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Uranium.

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Nuclear chemistry

Radioactivity is the disintegration of particles that are emitted from the nucleus of an

atom because of nuclear instability. An unstable nucleus disintegrates spontaneously to a stable

atom and will do so in specific conditions by emitting some particles and electromagnetic energy

(Groppi et al. 965). Radioactivity occurs in naturally occurring elements and also the artificially

produced isotopes of these elements. Consequently, the spontaneous disintegration or the

unstable nuclide to another atom is radioactive decay. The parent nuclide is the starting nuclide

in radioactive decay. The resultant nuclide from the disintegration process is the daughter

nuclide. The daughter nuclide can be stable and further decay occurs for an unstable nuclide

(Rösch et al. 27). Therefore, stability of a nuclide can be achieved during a single decay, or it

may also decay through consecutive series of states until it reaches a stable configuration.

Every step during the decay series will have a unique characteristic of the type of

radiation and half-life to be emitted as nuclide moves to the next series. By being unstable a

nuclide, it does not cause the nucleus to start emitting radiations immediately, instead, likelihood

of an atom decaying is constant, that is the half-life of a radioactive nuclide or isotope is constant

(Glennon et al. 405). The time required to take one half of a radioactive nuclide to decay id half-

life. The half-life is independent by conditions such as pressure and temperature and does not

depend on initial amount of radioactive isotope.

The nuclear disintegration emits different particles. Alpha decay is the decay process that

emits an alpha particle. The alpha particle consists of two neutrons and two protons. Beta

emission is also a radioactive emission and a beta emission is an electron released from the

nucleus with a charge of -1 (Lindstrom et al. 1465). Electromagnetic radiations referred to

gamma rays which are energetic rays. The gamma rays can be classified in different groups
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depending on the photons energy and wavelengths. Other emissions are the positron which refers

to emission of a positron from a disintegrating nucleus. The positron is emitted from nuclides

where the neutron proton ration is very low. Electron capture is an emission that occurs when an

inner electron in an atom is captured by the nucleus of the atom (Varga al. 639). The electron

that is captured combines with the proton in the nucleus and is converted to a neutron.

Uranium

Uranium is a silver-gray element of the actinide series. It occurs naturally and in low

concentrations in rocks and soil and is extracted from uranium ore such as uraninite (UO2). Other

uranium minerals are the pitchblende (U3O8), carnotite which is composed of potassium uranium

vanadate, autunite composed of calcium uranium phosphate, and lastly torbernite composed of

copper uranium phosphate (Ochiai et al. 2586). These and other uranium ores are used as sources

of fuel. Uranium is atomic number 92 while uranium-238, which is the common isotope of

uranium has 146 neutrons but the number varies between 141 and 146. Uranium is radioactive

and it constantly emits particles and changes to other elements. Uranium has a relative high

atomic weight than the primordially elements and has a density of 70 percent high of Pb. The

isotopes of uranium in nature are uranium-238 with relative abundance of 99.27%, uranium-235

0.72%, and uranium-234 0.005% (Lindstrom et al. 1465). Uranium usually decays slowly and it

emits alpha particles. The half-life of uranium-238 is averagely 4.47 billion years while that of

uranium-235 is 704 million years.

Nuclear Fission and fusion

In radioactivity, fusion and fission are the physical processes that generate large amounts

of energy from atoms. Nuclear fission is the process where a neutron is bombarded into a larger

atom causing the atom to split into two daughter atoms (Varga al. 639). More neutrons can also
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be released and can lead to a chain reaction. When such atoms disintegrate, a massive amount of

energy is released. Uranium is one element used in fission reactions in nuclear reactors (Groppi

et al. 965). Experimentally, there is some minimum amount of mass required in a fissile isotope

in order to sustain or withstand a nuclear chain reaction. When the mass involved is low, many

neutrons will escape and may not be captured and causing further fission reaction. The minimum

mass required to support a nuclear fission is referred as critical mass. The critical mass is

dependent on purity of material, shape of the mass which dictates the amount of surface area

from which the neutrons may escape (Rösch et al. 27). If mass is greater than critical mass with

right conditions, the superficial mass release high amounts of energy explosively. The more

energy that is being emitted increases power of atomic reaction.

