Uranium

Uranium is the heaviest naturally occurring element. It is found in Row 7 of the **periodic table**. Uranium's **atomic number** is 92, its atomic **mass** is 238.0289, and its chemical symbol is U. It is a solid at room temperature and It has 92 protons and 92 electrons, 6 of them valence electrons. It can have between 141 and 146 nuetrons, with 146 and 143 in its most common isotopes which are all Nuclear. It's group is rare earth metals is solid at room tempature.

The discovery of the element is credited to the German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth. While he was working in his experimental laboratory in Berlin in 1789, Klaproth was able to precipitate a yellow compound by dissolving Pitchblende in Nitric Acid and neutralizing the solution with sodium hydroxide.In 1841, Eugene-Melchior Peligot, who was Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the Conservervatorie national des arts et metiers or central school of arts and manufactures in Paris, isolated the first sample of uranium metal by heating uraninum tetrachloride with potassium. Uranium back then hadnt been tested for being dangerous at all so we used it anywhere we could.

Uranium has some facinating physical properties such as a density of 19.1 g·cm−3 and its liquid desnity is 17.3 g·cm−3. It begins to melt at 1405.3 K Boils at 4404K. It is weakly radioactive. It occurs naturally in low concentrations (a few parts per million) in soil, rock and water, and is commercially extracted from uranium-bearing minerals such as uraninite (see uranium mining). In nature, uranium atoms exist as uranium-238 (99.284%), uranium-235 (0.711%), and a very small amount of uranium-234 (0.0058%). Uranium decays slowly by emitting an alpha particle. The half-life of uranium-238 is about 4.47 billion years and that of uranium-235 is 704 million years, making them useful in dating the age of the Earth, uranium-lead dating and uranium-uranium dating. It appears silvery gray metallic; corrodes to a spalling black oxide coat in air.All three isotopes are radioactive, creating radioisotopes, with the most abundant and stable being uranium-238 with a half-life of 4.51×109 years

The uses of Uranium vary anywhere you go examples of this are in the miltary and at the home front.Some of the armor on tanks have uranimum coating them to increase the defense; and also bullets have depleted uranium on them to peirce some of the heavy armor.The main use of uranium in the civilian sector is to fuel commercial nuclear power plants or nuclear fission to power some of needs. Prior to the discovery of radiation, it was primarily used in small amounts for pottery.It also is used to develope photos sometime.And was also used in World War two for the atomic bombs America used to bomb Japan .It is often mined. http://periodic.lanl.gov/elements/92.html You can buy one pound of uranium for $95.


 * Uranium** is a naturally occurring element with no stable isotopes. In other words, all uranium is radioactive and hence vanishing by radioactive decay, yet it is also found in great quantity in the earth's crust. The natural isotopes are uranium-234, uranium-235, and uranium-238, with the average atomic mass in nature being 238.02891

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