What is Uranium?

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Exploration, Mining, Marketing, & Acquisitions

Date posted: 02/03/16

Vivien Diniz allows that uranium is a fairly common metal, and occurs in most rocks and groundwater in low concentrations of 2 to 4 parts per million. The metal (element) was discovered in 1789 by Martin Klaproth, a German chemist, in a mineral called pitchblende and was named after the planet Uranus, which had been discovered several years prior. Uranium, when refined, is a silvery white metal that is weakly reactive. It does, however, react with most non-metal elements and their compounds, except noble gases. The metal has reactive properties that increase with temperature. Naturally occurring uranium is found in two different isotopes: uranium-238 (U-238), which accounts for 99%, and uranium-235 (U-235), which makes up the remaining 1%. Of those two isotopes, U-235 is the most important. U-235 is the uranium isotope most commonly used in nuclear fuel. That is because is U-235 is fissile, meaning that under certain conditions the isotope can be split, creating a significant amount of energy. Unlike U-235, U-238 is fertile, but not fissile. That means it can capture one of the neutrons flying around in the core of a reactor, creating plutonium-239. Plutonium-239 behaves very much like U-238 insofar that it is fissile and gives off significant amounts of energy. The most significant use of uranium today is in nuclear power generation. The first commercial nuclear plants began operations in the 1950s. Today there are over 400 reactors in operation, providing more than 10% of the world electricity without carbon emissions. With a growing global population undergoing continuous urbanization, it is expected that by 2030, electricity consumption will have doubled from 2007 levels, with a significant portion to come from nuclear power. In fact, China alone has committed to adding 40 nuclear reactors to its fleet by 2020. Likewise, Russia and India have 25 and 24 reactors, respectively, in the planning stage. Exploration produces new sources of uranium fuel.