Abstract

Uranium is a silvery-gray metal that is part of the actinide family. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, six of which are considered capacitance electrons. Because uranium isotopes are unstable, Uranium is an actinide element, and has the highest atomic mass of any naturally occurring element. Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92 The uranium ore must be refined to produce the pure, natural metal uranium. Refined uranium contains three different isotopes or nuclear forms. These three isotopes are U -235, U-234 and U-238, all three of which are radioactive elements. There is only a small amount of U-234. Most natural uranium metal is U-238. Which makes up about 3.99% of uranium metal. While U-235 is only about 0.7% of the remaining value. Only uranium-235 with a half-life of about 704 million years has useful properties for nuclear power reactors, atomic bombs and hydrogen. In order to use U-235 in the production of nuclear energy, it must be present in a concentration of more than 0.7%. Nuclear power reactors require at least 5 percent uranium-235. The atomic bomb, on the other hand, requires up to 90% enriched uranium. Therefore, a very complex and expensive method called enrichment is performed to increase the error of uranium-235 and the production of enriched uranium. What remains is depleted uranium, which contains 99.8% uranium-238 and only 0.2% uranium-235. Its density is 5/19 grams per cc. It is approximately 7.1 times the density of lead, 45.2 times the density of iron and 14.2 times the density of copper.

Keywords: Uranium; Metal; Fuel cycle