout and pollution occurred from several
nuclear accidents
59
Uranium miners have a higher incidence of
cancer
. An excess risk of lung cancer among
Navajo
uranium miners, for example, has been documented and linked to their occupation.
60
The
Radiation Exposure Compensation Act
, a 1990 law in the US, required $100,000 in "compassion payments" to uranium miners diagnosed with cancer or other respiratory ailments.
61
During the
Cold War
between the Soviet Union and the United States, huge stockpiles of uranium were amassed and tens of thousands of nuclear weapons were created using enriched uranium and plutonium made from uranium. After the
break-up of the Soviet Union
in 1991, an estimated 600 short tons (540 metric tons) of highly enriched weapons grade uranium (enough to make 40,000 nuclear warheads) had been stored in often inadequately guarded facilities in the
Russian Federation
and several other former Soviet states.
20
Police in
Asia
Europe
, and
South America
on at least 16 occasions from 1993 to 2005 have
intercepted shipments
of smuggled bomb-grade uranium or plutonium, most of which was from ex-Soviet sources.
20
From 1993 to 2005 the
Material Protection, Control, and Accounting Program
, operated by the
federal government of the United States
, spent about US$550 million to help safeguard uranium and plutonium stockpiles in Russia. This money was used for improvements and security enhancements at research and storage facilities.
20
Safety of nuclear facilities in Russia has been significantly improved since the stabilization of political and economical turmoil of the early 1990s. For example, in 1993 there were 29 incidents ranking above level 1 on the
International Nuclear Event Scale
, and this number dropped under four per year in 1995–2003. The number of employees receiving annual radiation doses above 20
mSv
, which is equivalent to a single full-body
CT scan
62
saw a strong decline around 2000. In November 2015, the Russian government approved a federal program for nuclear and radiation safety for 2016 to 2030 with a budget of 562 billion rubles (ca. 8 billion
USD
). Its key issue is "the deferred liabilities accumulated during the 70 years of the nuclear industry, particularly during the time of the Soviet Union". About 73% of the budget will be spent on decommissioning aged and obsolete nuclear reactors and nuclear facilities, especially those involved in state defense programs; 20% will go in processing and disposal of nuclear fuel and radioactive waste, and 5% into monitoring and ensuring of nuclear and radiation safety.
63
Occurrence
Uranium is a
naturally occurring
element found in low levels in all rock, soil, and water. It is the highest-numbered element found naturally in significant quantities on Earth and is almost always found combined with other elements.
12
Uranium is the
48th most abundant element
in the Earth's crust.
64
The decay of uranium,
thorium
, and
potassium-40
in Earth's
mantle
is thought to be the main source of heat
65
66
that keeps the Earth's
outer core
in the liquid state and drives
mantle convection
, which in turn drives
plate tectonics
Uranium's
concentration in the Earth's crust
is (depending on the reference) 2 to 4 parts per million,
11
24
or about 40 times as abundant as
silver
17
The Earth's crust from the surface to 25 km (15 mi) down is calculated to contain 10
17
kg (2
10
17
lb) of uranium while the
oceans
may contain 10
13
kg (2
10
13
lb).
11
The concentration of uranium in soil ranges from 0.7 to 11 parts per million (up to 15 parts per million in farmland soil due to use of phosphate
fertilizers
containing uranium impurities),
67
and its concentration in sea water is 3 parts per billion.
24
Uranium is more plentiful than
antimony
tin
cadmium
mercury
, or silver, and it is about as abundant as
arsenic
or
molybdenum
12
24
Uranium is found in hundreds of minerals, including uraninite (the most common uranium
ore
),
carnotite
autunite
uranophane
torbernite
, and
coffinite
12
Significant concentrations of uranium occur in some substances such as
phosphate
rock deposits, and minerals such as
lignite
, and
monazite
sands in uranium-rich ores
12
(it is recovered commercially from sources with as little as 0.1% uranium
17
).
Origin
Like all elements with
atomic weights
higher than that of
iron
, uranium is only naturally formed by the
r-process
(rapid neutron capture) in
supernovae
and
neutron star mergers
68
Primordial thorium and uranium are only produced in the r-process, because the
s-process
(slow neutron capture) is too slow and cannot pass the gap of instability after bismuth.
