Uranium, with an atomic number of 92, is a metallic chemical element found amongst the periodic table. It is fitted into the actinide series of the table and has the symbol U. Its neutrons vary from 141 to 146. It can have any number in between that range at any given time. Its proton and electron counts, however, are set values, with 92 of each. Uranium is indeed a radioactive element and has the highest atomic weight of all naturally occurring elements! It can be found in very low counts, occurring naturally within the earth and water.
In its refined form, Uranium is silvery white. The element is slightly softer than steel and is high in density. It is a poor conductor of electricity but reacts with nearly all nonmetallic elements, including their compounds. Incorporating nuclear fission, 15 lb of Uranium would be enough to create a nuclear bomb. This is because Uranium is a fissile’ element, and the first of its kind. When bombarded with slow neutrons, Uranium-235 will proceed to divide into smaller nuclei. Nuclear binding energy, along with more neutrons is released. If, by chance, another Uranium-235 nuclei were to absorb these neutrons a nuclear chain reaction would be underway. If nothing were there to freeze the reaction, or drain the dangerous neutrons, an explosion is imminent.
Uranium atoms exist in nature in the forms of: uranium-238, uranium-235, and uranium-234. Uranium-238 has a half-life, or the time required for it to decay to half its original value, of an estimated 4.47 billion years. Uranium-235, on the other hand, comes in with a half-life of 704 million years.
The uses for Uranium take advantage of its nuclear nature. Uranium-233, for example, is used often in nuclear technology. When bombarded with neutrons, it generates the heat used in nuclear reactors. Once Uranium-238 is depleted, it is put to use in armor plating and kinetic energy penetrators.
Uranium is weakly radioactive, so when the Soviet Union produced mass amounts of weaponry enriched with uranium, they became a public health concern.
Uranium’s first use dates way back to the year of 79, when it was applied as a yellow color to ceramic glazes. Yellow glass, bearing a 1% trace of Uranium, was discovered in the Bay of Naples, Italy. Since the Middle Ages and onward, it was used as a mere coloring agent.
Martin Heinrich Klaproth, a German scientist, is credited with the actual discovery of Uranium in 1789. While heating a yellow substance he assumed was the oxide of an undiscovered element, Martin obtained a black powder, which turned out to be none other than an oxide of Uranium! He named the substance after the planet Uranus.
In 1841, Uranium was heated with potassium by Eugene-Melchior Peligot, whose end result was the first sample of isolated uranium metal.
One can take Uranium into their bodies by inhalation or the ingestion of contaminated food and water.
