Uranium
| Uranium | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Properties | |||||||
| Type | Element | ||||||
| Made With/By | Mining | ||||||
| Difficulty of Production | Easy | ||||||
| Exists in Reality | Yes | ||||||
| Atomic Number | 92 | ||||||
| Warnings | |||||||
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Uranium is the most common and readily accessible radioactive elements in NTM with most of early nuclear science being based around the refining and breeding of it. It can be used in its natural form as a cheap fuel, refined into slightly more enriched uranium fuel, or refined fully into weapons-grade uranium for use in nuclear explosives and high enrichment fuels.
Uranium has 4 primary forms:
- Natural Uranium. Unenriched uranium. Mildly radioactive and useful in a variety of processes.
- U238. Non-fissile "depleted" uranium. Byproduct of uranium enrichment used primarily in weaponry and high resistance defenses due to its high density.
- U235. Fissile uranium. Highly reactive core product of uranium enrichment uranium used in fuels and nuclear weapons due to its immense energy density.
- Uranium Fuel. A mixture of U238 and U235 at a 5:1 ratio.
Production
Uranium is a relatively common ore that is found deep underground in small pockets and is refined in a similar manner to nearly all other ores. Uranium ore by itself is not radioactive but mining it will release radon gas which is radioactive and can induce harmful respiratory effects. Centrifuging the ore is recommended if possible as it will yield a small amount of radium-226 which is useful as a neutron source.
Uses
The primary use of uranium is in the uranium enrichment cycle to separate its two primary isotopes for their separate uses. The most common way to enrich uranium in the early game is by way of a gas centrifuge with both recipes yielding different levels of uranium enrichment but ultimately yielding the same quantity of product, just separated more fully. This process can be replaced later on by visible light SILEX which yields equal amounts of U235 and U238 as full isotopic separation in gas centrifuges but with significantly less infrastructure.
Uranium is also used in early schrabidium production in the schrabidium transmutation device, yielding schraranium.
Gallery
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Uranium ore
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Nether uranium ore
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Schist uranium ore
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Meteor uranium ore
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Uranium block
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Uranium crystals
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Uranium powder
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Uranium billet
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Uranium nugget
