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Origin of name: Planet Uranus Yellow-colored glass, containing more than 1% uranium oxide and dating back to 79 A.D., has been found near Naples, Italy. Klaproth recognized an unknown element in pitchblende and attempted to isolate the metal in 1789. The metal apparently was first isolated in 1841 by Peligot, who reduced the anhydrous chloride with potassium. Uranium is not as rare as it was once thought. It is now considered to be more plentiful than mercury, antimony, silver, or cadmium, and is about as abundant as molybdenum or arsenic. It occurs in numerous minerals such as pitchblende, uraninite, carnotite, autunite, uranophane, davidite, and tobernite. It is also found in phosphate rock, lignite, monazite sands, and can be recovered commercially from these sources. Large deposits of uranium ore occur in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Canada, and elsewhere. Uranium can be made by reducing uranium halides with alkali or alkaline earth metals or by reducing uranium oxides by calcium, aluminum, or carbon at high temperatures. The metal can also be produced by electrolysis of KUF5 or UF4, dissolved in a molten mixture of CaCl2 and NaCl. High-purity uranium can be prepared by the thermal decomposition of uranium halides on a hot filament.Uranium exhibits three crystallographic modifications. Uranium is a heavy, silvery-white metal which is pyrophoric when finely divided. It is a little softer than steel, and is attacked by cold water in a finely divided state. It is malleable, ductile, and slightly paramagnetic. In air, the metal becomes coated with a layer of oxide. Acids dissolve the metal, but it is unaffected by alkalis. Uranium has twenty three isotopes, one of which is an isomer and all of which are radioactive. Naturally occurring uranium contains 99.2745% by weight 238U, 0.720% 235U, and 0.0055% 234U. Natural uranium is sufficiently radioactive to expose a photographic plate in an hour or so. Much of the internal heat of the earth is thought to be attributable to the presence of uranium and thorium. 238U with a half-life of 4.46 × 109 years, has been used to estimate the age of igneous rocks. Uranium is of great importance as a nuclear fuel, and 238U can be converted into fissionable plutonium in “breeder” reactors where it is possible to produce more new fissionable material than that used in maintaining the chain reaction. 235U is of even greater importance, for it is the key to the utilization of uranium. 235U, while occurring in natural uranium to the extent of only 0.72%, is so fissionable with slow neutrons that a self-sustaining fission chain reaction can be made to occur in a reactor constructed from natural uranium and a suitable moderator, such as heavy water or graphite, alone. 235U can be concentrated by gaseous diffusion and other physical processes, if desired, and used directly as a nuclear fuel, instead of natural uranium, or used as an explosive. Uranium metal is used for X-ray targets for production of high-energy X-rays. The nitrate has been used as photographic toner, and the acetate is used in analytical chemistry. Crystals of uranium nitrate are triboluminescent. Uranium salts have also been used for producing yellow “vaseline” glass and glazes. Uranium and its compounds are highly toxic, both from a chemical and radiological standpoint. Finely divided uranium metal, being pyrophoric, presents a fire hazard. The maximum permissible total body burden of natural uranium (based on radiotoxicity) is 0.2 µCi for soluble compounds. Recently, the natural presence of uranium and thorium in many soils has become of concern to homeowners because of the generation of radon and its daughters (see under Radon). Uranium metal is available commercially at a cost of about $6/g (99.7%) in air-tight glass under argon.
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Uranium