Uranium is one of the heaviest of all the naturally-occurring elements and has a specific gravity of 18.7. And small nuclear reactors are important for making radioisotopes. It is also used for marine propulsion (mostly naval). While nuclear power is the predominant use of uranium, heat from nuclear fission can be used for industrial processes. Uranium-235 is the only naturally-occurring material which can sustain a fission chain reaction, releasing large amounts of energy. Today the only substantial use for uranium is as fuel in nuclear reactors, mostly for electricity generation. This element was used in luminous paint, particularly on the dials of watches and aircraft instruments up to the 1950s, and in medicine for the treatment of disease.įor many years from the 1940s, virtually all of the uranium that was mined was used in the production of nuclear weapons, but this ceased to be the case in the 1970s. In the past, uranium was also used to colour glass (from as early as 79 AD) and deposits were once mined in order to obtain its decay product, radium. Natural uranium is a mixture of isotopes, including a small proportion of one that is fissile – readily able to fission (split) to yield vastly more energy than any combustion process. When mined, it yields a mixed uranium oxide product, U 3O 8. Uraninite, or pitchblende, is the most common uranium mineral. There are a number of locations in different parts of the world where it occurs in economically-recoverable concentrations. Being relatively soluble (in contrast to thorium), it is also found in the oceans, at an average concentration of 3 parts per billion.

It occurs in most rocks in concentrations of 2 to 4 parts per million and is as common in the Earth's crust as tin, tungsten and molybdenum and about 40 times as common as silver. Uranium was discovered by Martin Klaproth, a German chemist, in 1789 in the mineral pitchblende, and was named after the planet Uranus. As decay proceeds, the final product, lead, increases in relative abundance. Its radioactive decay provides the main source of heat inside the Earth, causing convection and continental drift. The Earth's uranium (chemical symbol U) was apparently formed in supernovae up to about 6.6 billion years ago (see information page on The Cosmic Origins of Uranium).

The health hazards associated with uranium are much the same as those for lead.

Most of the uranium used in nuclear reactors can be recycled.

Depleted uranium is a by-product from enriching natural uranium to use in nuclear power reactors.

Uranium occurs naturally in the Earth's crust and is mildly radioactive. It is the only element with a naturally-occurring fissile isotope.

The basic fuel for a nuclear power reactor is uranium – a heavy metal able to release abundant concentrated energy.

A total of 30 countries worldwide are operating 440 nuclear reactors for electricity generation.įor decades, GE and Hitachi have been at the forefront of nuclear technology, setting the industry benchmark for reactor design and construction and helping utility customers operate their plants safely and reliably. Nuclear energy supplies about 10 percent of the world's electricity and approximately 20 percent of the energy in the United States. Nuclear power plants can continuously generate large-scale, around-the-clock electricity for many months at a time, without interruption. When it comes to efficiency and reliability, no other electricity source can match nuclear. Additionally, because they don’t produce greenhouse gases, nuclear plants help protect air quality and mitigate climate change. Power plants don’t burn any materials so they produce no combustion by-products. Nuclear power offers many benefits for the environment as well. And because uranium is one of the world’s most abundant metals, it can provide fuel for the world’s commercial nuclear plants for generations to come. Each uranium fuel pellet provides up to five years of heat for power generation. Bundles of this fuel are inserted into the reactor.Ī single uranium pellet, slightly larger than a pencil eraser, contains the same energy as a ton of coal, 3 barrels of oil, or 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas.

Uranium fuel consists of small, hard ceramic pellets that are packaged into long, vertical tubes. Nuclear power plants use low-enriched uranium fuel to produce electricity through a process called fission-the splitting of uranium atoms in a nuclear reactor. Nuclear power is a clean and efficient way of boiling water to make steam, which turns turbines to produce electricity.

Nuclear energy fission uranium