Uranium: Who? When? What? Why? Where?

German chemist Martin Klaproth (below) discovered uranium in the mineral pitchblende in 1789. Uranium is a heavy metal which occurs in most rocks in concentrations of 2 to 4 parts per million. The element was named after the planet Uranus and its chemical symbol is U.

The picture of Springfield’s Nuclear Power Plant at the beginning of my blog is not just for fun! It is there because the main use of uranium is to fuel nuclear reactors in the production of electricity. Uranium is an abundant source of concentrated energy; this is illustrated by the example provided in Emsley (2001) which states that one kilogram of uranium-235 can produce as much energy as 3000 tonnes of coal (assuming complete fission).

Depleted uranium is around 60% more dense than lead and is used as stabilizers in the keels of yachts and boats and as counterweights in aircrafts. Depleted uranium is also used for radiation shielding in the transportation of radioactive materials.

The military makes takes advantage of depleted uranium’s weight and density properties by using it to make armour-penetrating ammunition. The metal also has a propensity to ignite on impact at temperatures over and above 600 degrees centigrade which make it a very worrying adversary!

Kazakhstan, Canada and Australia are the world’s biggest players when it comes to uranium mining, consistently accounting for around 65% of the world’s total uranium production. Kazakhstan has shown the greatest growth in uranium mining over the last seven years, contributing just 6.4% of total production in 2005 compared with 29.4% in 2011. The graph below clearly shows that worldwide uranium production has constantly fallen short of world uranium requirements in the last seven years although the situation seems to be steadily improving. We would have to go all the way back to 1987 to experience a situation where uranium production was on a par with the demand requirements!