69
70
Besides the two extant primordial uranium isotopes,
235
U and
238
U, the r-process also produced significant quantities of
236
, which has a shorter half-life and so is an
extinct radionuclide
, having long since decayed completely to
232
Th. Further uranium-236 was produced by the decay of
244
Pu
, accounting for the observed higher-than-expected abundance of thorium and lower-than-expected abundance of uranium.
71
While the natural abundance of uranium has been supplemented by the decay of extinct
242
Pu
(half-life 375,000 years) and
247
Cm (half-life 16 million years), producing
238
U and
235
U respectively, this occurred to an almost negligible extent due to the shorter half-lives of these parents and their lower production than
236
U and
244
Pu, the parents of thorium: the
247
Cm/
235
U ratio at the formation of the Solar System was
(7.0
1.6)
10
−5
72
Biotic and abiotic
Main article:
Uranium in the environment
Uraninite, also known as pitchblende, is the most common ore mined to extract uranium.
The evolution of Earth's
radiogenic heat
flow over time: contribution from
235
U in red and from
238
U in green
Some bacteria, such as
Shewanella putrefaciens
Geobacter metallireducens
and some strains of
Burkholderia fungorum
, can use uranium for their growth and convert U(VI) to U(IV).
73
74
Recent research suggests that this pathway includes reduction of the soluble U(VI) via an intermediate U(V) pentavalent state.
75
76
Other organisms, such as the
lichen
Trapelia involuta
or
microorganisms
such as the
bacterium
Citrobacter
, can absorb concentrations of uranium that are up to 300 times the level of their environment.
77
Citrobacter
species absorb
uranyl
ions when given
glycerol phosphate
(or other similar organic phosphates). After one day, one gram of bacteria can encrust themselves with nine grams of uranyl phosphate crystals; this creates the possibility that these organisms could be used in
bioremediation
to
decontaminate
uranium-polluted water.
32
78
The proteobacterium
Geobacter
has also been shown to bioremediate uranium in ground water.
79
The mycorrhizal fungus
Glomus intraradices
increases uranium content in the roots of its symbiotic plant.
80
In nature, uranium(VI) forms highly soluble carbonate complexes at alkaline pH. This leads to an increase in mobility and availability of uranium to groundwater and soil from nuclear wastes which leads to health hazards. However, it is difficult to precipitate uranium as phosphate in the presence of excess carbonate at alkaline pH. A
Sphingomonas
sp. strain BSAR-1 has been found to express a high activity
alkaline phosphatase
(PhoK) that has been applied for bioprecipitation of uranium as uranyl phosphate species from alkaline solutions. The precipitation ability was enhanced by overexpressing PhoK protein in
E. coli
81
Plants
absorb some uranium from soil. Dry weight concentrations of uranium in plants range from 5 to 60 parts per billion, and ash from burnt wood can have concentrations up to 4 parts per million.
32
Dry weight concentrations of uranium in
food
plants are typically lower with one to two micrograms per day ingested through the food people eat.
32
Production and mining
Main article:
Uranium mining
Worldwide production of uranium in 2024 was 60,213
tonnes
, of which 23,270 t (39%) was mined in
Kazakhstan
. Other important uranium mining countries are
Canada
(14,309 t),
Namibia
(7,333 t),
Australia
(4,598 t),
Uzbekistan
(4,000 t), and
Russia
(2,738 t).
82
Uranium ore is mined in several ways:
open pit
underground
in-situ leaching
, and
borehole mining
10
Low-grade uranium ore mined typically contains 0.01 to 0.25% uranium oxides. Extensive measures must be employed to extract the metal from its ore.
83
High-grade ores found in
Athabasca Basin
deposits in
Saskatchewan
, Canada can contain up to 23% uranium oxides on average.
84
Uranium ore is crushed and rendered into a fine powder and then leached with either an
acid
or
alkali
. The
leachate
is subjected to one of several sequences of precipitation, solvent extraction, and ion exchange. The resulting mixture, called
yellowcake
, contains at least 75% uranium oxides U
. Yellowcake is then
calcined
to remove impurities from the milling process before refining and conversion.
