The Chemical Element Of Uranium

Uranium is a naturally occuring chemical element that can be mined from ore in many parts of the Southwestern United States where

Uranium 235 (U235) on itself is stable, however if an atom is hit with a neutron, it will absorb that neutron turning into Uranium 236 (U236), and therefore becomes unstable. It then spontaneously splits into 2 atoms, krypton 92 and barium 141 molecule. A new nuclei forms when an unstable nucleus decays creating fission products. Essentially, the fewer neutrons there are loose, the fewer fissions will occur. It is noticed that both the atoms do no equal up to 236, because in fact, 3 neutrons are dispersed and then further colliding with other Uranium 235 molecules. To further discuss the process of Uranium fission, it can be referred to what is called the Chain Reaction. In the chain reaction mentioned (Fig 1), the neutrons released by the

Urainum-238 has a half-life of around 4.5 billion years, meaning that half the atoms in any sample will decay in that amount of time (4.5 billion years). Uranium-238 emits alpha particles which are less powerful than other forms of radiation, and weak gamma rays. As long as it remains outside the body, uranium poses little health

Today uranium is mostly used for nuclear properties. It’s used in nuclear power plants to generate heat. Uranium’s effect on Saskatchewan is good and bad, to mine uranium you have to destroy the land so that you can mine it, mining Uranium is costly put it makes you good money to. This reflects to Saskatchewan because we have the richest deposit of uranium.

Nuclear waste is a by-product of the uranium enrichment process and the operation of nuclear power plants. One of the most common radioactive isotopes found in nuclear waste is plutonium-239, which is capable of causing cancer-related fatalities for millions of people in very small amounts. Other isotopes include iodine-129, cesium-137, and uranium-238, all of which are highly radioactive and have half-lives in the tens of

I think to an extend it is environmental racism. We need Uranium to protect the United States which includes to protect the Native people. We have to look at the big picture as what is going to help the country. Also, it creates more miners jobs. The use of Uranium is not only use for nuclear weapons, but also to produce energy. In the other hand, the Native people from New Mexico are taking a big hit because since it is a big Uranium mining site and the water is not being dispose properly and the water is seeping into the local aquifers (Earthworks, 2011). I think the government should look an alternative ways to dispose the 12 million gallons a day or other alternative ways to substitute the use of Uranium.

Uranium, element number 92 on the periodic table, was used in the atomic bomb used in the attack of Hiroshima. Plutonium, the 94th element, was used the second bombing of Nagasaki. Uranium's atoms are unusually

Uranium mining in Utah started in the 1940’s during WWII when uranium was in high demand in use of bombs. Uranium was found in all parts of Utah in areas like Lisbon Valley, White Canyon and even a little bit at the highly famous Bingham Canyon Mine. Yet mostly in an area near Moab that located in the Red Rocks of Southern Utah by a man name Charles Steen. He is the one that found high uranium deposits in Southern Utah. They call it the “Uranium Boom of 1952” Uranium is a element that is highly radioactive, which is why it was used during WWII.

Fission Uranium develops uranium prospects in Canada's Athabasca Basin, an area that contains one of the richest concentrations of high-grade uranium in the world. Dev Randhawa’s accomplishments with Fission Uranium have earned

Uranium is removed from the oceans by diffusion across the sediment-water interface of organic-rich sediments, and this pathway is the largest single sink in the global budget of this element (Anderson et al., 1989; Barnes and Cochran, 1990; Thomson et al., 1990; Lyons et al., 2002; Calvert et al., 2015). Klinkhammer and Palmer (1991) remark that the dissolved uranium is drawn into suboxic sediments along a concentration gradient established by the precipitation of an insoluble phase which forms when U6+ is reduced to U4+. They also mention that this transformation occurs relatively late in the diagenetic sequence, after the microbially mediated dissolution of manganese and iron oxides, and may be induced by the onset of sulfate reduction. Metallo-organics play an important role in the diagenetic behavior of this element as some uranium is released into solution when labile organics are consumed at the sediment-water interface (Thomson et al., 1990).

It is radioactive and poisonous and is so dense that when turned into a metal alloy, it can greatly increase the power of a shell to penetrate armor. When the DU shell hits metal armor, it starts to burn and releases tiny particles of the radioactive metal into the air. ( Catalinotto, n.d.). In high-temperature explosions, uranium combustion releases fine particles of uranium oxide, which is responsible for severely affecting respiratory organs of people within 300m of the explosion. Besides the effects of radiation, uranium is also highly toxic and a potent carcinogen and mutagen (PA, 2001). The particles from shell explosions are distributed by winds and settle on vegetation and

Depleted uranium (DU, Q-metal, D-depletalloy, or D-38) is uranium with a lower concentration of the fissible isotope U-235 than natural uranium. Natural uranium consists of 99.28% U-238, 0.71% U-235, and 0.0054% U-234.1 Nuclear reactors use uranium as their basic fuel in the form of UO2.2 DU is a byproduct from enriching natural UO2 to use in these nuclear power reactors. Uranium decays slowly by emitting an alpha particle. U-238 has a 4,510,000,000-year half-life and U-235 has a 247,000-year half-life; which means that DU is significantly less radioactive than natural uranium. Although it also has civilian uses, DU byproduct majorly has military uses.3,4 Properties that make DU suitable for military weaponry, as a part of kinetic-based armor-piercing shells are its high density and pyrophoric nature.5

It is not until recently that people have become dependent on this element, and not necessarily for the good of it, and the world. There is an obsession with uranium because of its unique properties. Uranium is extremely powerful because of its radioactive properties and unstable nuclei, especially that of Uranium-235. It is able to break down and release high frequency radiation through alpha and beta decay. It is because of these characteristics that Uranium has such a craze on the population of the world (Cox, 1995; Scerri, 2007). The properties of uranium allow people to create powerful plants to produce electricity, and weapons strong enough to destroy the world.

Figure 2. This image illustrates where major reserves of uranium are found on earth. <http://www.globalresearch.ca/articlePictures/uranium_reserves.jpg>.

Nuclear power is generated from the energy that is released from a heavy nucleus into a lighter, more stable nuclei. The heat produced is used to boil water which drives a steam turbine to generate electricity. This chain reaction process is also called fission. A key element to fuel nuclear plant is uranium. Uranium is considered to be a nonrenewable energy source, even though it is a common metal found in rocks worldwide. U-235 is most commonly used in plants because its atoms are easily split apart. To extract U-235 uranium ore is mined; for the United States, this element is found in the