When were discovered radioactive elements of the periodic table, a man came up to the time they use.It happened with uranium.It was used for military and for peaceful purposes.Uranium ore is processed, the resulting element was used in the paint and glass industries.After it was discovered radioactivity, it was used in the nuclear industry.How clean and environmentally friendly fuel is this?This still argue.
natural uranium of uranium in nature in pure form does not exist - is a component of the ore and minerals.The main uranium ore - is carnotite and pitchblende.It is also significant deposits of strategic chemical element found in the earth and minerals torfievyh - orthite, titanium, zircon, monazite, xenotime.The deposits of uranium found in rocks with an acidic medium, and high concentrations of silicon.His companions - calcite, galena, molybdenite, and others.
World deposits and reserves
Today explored the set of fields in the 20-kilometer layer of the earth's surface.They all contain a huge number of tons of uranium.This amount is capable of providing mankind with energy for hundreds of years to come.Leading countries in which uranium ore is in the greatest volume, Australia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Canada, South Africa, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, the United States, Brazil, Namibia.
Types uranium
radioactivity causes the properties of the chemical element.Natural uranium consists of three of its isotope.Two of them are the ancestors of radioactive series.Natural uranium isotopes used to create fuel for nuclear reactions and weapons.Also, 238 is a raw material for production of plutonium-239.
uranium isotope U234 are daughter nuclides U238.They recognized the most active and provide a strong radiation.Isotope U235 is 21 times weaker, although it is successfully used for the above objectives - it has the ability to support a nuclear chain reaction without additional catalysts.
In addition, there are natural and artificial isotopes of uranium.Today, those 23 news, the most important of them - U233.It highlights the ability to be activated under the influence of slow neutrons, while the rest require fast particles.
Classification Ore
Although uranium can be found almost everywhere - even in living organisms - layers in which it is contained, may be different in type.They depend on it and the ways of production.Uranium ore is classified by the following parameters:
- Terms education - endogenous and exogenous metamorphogenic ore.
- nature of uranium mineralization - primary, oxidized and mixed uranium ore.
- size aggregates and mineral grains - coarse, medium, fine, fine-grained and particulate fractions of the ore.
- usefulness of impurities - molybdenum, vanadium, etc.
- composition of impurities - carbonate, silicate, sulphide, iron oxide, kaustobiolitovye.
Depending on how is classified uranium ore, is a way to extract from it the chemical element.Silicate treated with various acids, carbonate - soda solutions, kaustobiolitovye enriched combustion and iron oxide is melted in the blast furnace.
As mined uranium ore
As in any mining business, there is a technology and methods of extracting uranium from the rock.It depends also on whether it is an isotope in the formation of the lithosphere.Uranium mining is carried out in three ways.Economically reasonable allocation of the element of rock when its content is in the amount of 0.05-0.5%.There is a mine, quarry and leach mining method.The use of each of them depends on the composition of isotopes and the depth of the rock.Career uranium mining is possible with shallow bedding.The risk of exposure is minimal.No problem with the technique - widely used bulldozers, loaders, dump trucks.
Mine production - is more complicated.This method is used for bedding item at a depth of 2 kilometers and economic profitability.Breed must contain a high concentration of uranium, to produce it was appropriate.In the tunnel for maximum security, this is due to the way uranium ore is mined underground.The workers are provided with clothing, operation strictly limited.Mines are equipped with lifts, enhanced ventilation.
Leaching - the third way - the cleanest environmentally and security of extractive companies.Through a system of wells is pumped into a special chemical solution.It dissolves in the reservoir is saturated and uranium compounds.The solution is then pumped out and sent to the processing plants.This technique is more advanced, it can reduce economic costs, although its use has a number of limitations.
deposits in Ukraine
country was happy owner deposits the element from which to produce nuclear fuel.According to forecasts, the Ukrainian uranium ores contain up to 235 tons of raw materials.Currently, only we received confirmation of the deposit, which contains about 65 tons.A certain amount has already developed.Part of the uranium used in the country, some sent for export.
main deposits of uranium ore is considered the Kirovograd region.The uranium content is low - from 0.05 to 0.1% per tonne of ore, so the high cost of the material.As a result, the obtained raw materials exchange in Russia to complete fuel elements for power.
second largest deposit is Novokonstantinovskoye.The uranium content in the rock thus reducing cost as compared with Kirovgrad almost 2 times.However, since the 90s the development does not take place, all the mines are flooded.Due to the deteriorating political relations with Russia, Ukraine could remain without fuel for nuclear power plants.
Russian uranium ore
uranium mining The Russian Federation is in fifth place among other countries.The most famous and powerful - it Khiagdinskoye, Kolichkanskoe, Istochnoye, Koretkondinskoye, Namarusskoe, Dobrynskii (Republic of Buryatia), Argun, Zherlovoye (Chita region).In the Chita region are extracted 93% of Russian uranium produced (mostly career and mining methods).
a little different is the case with deposits in Buryatia and Kurgan.Uranium ore in Russia in these regions occurs in a way that allows you to extract the raw material leaching.
Total deposits in Russia are projected to 830 tons of uranium, has proven reserves of about 615 tons.This is the field in Yakutia, Karelia and other regions.As the world's uranium is a strategic raw material, the figures may not be accurate, since many details are classified, access to them has only a certain category of people.