85
Commercial-grade uranium can be produced through the
reduction
of uranium
halides
with
alkali
or
alkaline earth metals
12
Uranium metal can also be prepared through
electrolysis
of
KUF
or
UF
, dissolved in molten
calcium chloride
CaCl
) and
sodium chloride
Na
Cl) solution.
12
Very pure uranium is produced through the
thermal decomposition
of uranium halides on a hot filament.
12
World uranium production (mines) and demand
82
Yellowcake
is a concentrated mixture of uranium oxides that is further refined to extract pure uranium.
Uranium production 2015, in tonnes
86
Resources and reserves
Uranium price 1990–2022.
It is estimated that 6.1 million tonnes of uranium exists in ores that are economically viable at US$130 per kg of uranium,
87
while 35 million tonnes are classed as mineral resources (reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction).
88
Australia has 28% of the world's known uranium ore reserves
87
and the world's largest single uranium deposit is located at the
Olympic Dam
Mine in
South Australia
89
There is a significant reserve of uranium in
Bakouma
, a
sub-prefecture
in the
prefecture
of
Mbomou
in the
Central African Republic
90
Some uranium also originates from dismantled nuclear weapons.
91
For example, in 1993–2013 Russia supplied the United States with 15,000 tonnes of low-enriched uranium within the
Megatons to Megawatts Program
92
An additional 4.6 billion tonnes of uranium are estimated to be dissolved in
sea water
Japanese
scientists in the 1980s showed that extraction of uranium from sea water using
ion exchangers
was technically feasible).
93
94
There have been experiments to extract uranium from sea water,
95
but the yield has been low due to the carbonate present in the water. In 2012,
ORNL
researchers announced the successful development of a new absorbent material dubbed HiCap which performs surface retention of solid or gas molecules, atoms or ions and also effectively removes toxic metals from water, according to results verified by researchers at
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
96
97
Supplies
Main article:
Uranium market
See also:
2000s commodities boom
Monthly uranium spot price in US$ per pound. The
2007 price peak
is clearly visible.
98
In 2005, ten countries accounted for the majority of the world's concentrated uranium oxides:
Canada
(27.9%),
Australia
(22.8%),
Kazakhstan
(10.5%),
Russia
(8.0%),
Namibia
(7.5%),
Niger
(7.4%),
Uzbekistan
(5.5%), the
United States
(2.5%),
Argentina
(2.1%) and
Ukraine
(1.9%).
99
In 2008, Kazakhstan was forecast to increase production and become the world's largest supplier of uranium by 2009;
100
101
Kazakhstan has dominated the world's uranium market since 2010. In 2021, its share was 45.1%, followed by Namibia (11.9%), Canada (9.7%), Australia (8.7%), Uzbekistan (7.2%), Niger (4.7%), Russia (5.5%), China (3.9%), India (1.3%), Ukraine (0.9%), and South Africa (0.8%), with a world total production of 48,332 tonnes.
82
Most uranium was produced not by conventional underground mining of ores (29% of production), but by
in-situ leaching
(66%).
82
102
In the late 1960s, UN geologists discovered major uranium deposits and other rare mineral reserves in
Somalia
. The find was the largest of its kind, with industry experts estimating the deposits at over 25% of the world's then known uranium reserves of 800,000 tons.
103
The ultimate available supply is believed to be sufficient for at least the next 85 years,
88
though some studies indicate underinvestment in the late twentieth century may produce supply problems in the 21st century.
104
Uranium deposits seem to be log-normal distributed. There is a 300-fold increase in the amount of uranium recoverable for each tenfold decrease in ore grade.
105
In other words, there is little high grade ore and proportionately much more low grade ore available.
Compounds
Main article:
Uranium compounds
Reactions of uranium metal
Oxidation states and oxides
Oxides
See also:
Uranium oxide
Triuranium octoxide
(left) and
uranium dioxide
(right) are the two most common uranium oxides.
