Uranium 101
Uranium is one of the more common elements in the Earth's crust It is more plentiful than gold, antimony, tin, cadmium, mercury or silver and it is about as abundant as arsenic or molybdenum. It is found in hundreds of minerals including uraninite, (the most common uranium ore), autunite, uranophane, torbenite and coffinite.
Uranium was apparently formed in super novae about 6.6 billion years ago. While it is not common in the solar system, today its slow radioactive decay provides the main source of heat inside the earth, causing convection and continental drift.
The 1789 discovery of uranium in the mineral pitchblende is credited to Martin Heinrich Klaproth who named the new element after the planet Uranus. Eugene Melchior Peligot was the first person to isolate the metal, and its radioactive properties were uncovered in 1896 by Antoine Becquerel. Research by Enrico Fermi and others starting in 1934 led to its use as a fuel in the nuclear power industry.
In 2005, seventeen countries produced concentrated uranium oxides, with Canada (27.9% of world production) and Australia (22.8%) being the largest producers and Kazakhstan (10.5%), Russia (8.0%), Namibia (7.5%), Niger (7.4%), Uzbekistan (5.5%), the United States (2.5%), Ukraine (1.9%) and China (1.7%) also producing significant amounts. The ultimate supply of uranium is believed to be very large and sufficient for at least the next 85 years although some studies indicate underinvestment in the late twentieth century may produce supply problems in the 21st century.
Demand for uranium is directly associated to the level of electricity generated by nuclear power plants. Over the past 10 years, nuclear has been the fastest growing source of electricity generation worldwide. Today, there are more than 400 reactors operating in 33 countries worldwide with about 30 under construction.
Nuclear electricity is a very important preference as it is clean, cost competitive and does not contribute to air pollution. Uranium is sold only to countries which are signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and which allow international inspection to verify that it is used only for peaceful purposes. Customer countries for Australia's uranium must also have a bilateral safeguards agreement with Australia. Canada has similar arrangements.