Nuclear fusion is when two atoms are bombarded together and result to a heavier atom,

for example, when two hydrogen atoms are bombarded together resulting to a helium atom. It is

also the same process by which the Sun creates the huge amounts of energy which is more than

what nuclear fission creates (Glennon et al. 405. Nuclear fission does not generate more

radioactive fission products. The basic structure of the nucleus is due to the various forces of the

strong nuclear forces and the electromagnetic forces which are repulsive. For atoms which are

less than iron, they have nuclear forces that are stronger than columbic forces. Consequently,

when mass is very low, the nucleus absorbs nucleons, the added protons and neutrons bind

together the nucleus tightly. The high nuclear forces do work on the nucleus and high amount of

energy released (Lindstrom et al. 1465). When size of atom increases beyond that of iron, the

nuclear forces have deficiency in ability to bind the nucleus of the atom more tightly causing

emission of energy to halt. Therefore, nuclear fusion occurs in elements that have a mass greater

than mass of iron and hence energy has to be added to the system. The main obstruction to fusion
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occurring ids coulombic forces that causes repulsion between the nuclei (Varga al. 639). Because

the attractive forces of the nucleus that may lead to fusing of the nuclei together is short ranged,

repulsion of the positive charges have to be overcome such that the nuclei are brought close

together to cause fusion.

Energy from Uranium

Uranium can be used to generate energy and uranium-235 which is made up of 143

neutrons and 92 protons. When the uranium-235 atom captures a neutron and it subsequently

splits into two and in the process releases energy as heat and with other additional neutrons. If

the energy is large enough, the daughter neutrons will cause bombardment with other nuclei on

uranium-235 to also split and in the process will release more neutrons, which is the chain of

reactions that releases explosive amount of heat. The heat generated by uranium-235 in the

nuclear reactor is used to generate steam that produces electricity.

Uses of uranium

Besides the nuclear power fuel, uranium has other uses. Uranium as well as other

radionuclides can be used in nuclear medicine in treatment and diagnosis such as in radiation

treatment, MRI’s and X-rays (Ochiai et al. 2586). For scientific research, it has been used in age-

dating materials and determining compositional information. It has been applied in irradiating

bandages together with other hospital equipment to sterilize them. Additionally, depleted

uranium can be used as counterweight in boat keels, pigments, ballast in boats, as well as

radiation shielding (Glennon et al. 405). The depleted uranium can also be used in military

because of its armor piercing abilities while the highly enriched which is greater than 90 percent

is used to make nuclear weapons.

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During the World War II an atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima, a Japanese city in

August 6, 1945 which became the first nuclear weapon to be used in warfare. The bomb was

developed by Francis Birch’s group which was part of the Manhattan Project (Rösch et al. 27).

The bomb was a gun-type fission nuclear weapon and derived its explosive power from an

enriched uranium-235

Works cited

Glennon, Kevin J., et al. "Measuring key Sm isotope ratios in irradiated UO 2 for use in
plutonium discrimination nuclear forensics." Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear
Chemistry 320.2 (2019): 405-414.

Groppi, Flavia, Enrico Sabbioni, and Simone Manenti. "The role of nuclear chemistry and
radiochemistry in nanosafety studies." Radiation Effects and Defects in Solids 174.11-12
(2019): 965-972.

Lindstrom, Richard M. "Nuclear analysis at NBS and NIST." Journal of Radioanalytical and

Nuclear Chemistry 318.3 (2018): 1465-1471.

Ochiai, Asumi, et al. "Uranium dioxides and debris fragments released to the environment with
cesium-rich microparticles from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power
Plant." Environmental science & technology 52.5 (2018): 2586-2594.

Rösch, Frank. "The basics of nuclear chemistry and radiochemistry: an introduction to nuclear
transformations and radioactive emissions." Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry. Springer,
Cham, 2019. 27-61.

Varga, Zsolt, et al. "Identification of uranium signatures relevant for nuclear safeguards and
forensics." Journal of radioanalytical and nuclear chemistry 312.3 (2017): 639-654.