Uranium is a naturally occurring radioactive metal, atomic number 92, that supplies the fissile material burned in nuclear power reactors worldwide. The German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth identified it as a new element in Berlin in 1789, naming it for the recently discovered planet Uranus; for more than a century afterward it was valued chiefly for coloring glass and ceramic glazes, since its capacity to release energy through nuclear fission was not understood until the twentieth century. Natural uranium is a metal about as common in the Earth's crust as tin or zinc, though only its uranium-235 isotope, roughly 0.7 percent of the natural mix, sustains the chain reaction that heats water into steam inside a reactor; most commercial fuel is enriched to raise that share. Australia, Kazakhstan and Canada lead world uranium production today.
Facts
Source Class First Commercial YearChicago Pile-1, fueled by natural uranium and graphite, achieved the first self-sustained nuclear chain reaction in Chicago on 2 December 1942, but generated no usable power. The first uranium-fueled reactor to deliver electricity to a public grid was the Obninsk plant in the Soviet Union in June 1954; Calder Hall in England, 1956, is often cited as the first industrial-scale nuclear station, the same distinction this atlas records for Nuclear Power itself. Connections
Associated With
Energy Density, Concepts Uranium's energy density per unit mass runs into the millions relative to coal or oil, the extreme case the concept is most often illustrated with.
Source Ernest Lawrence (Wikipedia)
Source World Nuclear Association Information Library
Source World Nuclear Association Information Library
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Source Wikipedia: Advanced boiling water reactor
Source Wikipedia: Advanced gas-cooled reactor
Source Wikipedia: Aqueous homogeneous reactor
Source Wikipedia: Heavy-water reactor
Source High-temperature gas-cooled reactor - Wikipedia
Source Lead-cooled fast reactor (Wikipedia)
Source Magnox (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: Nuclear microreactor
Source Wikipedia: Nuclear reactor
Source High-temperature gas-cooled reactor - Wikipedia
Sources
1. World Nuclear Association Information Library
World Nuclear AssociationSupply of Uranium
Uranium is a relatively common element in the crust of the Earth (very much more than in the mantle). It is a metal approximately as common as tin or zinc.
Revival of the nuclear boiler
in June 1954 the world's first nuclear powered electricity generator began operation at the FEI in Obninsk.
Associated With: Thorium, Current and Future Generation, Thorium
Also, uranium is abundant and cheap and forms only a small part of the cost of nuclear electricity generation, so there are no real incentives for investment in a new fuel type.
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Wikimedia FoundationHistory, Discovery
While he was working in his experimental laboratory in Berlin in 1789, Klaproth was able to precipitate a yellow compound.
History, Fission research
On 2 December 1942, as part of the Manhattan Project, another team led by Enrico Fermi was able to initiate the first artificial self-sustained nuclear chain reaction, Chicago Pile-1.
View the Source Wikipedia: Nuclear reactor
Used By: Nuclear Reactor, Wikipedia article leadQuote, Used By: Nuclear Reactor, Wikipedia article lead
propulsion, weapons production, and research. Fissile nuclei (primarily uranium-235 or plutonium-239) absorb single neutrons and split, releasing energy
Magnox (Wikipedia)
Used By: Magnox Reactor, Wikipedia article leadQuote, Used By: Magnox Reactor, Wikipedia article lead
in the United Kingdom. It was designed to run on natural uranium with graphite as the moderator and carbon dioxide gas as the coolant.
Wikipedia: Advanced gas-cooled reactor
WikipediaUsed By: Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactor, Wikipedia article leadQuote, Used By: Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactor, Wikipedia article lead
among these was the requirement to run on natural uranium, which required a coolant with a low neutron cross section, in this
High-temperature gas-cooled reactor - Wikipedia
Used By: High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor, Wikipedia article lead
is a type of gas-cooled nuclear reactor which uses uranium fuel and graphite moderation to produce very high reactor core output
Used By: Very-High-Temperature Reactor, Wikipedia article lead
is a type of gas-cooled nuclear reactor which uses uranium fuel and graphite moderation to produce very high reactor core output
View the SourceLead-cooled fast reactor (Wikipedia)
Used By: Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor, Wikipedia article leadQuote, Used By: Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor, Wikipedia article lead
being explored for this reactor scheme include fertile uranium as a metal, metal oxide or metal nitride. The lead-cooled reactor
Wikipedia: Heavy-water reactor
WikipediaUsed By: Heavy-Water Reactor, Wikipedia article leadQuote, Used By: Heavy-Water Reactor, Wikipedia article lead
absorption cross section, HWRs can operate with natural uranium fuel.
Wikipedia: Nuclear microreactor
Used By: Nuclear Microreactor, Wikipedia article leadQuote, Used By: Nuclear Microreactor, Wikipedia article lead
fuel source for the majority of the designs is "high-assay low-enriched uranium", or HALEU.
Wikipedia: Aqueous homogeneous reactor
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reactor in which soluble nuclear salts (usually uranium sulfate or uranium nitrate) are dissolved in water. The fuel is mixed with heavy or light water
Wikipedia: Advanced boiling water reactor
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to power a turbine connected to a generator; the steam is boiled from water using heat generated by fission reactions within nuclear fuel.
Ernest Lawrence (Wikipedia)
Associated With: Ernest Lawrence, Wikipedia article leadQuote, Associated With: Ernest Lawrence, Wikipedia article lead
of the cyclotron. He is known for his work on uranium-isotope separation for the Manhattan Project, as well as for founding the Lawrence
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