Uranium Report

Uranium

Uranium is a silvery-white metallic element actinide series of the periodic table. The symbol consists of a single U with an atomic number of 92, meaning that there are 92 protons and 92 electrons, with 6 valence electrons. Uranium consists of many isotopes, but the most common ones are uranium-238 and uranium-235 for they are found naturally in nature. Uranium has the potential to create a lot of energy, and when discovered of this talent, this element was used to create bombs with high magnitude explosions and energy used to power electricity.

For civilian commercial use, uranium is used to produce consumable energy. “One kilogram of uranium-235 has the potential to produce about 20 terajoules of energy” (World-Nuclear). Assuming complete fission occurs, this produces as much energy as 1500 tons of coal, which intern limits the use of fossil fuels released into our atmosphere. With this much energy at hand, uranium-235 is greatly used to fuel nuclear power plants. Commercial nuclear power plants use fuel enriched with about 3% uranium-235, whereas the ones used by the United States Navy are much higher, though the exact numbers are classified.

Uranium has been known to harness the ability to “break apart” under the circumstances of fission. By giving the uranium atom an excess of neutrons, the atom begins to break apart which was initial deemed impossible. The fission of the atom is what causes small amounts of energy for a short period of time, but with chain reactions, we can see a more large scale effect. Nuclear reactors work in a similar way, uranium atoms are bombarded with neutrons producing an excess amount within the nucleus of the atoms, causing it to split, which intern releases energy. By producing this in water, the energy released heats the water causing steam, which turn turbines to produce electricity.

The military has harnessed this power to produce weapons of mass destruction. Two major types of explosives were created by...