Uranium

By: Josh Dorman

History Of Uranium Discovered: 1789 Location: Germany Who Discovered It:

Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1734-1817) (1789)

and Eugene Péligot (1811-1890) (1841)

When Klaproth first announced the discovery of this new

element, he mistakenly named it Uranium. He had actually discovered an oxide of ‘Uranium’. This was unknown until 1841 when Péligot isolated the ‘Old Uranium’ to produce a pure substance of ‘New Uranium’. However, the credit for discovery still goes to Klaproth, and the element is still named Uranium. Which surprisingly enough is named after the planet Uranus.

Properties Of Uranium•Atomic Number: 92

•State at Room Temperature: Solid

•Color: Varies, mainly Silvery/Silvery-White

•Melting/Boiling Point: 1405.5K /4018K

•Density: 19.05g/cm

Uranium found naturally appears to be very similar to a simple rock you would find outside. But instead is much heavier and dangerously radioactive

3

Isotopes of Uranium

Uranium has a 16 different isotopes, All of them being radioactive.

Generally only 3 of the isotopes are commonly talked about today.

234

U, 235

U, and 238

U

235

U

235

U contains 0.711% of naturally found Uranium, so not very much. However is greatly used in many aspects. Under certain circumstances

235

U can be easily split, creating A LOT of energy, mostly in the form of heat.

I could tell you the amount of energy released by one atom of

235

U, but you would be unable to grasp the quantity of it, so lets compare. The amount of energy a single atom of

235

U is greater than the energy created from burning 50 million carbon atoms. In other terms it is 20,000 times the amount of energy released by an atom of coal. (keep in mind which is also used to create energy through the form of heat)

238

U

238

U consumes most of amount of naturally found Uranium at 98.3%.

238

U has a half life of 4.5 billion years. Because of this we can use this element to estimate the age igneous rock.

238

U is commonly used as radiation shielding because of its high number of electrons allow it to effectively block Gamma and X-rays

Availability of Uranium Uranium is found in minerals such as pitchblende,

uranophane, cleveite and many others. Uranium can also be found in phosphate rock.

Uranium is naturally presented in a U3O8 form.

To obtain pure uranium many different ways, the most common way is by reducing uranium oxides with calcium, carbon, or aluminum at high temperatures.

The going price for uranium is $48.83 U.S. dollars per pound.

The Early Days of Uranium Before they realized how valuable

and dangerous uranium was, it was used as coloring agents in ceramic glass and tinting in photography.

Due to the amount of radioactivity and the need for uranium elsewhere, these are no longer uses for it.

Military Uses for Uranium

Depleted uranium is used for armor plating, missile heads, and armor piercing casing due to its high density.

The problem is some uranium breaks down into a highly radioactive oxide dust on impact of a missile explosion. This dust like substance is very dangerous and carcinogenic.

This is the aftermath of a child that was victimized of depleted uranium

after a missile explosion

The Main Use of Uranium The main use for uranium is to fuel nuclear

power plants

The compound of uranium used for nuclear power is UO2.

To obtain UO2 from naturally occurring U3O8 you must reduce it using ammonia though various different steps.

Uranium provides about 4% of the world's non-renewable energy. 

Fun Facts About Uranium One pound ball of uranium will only

have a diameter of 1.3 inches.

A uranium-colored glass object was found near Naples, Italy, and dated to about 79 A.D.

One ton of uranium can produce the equivalent energy of 16,000 tons of coal or 80,000 barrels of oil.

Biblyography http://nuclearsa.ccsa.asn.au/b1.html http://periodic.lanl.gov/elements/92.h

tml http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00

409697/en/ http://www.eoearth.org/article/Uraniu

m http://web.ead.anl.gov/uranium/guide

/facts/