Not all uranium can be used for nuclear weapons: that's what it means to enrich
Chemist Andre Hudson from the Rochester Technology Institute (USA) says that Uranus is not only a chemical element that is associated with weapons of mass destruction, but it is also a very common element that plays a crucial role in modern energy and medicine, Sciencealert writes. In focus. Technology has appeared its Telegram channel.
Subscribe not to miss the latest and most intrusive news from the world of science! The chemical element of Uranus again was the focus of the public worldwide in June 2025, when the United States has struck rocket strokes in Iran, which is believed to contain high -enrichment uranium needed to create nuclear weapons. Some media outlets have written that Iran reached Uranus by 60%, but what does it really mean? According to Hadson, many people misunderstand this chemical element.
Uranus is a radioactive chemical element number 92 in the periodic table of chemical elements. Radioactivity is a natural process during which some atoms, such as Uranus, Torii and Radium, break up on their own, releasing energy. Uranus was opened in 1789 by German chemist Martin Henry Claprot, who named it in honor of the planet Uranus. But the strength of this element was not revealed until the XX century, when scientists found that uranium atoms could be separated by nuclear division.
During this process, the nucleus of the atom is divided into two or more nuclei, which releases a large amount of energy. Uranus occurs almost everywhere. It is found in rocks, soil and water. Most of the uranium is contained in the earth's crust, where it is extracted and enriched to increase the amount of its most useful radioactive shape called Uranus-235. Uranus-235 is an isotope of uranium that is a version of a chemical element that has a different mass than the main element.
Uranium is mainly made up of Uranus-238 isotope. It contains only about 0. 7% of uranium-235, an isotope that allows the largest number of nuclear divisions. Thus, the enrichment process enriches Uranus-235. Enrichment can make uranium more useful for the development of nuclear weapons, since in the natural uranium there is not enough uranium-235 for good work in nuclear reactors or weapons. The process of uranium enrichment usually consists of three stages.
The first stage is the transformation of uranium into gas, called uranium hexaftoride. In the second stage, the gas enters the centrifuge that rotates very quickly. Since uranium-235 is slightly lighter than uranium-238, it moves outwards slower during rotation, and two isotopes are separated. The gas rotates until Uranus-235 is enriched. Uranus can be used for nuclear power plants to produce electricity if it is enriched by 3-5 %, ie 3-5 % of uranium is uranium-235.
When enriching by 20 % URAN-235 is considered a highly enriched Uranus, and when enriching is 90 % or higher, it is already a weapon Uranium. This highly enriched uranium is used in nuclear weapons as it can maintain a fast uncontrolled chain reaction, which releases more energy than other isotopes. Uranus, in addition to being used to create weapons, also plays an important role in modern life. Uranus provides almost 10 % of electricity in the world at low enrichment.
Also, some treatments for cancer and diagnostic visualization technology use uranium to treat diseases. Nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers have been relied on enriched uranium for quiet and effective work for many years. According to Hadson, Uranus is able to either illuminate or destroy the city, but in any case it is one of the most necessary chemical elements for humanity. As the focus has already wrote, physicists have decided the paradox of a black hole and dark matter.