Uranium
Uranium – history and revolution
Uranium was isolated in 1841 by French Chemist Eugène Péligot. Henri Antoine Becquerel discovered its radioactive properties in 1896. It took until 1938 to discover that uranium could be split to release energy. This process is called fission. This was accomplished by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman.
Uranium – abundance
Concentrated deposits of uranium ores are found in just a few places. Uranium has been mined in Canada, the southwest United States of America, Australia, parts of Europe, the former Soviet Union, Namibia, South Africa, Niger and elsewhere.
The supply forecasts by country of production for 1998-2020 are:
Source: UxConsulting Uranium Market Outlook, July 2007
Meeting estimated world demand by 2015 will require production of some 100 million extra pounds of uranium annually, principally from newly discovered, developed or expanded mines in Canada, Australia, Africa and the US. Kazakhstan’s targets, though possible, look ambitious.
Uranium – the metal
Uranium has many uses outside the nuclear power industry. The high density of uranium means that it is used in the keels of yachts and as counterweights for aircraft control surfaces (rudders and elevators), as well as for radiation shielding.
It is also used as ammunition for some types of military weaponry, in small nuclear reactors to produce isotopes for medical and industrial purposes around the world, as a target for X-ray production and in the gyroscopes of inertial guidance systems.
Uranium – the environment
The Kyoto Protocol, which had been signed in December 1997, was implemented by 180 nations in February 2005. It requires them to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 5% below their 1990 levels by 2012.
Nuclear reactors emit almost no emissions in heavy contrast with the coal-fired power plants that are currently the world’s largest supplier of energy – and air-borne carbon. Implementing nuclear power generation is an attractive way for nations to conform to the Kyoto policy.