Calcined uranium yellowcake, as produced in many large mills, contains a distribution of uranium oxidation species in various forms ranging from most oxidized to least oxidized. Particles with short residence times in a calciner will generally be less oxidized than those with long retention times or particles recovered in the stack scrubber. Uranium content is usually referenced to
, which dates to the days of the
Manhattan Project
when
was used as an analytical chemistry reporting standard.
106
Phase relationships
in the uranium-oxygen system are complex. The most important oxidation states of uranium are uranium(IV) and uranium(VI), and their two corresponding
oxides
are, respectively,
uranium dioxide
UO
) and
uranium trioxide
UO
).
107
Other
uranium oxides
such as
uranium monoxide
(UO),
diuranium pentoxide
), and
uranium peroxide
UO
·2H
) also exist.
The most common forms of uranium oxide are
triuranium octoxide
) and
UO
108
Both oxide forms are solids that have low solubility in water and are relatively stable over a wide range of environmental conditions. Triuranium octoxide is (depending on conditions) the most stable compound of uranium and is the form most commonly found in nature. Uranium dioxide is the form in which uranium is most commonly used as a nuclear reactor fuel.
108
At ambient temperatures,
UO
will gradually convert to
. Because of their stability, uranium oxides are generally considered the preferred chemical form for storage or disposal.
108
Aqueous chemistry
Uranium in its oxidation states III, IV, V, VI
Salts of many
oxidation states
of uranium are water-
soluble
and may be studied in
aqueous solutions
. The most common ionic forms are
3+
(brown-red),
4+
(green),
UO
(unstable), and
UO
2+
(yellow), for U(III), U(IV), U(V), and U(VI), respectively.
109
A few
solid
and semi-metallic compounds such as UO and
US
exist for the formal oxidation state uranium(II), but no simple ions are known to exist in solution for that state. Ions of
3+
liberate
hydrogen
from
water
and are therefore considered to be highly unstable. The
UO
2+
ion represents the uranium(VI) state and is known to form compounds such as
uranyl carbonate
uranyl chloride
and
uranyl sulfate
UO
2+
also forms
complexes
with various
organic
chelating
agents, the most commonly encountered of which is
uranyl acetate
109
Unlike the uranyl salts of uranium and
polyatomic ion
uranium-oxide cationic forms, the
uranates
, salts containing a polyatomic uranium-oxide anion, are generally not water-soluble.
Carbonates
The interactions of carbonate anions with uranium(VI) cause the
Pourbaix diagram
to change greatly when the medium is changed from water to a carbonate containing solution. While the vast majority of carbonates are insoluble in water (students are often taught that all carbonates other than those of alkali metals are insoluble in water), uranium carbonates are often soluble in water. This is because a U(VI) cation is able to bind two terminal oxides and three or more carbonates to form anionic complexes.
Pourbaix diagrams
110
Uranium in a non-complexing aqueous medium
(e.g.
perchloric acid
/sodium hydroxide).
110
Uranium in carbonate solution
Relative concentrations of the different chemical forms of uranium in a non-complexing aqueous medium
(e.g.
perchloric acid
/sodium hydroxide).
110
Relative concentrations of the different chemical forms of uranium in an aqueous carbonate solution.
110
Effects of pH
The uranium fraction diagrams in the presence of carbonate illustrate this further: when the pH of a uranium(VI) solution increases, the uranium is converted to a hydrated uranium oxide hydroxide and at high pHs it becomes an anionic hydroxide complex.
When carbonate is added, uranium is converted to a series of carbonate complexes if the pH is increased. One effect of these reactions is increased solubility of uranium in the pH range 6 to 8, a fact that has a direct bearing on the long term stability of spent uranium dioxide nuclear fuels.
Hydrides, carbides and nitrides
Uranium metal heated to 250 to 300 °C (482 to 572 °F) reacts with
hydrogen
to form
uranium hydride
. Even higher temperatures will reversibly remove the hydrogen. This property makes uranium hydrides convenient starting materials to create reactive uranium powder along with various uranium
carbide
nitride
, and
halide
compounds.
111
Two crystal modifications of uranium hydride exist: an α form that is obtained at low temperatures and a β form that is created when the formation temperature is above 250 °C.
