Environmental Science | Argonne National Laboratory (2024)

FAQs

How was uranium discovered? ›

Uranium was discovered in 1789 by Martin Klaproth, a German chemist, who isolated an oxide of uranium while analyzing pitchblende samples from the Joachimsthal silver mines in the former Kingdom of Bohemia, located in present-day Czechia. He named his discovery “uran” after the planet Uranus.

Typically, some 44 million kilowatt-hours of electricity are produced from one tonne of natural uranium. The production of this amount of electrical power from fossil fuels would require the burning of over 20,000 tonnes of coal or 8.5 million cubic metres of gas.

Uranium is an abundant metal and is full of energy: One uranium fuel pellet creates as much energy as one ton of coal, 149 gallons of oil or 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas.

Estimates of the amount available range from 9 to 22 million tonnes of uranium, though the 2022 edition of the Red Book tabulates only about 9.3 million tonnes.

But it's legal (https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part040/part040-0013.html) for you to own “unimportant quantities” of source material so, as long as: The uranium has not been processed to enrich it. The uranium or thorium are less than 0.05% of the mass of the rock or ore material.

* Uranium powder is FLAMMABLE and a FIRE HAZARD. * Uranium is a radioactive isotope and is regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

The level of radioactivity varies by piece, ranging from less than 1 percent to up to 25 percent by weight, but there is no recognized danger to handling or using uranium glass, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

An atomic bomb needs 25 kilos (55 pounds) of enriched uranium or eight kilos (18 pounds) of plutonium.

Uranium 233, which is a fissile material, is also widely recognized as a nuclear explosive material. However, it has been used only infrequently in nuclear explosives or weapons.

The first two atomic bombs in 1945

The Hiroshima bomb was made from highly-enriched uranium-235. This was prepared by diffusion enrichment techniques using the very small differences in mass of the two main isotopes: U-235 (originally 0.7% in the uranium) and U-238, the majority.

Is uranium heavier than gold? ›

Did you know that uranium is the heaviest naturally-occurring metal? It is more than 40 times heavier than lead and nine times heavier than gold. The element has an atomic number of 92 and an atomic weight of 238.056.

Curie set out to measure the intensity of uranium's rays by adapting the electrometer Pierre had invented with his brother. The device allowed her to measure extremely low electrical currents in air near mineral samples that contained uranium.

Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity by exposing a photographic plate to uranium in 1896. Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity by using uranium in 1896.

In 1789, Martin Klaproth discovered uranium. He later experimented with the use of the element as a glass colourant. Uranium glass became popular in the mid-19th century, with its period of greatest popularity being from the 1880s to the 1920s.

Though it was Henri Becquerel that discovered radioactivity, it was Marie Curie who coined the term. Using a device invented by her husband and his brother, that measured extremely low electrical currents, Curie was able to note that uranium electrified the air around it.