The US Senate approved on Tuesday legislation to bar imports of Russian uranium, as the USA continues to seek to disrupt Russia's ...
Uranium Energy Corp. (UEC) applauds last night’s vote by the US Senate for passing H.R. 1042, a bill to ban Russian uranium impo...
Members of the Group of Seven (G7) jointly committed to reducing dependency on Russian nuclear fuel supplies to create "a dive...
Thai power company Global Power Synergy Public Co. Limited (GPSC) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Denmark’s Seabor...
Uranium 101 - Uranium as Nuclear Fuel
Uranium in its naturally occurring form consists primarily of two “isotopes” with the same chemical characteristics, but different atomic weights due to the differing number of neutrons in their nuclei. Both isotopes have 92 protons in their nuclei (and, thus, the same chemical characteristics), but the lighter isotope (atomic weight of 235) has 143 neutrons and the heavier isotope has 146 neutrons. The lighter isotope, U-235, comprises only 0.7% of natural uranium, but it is the only isotope that can actually undergo fission and, thus, produce energy. The other isotope, U-238, comprises the remaining 99.3% of natural uranium. In order to be useful as fuel in the most prevalent nuclear power technologies, the percentage of U-235 must be increased to the level of 2-5% U-235, a process called “enrichment.” Enrichment is a technically difficult process, the essence of which is highly secret because it is the same process used to produce some nuclear weapons material. (Nuclear weapons can be made from uranium of approximately 90% U-235.)