111
Uranium carbides
and
uranium nitrides
are both relatively
inert
semimetallic
compounds that are minimally soluble in
acids
, react with water, and can ignite in
air
to form
111
Carbides of uranium include uranium monocarbide (U
), uranium dicarbide (
UC
), and diuranium tricarbide (
). Both UC and
UC
are formed by adding carbon to molten uranium or by exposing the metal to
carbon monoxide
at high temperatures. Stable below 1800 °C,
is prepared by subjecting a heated mixture of UC and
UC
to mechanical stress.
112
Uranium nitrides obtained by direct exposure of the metal to
nitrogen
include uranium mononitride (UN), uranium dinitride (
UN
), and diuranium trinitride (
).
112
Halides
Uranium hexafluoride
is the feedstock used to separate uranium-235 from natural uranium.
All uranium fluorides are created using
uranium tetrafluoride
UF
);
UF
itself is prepared by hydrofluorination of uranium dioxide.
111
Reduction of
UF
with hydrogen at 1000 °C produces
uranium trifluoride
UF
). Under the right conditions of temperature and pressure, the reaction of solid
UF
with gaseous
uranium hexafluoride
UF
) can form the intermediate fluorides of
17
, and
UF
111
At room temperatures,
UF
has a high
vapor pressure
, making it useful in the
gaseous diffusion
process to separate the rare uranium-235 from the common uranium-238 isotope. This compound can be prepared from uranium dioxide and uranium hydride by the following process:
111
UO
+ 4 HF →
UF
+ 2
(500 °C, endothermic)
UF
UF
(350 °C, endothermic)
The resulting
UF
, a white solid, is highly
reactive
(by fluorination), easily
sublimes
(emitting a vapor that behaves as a nearly
ideal gas
), and is the most volatile compound of uranium known to exist.
111
Uranium hexafluorides (IV) and (V) can be used to make several
hexafluorouranates
, as they are anions (UF
and UF
2-
). They bond with
alkali metals
, certain
transition metals
, and other non-metal compounds.
One method of preparing
uranium tetrachloride
UCl
) is to directly combine
chlorine
with either uranium metal or uranium hydride. The reduction of
UCl
by hydrogen produces
uranium trichloride
UCl
) while the higher chlorides of uranium are prepared by reaction with additional chlorine.
111
All uranium chlorides react with water and air.
Bromides
and
iodides
of uranium are formed by direct reaction of, respectively,
bromine
and
iodine
with uranium or by adding
UH
to those element's acids.
111
Known examples include:
UBr
UBr
UI
, and
UI
UI
has never been prepared. Uranium oxyhalides are water-soluble and include
UO
UOCl
UO
Cl
, and
UO
Br
. Stability of the oxyhalides decrease as the
atomic weight
of the component halide increases.
111
Isotopes
Main article:
Isotopes of uranium
Uranium, like all elements with an atomic number greater than 82, has no
stable isotopes
. All isotopes of uranium are
radioactive
because the
strong nuclear force
does not prevail over
electromagnetic repulsion
in nuclides containing more than 82 protons.
113
Nevertheless, the two most stable isotopes,
238
U and
235
U, have
half-lives
long enough to occur in nature as
primordial radionuclides
, with measurable quantities having survived since the formation of the Earth.
114
These two
nuclides
, along with
thorium-232
, are the only confirmed primordial nuclides heavier than nearly-stable
bismuth-209
115
Natural uranium
consists of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (99.28% natural abundance), uranium-235 (0.71%), and uranium-234 (0.0054%). There are also five other trace isotopes: uranium-240, a decay product of
plutonium-244
115
uranium-239, which is formed when
238
U undergoes spontaneous fission, releasing neutrons that are captured by another
238
U atom; uranium-237, which is formed when
238
U captures a neutron but emits two more, which then decays to
neptunium-237
uranium-236
, which occurs in trace quantities due to neutron capture on
235
U and as a decay product of plutonium-244;
115
and finally,
uranium-233
, which is formed in the
decay chain
of neptunium-237. Additionally,
uranium-232
would be produced by the
double beta decay
of natural
thorium-232
, though this energetically possible process has never been observed.
