{"id":39791,"date":"2025-06-26T12:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T12:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=39791"},"modified":"2025-06-29T06:08:50","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T06:08:50","slug":"uranium-enrichment-a-chemist-explains-how-the-surprisingly-common-element-is-processed-to-power-reactors-and-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/uranium-enrichment-a-chemist-explains-how-the-surprisingly-common-element-is-processed-to-power-reactors-and-weapons\/","title":{"rendered":"Uranium enrichment: A chemist explains how the surprisingly common element is processed to power reactors and weapons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Andr\u00e9 O. Hudson<\/a>, Rochester Institute of Technology<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When most people hear the word uranium, they think of mushroom clouds, Cold War standoffs or the glowing green rods from science fiction. But uranium isn\u2019t just fuel for apocalyptic fears. It\u2019s also a surprisingly common element that plays a crucial role in modern energy, medicine and geopolitics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uranium reentered the global spotlight in June 2025, when the U.S. launched military strikes on sites in Iran<\/a> believed to be housing highly enriched uranium, a move that reignited urgent conversations around nuclear proliferation<\/a>. Many headlines have mentioned Iran\u2019s 60% enrichment of uranium, but what does that really mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a biochemist<\/a>, I\u2019m interested in demystifying this often misunderstood element.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is uranium?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Uranium holds the 92nd position on the periodic table, and it is a radioactive, metallic element. Radioactivity is a natural process<\/a> where some atoms \u2013 like uranium, thorium and radium \u2013 break down on their own, releasing energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth<\/a> initially identified uranium in 1789, and he named it after the newly discovered planet Uranus. However, its power was not unlocked until the 20th century, when scientists discovered that uranium atoms could split via a process known as nuclear fission<\/a>. In fission, the nucleus of the atom splits into two or more nuclei, which releases large amounts of energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uranium is found almost everywhere<\/a>. It is in rocks, soil and water. There are even traces of uranium in plants and animals \u2013 albeit tiny amounts. Most of it is found in the Earth\u2019s crust, where it is mined and concentrated<\/a> to increase the amount of its most useful radioactive form, uranium-235.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The enrichment dilemma<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Uranium-235 is an isotope of uranium<\/a>, which is a version of an element that has the same basic identity but weighs a little more or less. Think about apples from the same tree. Some are big and some are small, but they are all apples \u2013 even though they have slightly different weights. Basically, an isotope is the same element but with a different mass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unprocessed uranium is mostly uranium-238. It only contains approximately 0.7% uranium-235<\/a>, the isotope that allows the most nuclear fission to occur. So, the enrichment process concentrates uranium-235.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enrichment can make uranium more useful for the development of nuclear weapons, since natural uranium doesn\u2019t have enough uranium-235 to work well in reactors or weapons. The process usually contains three steps<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first step is to convert the uranium into a gas, called uranium hexafluoride. In the second step, the gas gets funneled into a machine called a centrifuge that spins very fast. Because uranium-235 is a little lighter than uranium-238, it moves outward more slowly when spun, and the two isotopes separate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s sort of like how a salad spinner separates water from lettuce. One spin doesn\u2019t make much of a difference, so the gas is spun through many centrifuges in a row until the uranium-235 is concentrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uranium can typically power nuclear plants<\/a> and generate electricity when it is 3%-5% enriched, meaning 3%-5% of the uranium is uranium-235. At 20% enriched, uranium-235 is considered highly enriched uranium<\/a>, and 90% or higher is known as weapons-grade uranium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Three
The enrichment level depends on the proportion of uranium-235 to uranium-238. Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This high grade works in nuclear weapons because it can sustain a fast, uncontrolled chain reaction, which releases a large amount of energy compared with the other isotopes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uranium\u2019s varied powers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While many headlines focus on uranium\u2019s military potential, this element also plays a vital role in modern life. At low enrichment levels, uranium powers nearly 10% of the world\u2019s electricity<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the U.S., many nuclear power plants run on uranium fuel, producing carbon-free energy<\/a>. In addition, some cancer therapies and diagnostic imaging technologies harness uranium to treat diseases<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Enriched uranium is used for nuclear power. Raimond Spekking\/Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC BY-SA<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In naval technology, nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers<\/a> rely on enriched uranium to operate silently and efficiently for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uranium is a story of duality. It is a mineral pulled from ancient rocks that can light up a city or wipe one off the map. It\u2019s not just a relic of the Cold War or science fiction. It\u2019s real, it\u2019s powerful, and it\u2019s shaping our world \u2013 from global conflicts to cancer clinics, from the energy grid to international diplomacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, the real power is not just in the energy released from the element. It is in how people choose to use it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andr\u00e9 O. Hudson<\/a>, Dean of the College of Science, Professor of Biochemistry, Rochester Institute of Technology<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andr\u00e9 O. Hudson, Rochester Institute of Technology When most people hear the word uranium, they think of mushroom clouds, Cold War standoffs or the glowing green rods from science fiction. But uranium isn\u2019t just fuel for apocalyptic fears. It\u2019s also a surprisingly common element that plays a crucial role in modern energy, medicine and geopolitics. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":39792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292,1862,10,47,36,4,3410,15533,38],"tags":[233,1592,885,891,886,860,5870,574,3064,10290,4062],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39791"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39791"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39793,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39791\/revisions\/39793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}