Uranium - Radioactive elements

In 1789, the German chemist Claprot (M. Klaproth) discovered a new element and remembered the Uranus planet (Uranus) discovered by British astronomer Hechen (Herchel) in 1781. He had Name the new element Urani. But in fact, he was wrong because he had just made uranium dioxide (UO ₂ ), not Uranium metal. It was not until 1842 that the French chemist Peligo (E.Peligo) made a black metal powder of Uranium when using potassium metal to remove the heated Uranium Cloura salt.

Uranium is an element in cell 92 on the periodic table of chemical elements, which is silver-white in appearance, density 18,5-19, approximately as much as gold, equal to 80% of lead; relatively soft, easy to carry out mechanical processing; in the air may be oxidized slowly turning black. The difference with other metals is that they are radioactive - can automatically release unrecognizable eye rays, so it is a rare metal with radioactive properties. Radioactivity was discovered by Becoren (H.Bequerel) when studying the phosphorescence phenomenon of uranium compound. Natural uranium is caused by a number of radioactive isotopes of uranium, such as ²³⁸ U, ²³⁵ U, ²³⁴ U, .

(Photo: Chemicalforums.com) A long time after being discovered, uranium has not been used much in life. Archaeological history says that in ancient times Roman compounds of uranium were used in the manufacture of stained glass. Also, there's no more apps from Uranium!

By the nineteenth century, people began to study the properties and applications of uranium, determined it was a beautiful yellow dye for glass and porcelain.

In 1896, after Becoren discovered the radioactivity of Urani , then in 1903, Marie Curi and her husband Pierre Curi discovered radioactivity even more powerful than several hundred thousand times of Uranium. This makes people interested in studying the radioactivity of uranium, and in this way the production of uranium salts in plants converted to uranium and radium production is also contained in uranium minerals; Uranium salt is considered only a secondary product. The problem is that in uranium mineral, radium content is not more than 1 part 100 thousand. Must use up to 800 tons of water, 400 tons of minerals, and thousands of tons of new chemicals can be separated . 1 gram of Radium compound! Therefore, research on uranium use has been paid more attention.

Over 37 years, by 1939, humans had a great discovery in the history of science: German Hari scientists (O.Hahn) and Stratman (F.Strassmann) have found the fission of uranium under effect of slow neutrons. A year later, Soviet physicists GN Flerop and KAPetrogiac proved that Urani's nucleus could divide itself. These inventions began the era of conquering atomic energy. Using artificial methods, bombarding the Uranium atomic nucleus will have a continuous decay reaction that releases tremendous energy. That energy is called nuclear energy or atomic energy. Since 1942 Urani production has increased especially in the last 20-30 years .

The energy emitted by the chain reaction of the atomic nuclear decay versus the energy emitted by conventional chemical reactions is hundreds of thousands of times higher.One gram of uranium nucleus when fission arises can generate 20000 kWh of energy ; 50 grams of uranium nucleus when fission emits energy equivalent to the heat produced when burning more than 10,000 kilograms of coal! The nuclear energy of 1kg Urani is enough for the aircraft to fly at a speed of 1300 Km / hour, flying 10,000 kilometers, ie flying around the Earth 2.5 times!

Under the right conditions, the rate of nuclear decay reaction is extremely fast. If to develop naturally, there is no control, only within a time of 1/100 000 to 1/1 000 000 of a second is a fragment of uranium that can decay, creating a huge explosion - a particle explosion. multiply. Urani is the ' explosive ' of the atomic bomb, in the Urani atomic bomb divided into two small hemispherical pieces, set a little apart, normally there is no reaction at all. When the bomb is needed to explode, use conventional explosives to guide the fire, causing the Uranium fragment of two hemispheres to quickly fit into one, the number of neutrons suddenly increases, immediately producing a chain reaction, only in extremely short time, the atomic bomb will create a huge explosion that releases tremendous energy, temperatures as high as several million degrees and pressures up to several billion atoms. If 1kg Urani reacts decay, release 79.4 thousand billion heat equivalent to the destructive power of 18,000 tons of explosive explosive TNT!

Taking advantage of nuclear energy, the US government created three atomic bombs, two of which were dropped on Japan's Hirosima and Nagasaki islands, killing hundreds of thousands of people . But the explosion. The nucleus can be used to construct, like conventional explosives used in mining, dyke construction, roads . 1 kilogram of nuclear explosives can, in a snap, produce energy equivalent to strength. force of 25,000 workers within a year.

Images of Hirosima atomic bomb explosion (Photo: Freeblog.hu)

According to statistics, in 1954 the world had the first nuclear power station to put and operate, until the end of 2006, the world had 34 countries with 560 atomic power stations, creating 5780 billion kWh. ¼ total electricity worldwide. In particular, the United States has the largest number of power generating stations: 201. The share of nuclear power in the total amount of electricity generated in France is the largest for every 10 kWh of electricity, of which 7 kWh is electricity generated from the electric station. death.

Scientists say the main isotope of natural uranium is ²³⁸ U (while the ²³⁵ isotope in the atomic energy is very little) - accounting for 95%, which is necessary for normal growth of the plant. grow. It increases sugar content in carrots, sugar beets and some fruit trees, because making soil microorganisms thrive. Animals also need Uranium. People give rats a small amount of uranium for a year, seeing no harmful consequences, but their mice have doubled their mass! It turns out, uranium helps the body to assimilate phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium easily, etc. Using uranium salt can cure a number of diseases such as diabetes, dermatology, tumors . Many alloys containing uranium have properties Precious functions such as Steel - Uranium can withstand aqua regia, acid is strongly oxidizing . Uranium is also a catalyst in chemical reactions such as catalysts of UO ₂ (uranium dioxide), UC (Uranium Carbide) .

Is nuclear fuel a source of energy from minerals such as coal, oil, natural gas . used soon to be exhausted?

Currently, the main source of raw materials for producing atoms is Uranium, in addition to other rare radioactive metals such as Thoiri (Th), the amount contained in the Earth's crust is a little less than that of Tin ( Sn) more than tungsten, Molipden . but the exploitation value is too little. Uranium in the Earth's crust accounts for only 2.5.10-4% in volume, of which ²³⁸ U accounts for 99.28%. ²³⁵ U is the raw material of a nuclear reactor, only very small in the Earth's crust. But in seawater, there are several billion tons of uranium, much more so than the mineral uranium on the continent.

If it is possible to extract uranium from seawater for us to use, the atomic energy that humans create will be equivalent to tens of thousands of tons of standard coal, and according to the current energy consumption norm. Now all over the world, it is enough for humanity to use in a few thousand years!

By Vu Cong Phong (Collectibles - Collection)
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