118
Uranium-238 is the most stable isotope of uranium, with a half-life of about
4.463
10
years,
roughly the
age of the Earth
. Uranium-238 is predominantly an alpha emitter, decaying to thorium-234. It ultimately decays through the
uranium series
, which has 18 members, into
lead-206
17
Uranium-238 is not fissile, but is a fertile isotope, because after
neutron activation
it can be converted to plutonium-239, another fissile isotope. Indeed, the
238
U nucleus can absorb one neutron to produce the radioactive isotope
uranium-239
239
U decays by
beta emission
to
neptunium
-239, also a beta-emitter, that decays in its turn, within a few days into plutonium-239.
239
Pu was used as fissile material in the first
atomic bomb
detonated in the "
Trinity test
" on 16 July 1945 in
New Mexico
40
Uranium-235 has a half-life of about
7.04
10
years; it is the next most stable uranium isotope after
238
U and is also predominantly an alpha emitter, decaying to thorium-231.
Uranium-235 is important for both
nuclear reactors
and
nuclear weapons
, because it is the only uranium isotope existing in nature on Earth in significant amounts that is fissile. This means that it can be split into two or three fragments (
fission products
) by thermal neutrons.
17
The decay chain of
235
U, which is called the
actinium series
, has 15 members and eventually decays into lead-207.
17
The constant rates of decay in these decay series makes the comparison of the ratios of parent to
daughter elements
useful in radiometric dating.
Uranium-236 has a half-life of
2.342
10
years
and is not found in significant quantities in nature. The half-life of uranium-236 is too short for it to be primordial, though it has been identified as an
extinct
progenitor of its alpha decay daughter, thorium-232.
71
Uranium-236 occurs in
spent nuclear fuel
when neutron capture on
235
U does not induce fission, or as a decay product of
plutonium-240
. Uranium-236 is not fertile, as three more neutron captures are required to produce fissile
239
Pu, and is not itself fissile; as such, it is considered long-lived radioactive waste.
119
Uranium-234 is a member of the uranium series and occurs in equilibrium with its progenitor,
238
U; it undergoes alpha decay with a half-life of 245,500 years
and decays to lead-206 through a series of relatively short-lived isotopes.
Uranium-233 undergoes alpha decay with a half-life of 160,000 years and, like
235
U, is fissile.
12
It can be bred from
thorium-232
via neutron bombardment, usually in a nuclear reactor; this process is known as the
thorium fuel cycle
. Owing to the fissility of
233
U and the greater natural abundance of thorium (three times that of uranium),
120
233
U has been investigated for use as nuclear fuel as a possible alternative to
235
U and
239
Pu,
121
though is not in widespread use as of 2022
[update]
120
The decay chain of uranium-233 forms part of the
neptunium series
and ends at nearly-stable bismuth-209 (half-life
2.01
10
19
years
and stable
thallium
-205.
Uranium-232
is an alpha emitter with a half-life of 68.9 years.
This isotope is produced as a byproduct in production of
233
U and is considered a nuisance, as it is not fissile and decays through short-lived alpha and
gamma emitters
such as
208
Tl
121
It is also expected that thorium-232 should be able to undergo
double beta decay
, which would produce uranium-232, but this has not yet been observed experimentally.
All isotopes from
232
U to
236
U inclusive have minor
cluster decay
branches (less than
10
−10
%), and all these bar
233
U, in addition to
238
U, have minor
spontaneous fission
branches;
the greatest
branching ratio
for spontaneous fission is about
10
−5
% for
238
U, or about one in every two million decays.
122
The shorter-lived trace isotopes
237
U and
239
U exclusively undergo
beta decay
, with respective half-lives of 6.752 days and 23.45 minutes.
In total, 28 isotopes of uranium have been identified, ranging in
mass number
from 214
123
to 242, with the exception of 220.
124
Among the uranium isotopes not found in natural samples or nuclear fuel, the longest-lived is
230
U, an alpha emitter with a half-life of 20.23 days.
This isotope has been considered for use in
targeted alpha-particle therapy
(TAT).
