facts about uranium

[masterspaz]

give us some interesting/strange/wierd facts about uranium

[NeonBlack]

Off the top of my head. I'm not even going to check first.

 

 

 

edit: damn

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium

[thedarkshade]

It's hard to get uranium, but easy to build a bomb by it>.. really!

[Mr Skeptic]

No, to build a proper bomb you need some other things as well. Most bombs require explosives that are very carefully shaped, and also need to be detonated almost exactly simultaneously. And you need to hit the mass with neutrons at just the right time. These complications are enough for a country to make a bomb that was kind of a dud. However, simply putting enough uranium will make an explosion, even if very inefficient.

 

The major difficulty with getting uranium is separating the isotopes, you can't use U-238 but it is hard to separate from U-235. However, using plutonium it is easier to do because you can chemically separate plutonium. So I am more scared of illicit plutonium bombs.

[thedarkshade]

The major difficulty with getting uranium is separating the isotopes, you can't use U-238 but it is hard to separate from U-235. However, using plutonium it is easier to do because you can chemically separate plutonium. So I am more scared of illicit plutonium bombs.

Yes, it is not easy to get U-235, but there are some ways of purification: Calitron (old way), gas diffusion, centrifuges, and something that uses laser (not user about it), but it is a lot harder to build a plutonium bomb since it requires an implosion, a very very high symmetry needed.

[ydoaPs]

It's hard to get uranium, but easy to build a bomb by it>.. really!

Actually, it's pretty easy to get a hold of uranium ore. Some sites(like unitednuclear) even have instructions on how to separate the uranium from the ore.

[YT2095]

Uranium is pretty easy to extract from the ore, it has unique properties that make it exploitable.

 

a few of it`s salts are a beautiful Green color that also fluorescent under UV light.

it was also used in photography (uranotypes).

[Donut.Hole]

I've got a few:

 

Uranium is weakly magnetic.

It can be used for nuclear reactions. (duh!)

It is only slightly radioactive in its natural state.

It's dense and can be made into highly penetrative bullets in the military (kinda odd)

[thedarkshade]

In uranium gas centrifuge enrichment, the edge of the centrifuge spins 1 km/s and you don't even hear a thing, complete silence. It's brilliantly balanced.

[Mr Skeptic]

Depleted uranium (uranium with most of the U235 removed) is used for high caliber armor piercing ammunition. It has a self-sharpening property that makes it ideal for poking holes in tanks. However, slightly radioactive powder can be dispersed in the air (which is actually rather dangerous, airborne radioactive powder), so some people want it banned.

 

Depleted uranium can be used in a breeder reactor to produce a lot of additional nuclear fuel, but that carries a risk of illegal nuclear weapons because the plutonium is far easier to separate than uranium.

[The_simpsons]

On earth, uranium is more abundant then mercury, antimony, silver and cadmium.

[SkepticLance]

There are two isotopes (well, actually 3, but 234 is rare). The Uranium 235 isotope is what is used in nuclear reactors and bombs.

 

There is about 50 million tonnes of Uranium 235 dissolved in the oceans of planet Earth.

 

The Japanese Atomic Energy Research Instititute has worked out a method of extracting Uranium from solution in the sea, and claim that the final cost will be about 5 times that of currently mined Uranium.

 

The cost of Uranium in a nuclear power station is only 5% to 10% of the cost of the electricity produced. This means the Uranium from sea water will raise the cost of electricity by only 25% to 50%. The amount in sea water is sufficient to provide humankind with energy for thousands of years.

[Phi for All]

To extract one gram of radium you need three metric tons of uranium ore .

[imp]

Hey, I went to school so long ago, that my Physics Text actually said Uranium is the heaviest naturally-occuring substance.

 

I asked the teacher about that, after a bit of checking.

 

There is a naturally-occuring element heavier than Uranium, know what it is? imp

 

(hint: NOT gold)

[YT2095]

define "heavy"?

 

I really hope you`r not thinking Osmium here, as that`s just Dense!

do you mean by Atomic Mass?

[insane_alien]

plutonium exists in nature(oklo natural reactor) and in trace amounts in uranium ores. though there isn't a whole lot left. and i suppose all sorts of exotic elements are produced in the heart of a supernova.

 

as for density, iridium and osmium are about equal for the densest. and neutronium(neutron star stuff) is denser still. suppose it could be called a natural element perhaps?

[The_simpsons]

When it comes to neutron stars there's nothing as exotic as those things. Just think of something with a mass of a star crammed into the size of Manhattan. Truly amazingly dense!

[YT2095]

There is a naturally-occuring element heavier than Uranium, know what it is? imp

 

(hint: NOT gold)

 

so I`m not Entirely sure Neutronium or the likes would qualify as an Element per se.

[insane_alien]

still, all the transuranic's do, they'd be produced in supernova, hence, natural.

[imp]

still, all the transuranic's do, they'd be produced in supernova, hence, natural.

 

See, I told you I studied Science in the dark ages!

 

BTW, is not "heavy" the implication of "weight per unit volume", hence, density? imp

[insane_alien]

imp, a 3 cubic kilometer block of aerogel would be very heavy but not dense.

 

a needle made of iridium would be dense but not heavy.

[YT2095]

and a 10cm sphere of each would have a significantly different mass!

in fact a 10cm sphere of Lead or Bismuth, would weigh less than the Osmium

[thedarkshade]

Density is mas per unit of volume, and AFAIK there is a difference between mass and weight. Mass does not change, while weight does due to g.

 

This is to imp BTW, I forgot to do the quoting thingy!

[barbie.=^.^=]

Uranium hexafluoride is a chemical compound consisting of one atom of uranium combined with six atoms of fluorine. It is the chemical form of uranium that is used during the uranium enrichment process. Within a reasonable range of temperature and pressure, it can be a solid, liquid, or gas. Solid UF6 is a white, dense, crystalline material that resembles rock salt.....thats interesting

[hermanntrude]

uranium is named after uranus, the king of the underworld, who has a name that sounds like "your anus", which is hilarious to young people and the young-of-mind like myself