Uranium : Compounds, Isotopes & Applications Hardback

Many contemporary uses of uranium exploit its unique nuclear properties.

Uranium-235 has the distinction of being the only naturally occurring fissile isotope.

Uranium-238 is both fissionable by fast neutrons, and fertile (capable of being transmuted to fissile plutonium-239 in a nuclear reactor).

An artificial fissile isotope, uranium-233, can be produced from natural thorium and is also important in nuclear technology.

While uranium-238 has a small probability to fission spontaneously or when bombarded with fast neutrons, the much higher probability of uranium-235 and to a lesser degree uranium-233 to fission when bombarded with slow neutrons generates the heat in nuclear reactors used as a source of power, and provides the fissile material for nuclear weapons.

Both uses rely on the ability of uranium to produce a sustained nuclear chain reaction.

Depleted uranium (uranium-238) is used in kinetic energy penetrators and armour plating.

This important book presents new research in the field.