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Yellowcake (also called urania) is a type of powdered uranium concentrate obtained from leach solutions, in an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores. It is a step in the processing of uranium after it has been mined but before fuel fabrication or uranium enrichment. Yellowcake concentrates are prepared by various extraction and ...
Marie Curie used pitchblende, processing tons of it herself, as the source material for her isolation of pure metallic radium in 1910. [8] Uraninite also always contains small amounts of the lead isotopes 206 Pb and 207 Pb, the end products of the decay series of the uranium isotopes 238 U and 235 U respectively.
World uranium reserves in 2010. Uranium reserves are reserves of recoverable uranium, regardless of isotope, based on a set market price. The list given here is based on Uranium 2020: Resources, Production and Demand, a joint report by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency. [1] Figures are given in metric ...
Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written 235 U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation.Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (238 U with 99.2732–99.2752% natural abundance), uranium-235 (235 U, 0.7198–0.7210%), and uranium-234 (234 U, 0.0049–0.0059%).
Uranium is the 48th most abundant element in the Earth’s crust. [60] The decay of uranium, thorium, and potassium-40 in Earth's mantle is thought to be the main source of heat [61] [62] that keeps the Earth's outer core in the liquid state and drives mantle convection, which in turn drives plate tectonics.
Plutonium-239 is the primary fissile isotope used for the production of nuclear weapons, although uranium-235 is also used for that purpose. Plutonium-239 is also one of the three main isotopes demonstrated usable as fuel in thermal spectrum nuclear reactors, along with uranium-235 and uranium-233. Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,110 years. [1]
Uranium-235 (235 U or U-235) is an isotope of uranium making up about 0.72% of natural uranium. Unlike the predominant isotope uranium-238, it is fissile, i.e., it can sustain a nuclear chain reaction. It is the only fissile isotope that exists in nature as a primordial nuclide. Uranium-235 has a half-life of 703.8 million years.
Nuclear material refers to the metals uranium, plutonium, and thorium, in any form, according to the IAEA.This is differentiated further into "source material", consisting of natural and depleted uranium, and "special fissionable material", consisting of enriched uranium (), uranium-233, and plutonium-239.