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Uranium-238 (Uses of Uranium-238 (Breeder Reactors (238U is not usable…
Uranium-238
Uses of Uranium-238
Breeder Reactors
238U is not usable directly as nuclear fuel, though it can produce energy via "fast" fission.
In this process, a neutron that has a kinetic energy in excess of 1 MeV can cause the nucleus of 238U to split in two.
Depending on design, this process can contribute some one to ten percent of all fission reactions in a reactor,
but too few of the average 2.5 neutrons produced in each fission have enough speed to continue a chain reaction.
Radiation Shielding
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DUCRETE, a concrete made with uranium dioxide aggregate instead of gravel, is being investigated as a material for dry cask storage systems to store radioactive waste
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Downblending
This dilution, also called down-blending, means that any nation or group that acquired the finished fuel.
Surplus highly enriched uranium can be down-blended with depleted uranium or natural uranium to turn it into low enriched uranium suitable for use in commercial nuclear fuel.
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This fuel would have to repeat the very expensive and complex chemical separation of uranium and plutonium process before assembling a weapon.
History of Uranium
Uranium was discovered by Martin Heinrich Klaproth, a German chemist, in the mineral pitchblende (primarily a mix of uranium oxides) in 1789.
Although Klaproth, as well as the rest of the scientific community, believed that the substance he extracted from pitchblende was pure uranium, it was actually uranium dioxide (UO2).
After noticing that 'pure' uranium reacted oddly with uranium tetrachloride (UCl4), Eugène-Melchoir Péligot, a French chemist isolated pure uranium by heating uranium dioxide with potassium in a platinum crucible.
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