125
All other isotopes have half-lives shorter than one hour, except for
231
U (half-life 4.2 days) and
240
U (half-life 14.1 hours).
The shortest-lived known isotope is
221
U, with a half-life of 660 nanoseconds, and it is expected that the hitherto unknown
220
U has an even shorter half-life.
126
The proton-rich isotopes lighter than
232
U primarily undergo alpha decay, except for
229
U and
231
U, which decay to
protactinium isotopes
via
positron emission
and
electron capture
, respectively; the neutron-rich
240
U,
241
U, and
242
U undergo
beta decay
to form
neptunium isotopes
124
Enrichment
Main article:
Enriched uranium
Cascades of
gas centrifuges
are used to enrich uranium ore to concentrate its fissionable isotopes.
In nature, uranium is found as uranium-238 (99.2742%) and uranium-235 (0.7204%).
Isotope separation
concentrates (enriches) the fissile uranium-235 for nuclear weapons and most nuclear power plants, except for
gas cooled reactors
and
pressurized heavy water reactors
. Most neutrons released by a fissioning atom of uranium-235 must impact other uranium-235 atoms to sustain the
nuclear chain reaction
. The concentration and amount of uranium-235 needed to achieve this is called a '
critical mass
'.
To be considered 'enriched', the uranium-235 fraction should be between 3% and 5%.
127
This process produces huge quantities of uranium that is depleted of uranium-235 and with a correspondingly increased fraction of uranium-238, called depleted uranium or 'DU'. To be considered 'depleted', the
235
U concentration should be no more than 0.3%.
128
The price of uranium has risen since 2001, so enrichment tailings containing more than 0.35% uranium-235 are being considered for re-enrichment, driving the price of
depleted uranium hexafluoride
above $130 per kilogram in July 2007 from $5 in 2001.
128
The
gas centrifuge
process, where gaseous
uranium hexafluoride
UF
) is separated by the difference in molecular weight between
235
UF
and
238
UF
using high-speed
centrifuges
, is the cheapest and leading enrichment process.
37
The
gaseous diffusion
process had been the leading method for enrichment and was used in the
Manhattan Project
. In this process, uranium hexafluoride is repeatedly
diffused
through a
silver
zinc
membrane, and the different isotopes of uranium are separated by diffusion rate (since uranium-238 is heavier it diffuses slightly slower than uranium-235).
37
The
molecular laser isotope separation
method employs a
laser
beam of precise energy to sever the bond between uranium-235 and fluorine. This leaves uranium-238 bonded to fluorine and allows uranium-235 metal to precipitate from the solution.
10
An alternative laser method of enrichment is known as
atomic vapor laser isotope separation
(AVLIS) and employs visible
tunable lasers
such as
dye lasers
129
Another method used is liquid thermal diffusion.
11
The only significant deviation from the
235
U to
238
U ratio in any known natural samples occurs in
Oklo
Gabon
, where
natural nuclear fission reactors
consumed some of the
235
U some two billion years ago when the ratio of
235
U to
238
U was more akin to that of
low enriched uranium
allowing regular ("light") water to act as a
neutron moderator
akin to the process in humanmade
light water reactors
. The existence of such natural fission reactors which had been theoretically predicted beforehand was proven as the slight deviation of
235
U concentration from the expected values were discovered during
uranium enrichment
in France. Subsequent investigations to rule out any nefarious human action (such as stealing of
235
U) confirmed the theory by finding isotope ratios of common
fission products
(or rather their stable daughter nuclides) in line with the values expected for fission but deviating from the values expected for non-fission derived samples of those elements.
Human exposure
A person can be exposed to uranium (or its
radioactive daughters
, such as
radon
) by inhaling dust in air or by ingesting contaminated water and food. The amount of uranium in air is usually very small; however, people who work in factories that process
phosphate
fertilizers
containing uranium impurities, live near government facilities that made or tested nuclear weapons, live or work near a modern battlefield where depleted uranium
weapons
have been used, or live or work near a
coal
-fired power plant, facilities that mine or process uranium ore, or enrich uranium for reactor fuel, may have increased exposure to uranium.
