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Natural uranium contains about 0.72% 235 U. Depleted uranium has lower mass fractions—up to three times less—of 235 U and 234 U than natural uranium. Since 238 U has a much longer half-life than the lighter isotopes, DU is about 40% less radioactive than natural uranium.
Uranium's radioactivity can present health and environmental issues in the case of nuclear waste produced by nuclear power plants or weapons manufacturing. Uranium is weakly radioactive and remains so because of its long physical half-life (4.468 billion years for uranium-238).
Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U 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 actinide series is a group of chemical elements with atomic numbers ranging from 89 to 102, [note 1] including notable elements such as uranium and plutonium.The nuclides (or isotopes) thorium-232, uranium-235, and uranium-238 occur primordially, while trace quantities of actinium, protactinium, neptunium, and plutonium exist as a result of radioactive decay and (in the case of neptunium ...
Uranium mining is the process of extracting uranium ore from the ground. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia are the top three producers and together account for 63% of world uranium production. [30] A prominent use of uranium is as fuel for nuclear power plants. The mining and milling of uranium present significant dangers to the environment. [31]
When fired, depleted uranium becomes ‘essentially an exotic metal dart fired at extraordinarily high speed’ ...
It became popular in the U.S. and uranium was widely used to color glassware until 1943, when the government started regulating its use so that they could save uranium to build atom bombs.
It's easy to lose track of nuclear news out of Oak Ridge. Here's why the Sept. 4 announcement was so different.