URANIUM
A radioactive element with the atomic number 92 and, as found in natural ores, an atomic weight of approximately 238. The two principal natural isotopes are uranium-235 (0.7 percent of natural uranium), which is fissile, and uranium-238 (99.3 percent of natural uranium), which is fissionable by fast neutrons and is fertile. Natural uranium also includes a minute amount of uranium-234.
A heavy, naturally radioactive, metallic element (atomic number 92). Its two principally occurring isotopes are uranium-235 and uranium-238. Uranium-235 is indispensable to the nuclear industry because it is the only isotope existing in nature, to any appreciable extent, that is fissionable by thermal neutrons. Uranium-238 is also important because it absorbs neutrons to produce a radioactive isotope that subsequently decays to the isotope plutonium-239, which also is fissionable by thermal neutrons.
The operating and capital costs that will be incurred in any future production of uranium from in-place reserves. Included are costs for labor, materials, power and fuel, royalties, payroll taxes, insurance, and general and administrative costs that are dependent upon the quantity of production and, thus, applicable as variable costs of production. Excluded from forward costs are prior expenditures, if any, incurred for property acquisition, exploration, mine development, and mill construction, as well as income taxes, profit, and the cost of money. Note: By use of forward costing, estimates of reserves for ore deposits in differing geological settings can be aggregated and reported as the maximum amount that can theoretically be extracted to recover the specified costs of uranium oxide production under the listed forward cost categories.
A facility engineered and built principally for processing of uraniferous solutions that are produced during in situ leach mining, from heap leaching, or in the manufacture of other commodities, and the recovery, by chemical treatment in the plant's circuits, of uranium from the processing solutions.
Uranium in addition to Estimated Additional Resources (EAR) that is thought to exist, mostly on the basis of indirect evidence and geological extrapolations, in deposits discoverable with existing exploration techniques. The locations of deposits in this category can generally be specified only as being somewhere within given regions or geological trends. The existence and size of such deposits are speculative. The estimates in this category are less reliable than estimates of EAR. SR corresponds to DOE's Possible Potential Resources plus Speculative Potential Resources categories.
Buying and selling of uranium for immediate or very near-term delivery. It typically involves transactions for delivery of up to 500,000 pounds U3O8 within a year of contract execution.
A radioactive element, found in ores, of which atoms can be split to create energy.