130
131
Houses or structures that are over uranium deposits (either natural or man-made slag deposits) may have an increased incidence of exposure to radon gas.
The health impacts of natural and of depleted uranium are chemical rather than due to radiation.
131
The
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) has set the
permissible exposure limit
for uranium exposure in the workplace as 0.25 mg/m
over an 8-hour workday. The
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
(NIOSH) has set a
recommended exposure limit
(REL) of 0.2 mg/m
over an 8-hour workday and a short-term limit of 0.6 mg/m
. At 10 mg/m
, uranium is
immediately dangerous to life and health
132
Most ingested uranium is excreted during
digestion
. Only 0.5% is absorbed when insoluble forms of uranium, such as its oxide, are ingested, whereas absorption of the more soluble
uranyl
ion can be up to 5%.
32
However, soluble uranium compounds tend to quickly pass through the body, whereas insoluble uranium compounds, especially when inhaled by way of dust into the
lungs
, pose a more serious exposure hazard. After entering the bloodstream, the absorbed uranium tends to
bioaccumulate
and stay for many years in
bone
tissue because of uranium's affinity for phosphates.
32
Incorporated uranium becomes uranyl ions, which accumulate in bone, liver, kidney, and reproductive tissues.
133
Elements of high atomic number like uranium exhibit phantom or secondary radiotoxicity through absorption of natural background gamma and X-rays and re-emission of photoelectrons, which in combination with the high affinity of uranium to the phosphate moiety of DNA cause increased single and double strand DNA breaks.
134
Uranium is not absorbed through the skin, and
alpha particles
released by uranium cannot penetrate the skin.
29
Uranium can be decontaminated from steel surfaces
135
and
aquifers
136
137
Effects and precautions
Normal functioning of the
kidney
brain
liver
heart
, and other systems can be affected by uranium exposure, because, besides being weakly radioactive, uranium is a
toxic metal
32
138
139
Uranium is also a
reproductive toxicant
140
141
Radiological effects are generally local because alpha radiation, the primary form of
238
U decay, has a very short range, and will not penetrate skin. Alpha radiation from inhaled uranium has been demonstrated to cause lung cancer in exposed nuclear workers.
142
The
Centers for Disease Control
have published one study stating that neither natural nor depleted uranium have been classified with respect to carcinogenicity.
143
Exposure to its decay products, especially
radon
, is a significant health threat, and uranium processing produces wastes contaminated with radium which in turn produces radon gas.
144
Because of its long half-life, purified uranium will not produce significant amounts of daughter nuclides for millions of years. Exposure to
strontium-90
iodine-131
, and other fission products is unrelated to uranium exposure, but may result from medical procedures or exposure to spent reactor fuel or fallout from nuclear weapons.
145
Although accidental inhalation exposure to a high concentration of
uranium hexafluoride
has resulted in human fatalities, those deaths were associated with the generation of highly toxic hydrofluoric acid and
uranyl fluoride
rather than with uranium itself.
146
Finely divided uranium metal presents a fire hazard because uranium is
pyrophoric
; small grains will ignite spontaneously in air at room temperature.
12
Uranium metal is commonly handled with gloves as a sufficient precaution.
147
Uranium concentrate is handled and contained so as to ensure that people do not inhale or ingest it.
147
See also
Chemistry portal
K-65 residues
List of countries by uranium production
List of countries by uranium reserves
List of uranium projects
Lists of nuclear disasters and radioactive incidents
Nuclear and radiation accidents and incidents
Nuclear engineering
Nuclear fuel cycle
Nuclear physics
Quintuple bond
(earlier thought to be a
phi bond
), in the molecule U
Thorium fuel cycle
World Uranium Hearing
Notes
The thermal expansion is
anisotropic
: the coefficients for each crystal axis (at 20 °C) are α
25.27
10
−6
/K, α
0.76
10
−6
/K, α
20.35
10
−6
/K, and α
average
= α
volume
/3 =
15.46
10
−6
/K.
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ISBN
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{{
cite book
}}
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"Uranium"
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. Vol. XXIV (9th ed.). p. 7.
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